How to Stop a Dog From Licking People Constantly

In most cases it is attention seeking, it works, and that is why it continues. Constant licking of hands, faces, legs, and feet is maintained almost entirely by the response it gets, and the response does not have to be affectionate to count. Laughing, pushing the dog away, saying no, and moving your hand are all attention. Two weeks of a genuinely consistent response, paired with something the dog can do instead, will resolve the majority of cases. There is a smaller group of dogs where licking is medical or compulsive, and it is worth ruling those out first because the training plan will not touch them.

Rule these out first

Do this before you start any behavior work.

• Nausea or reflux. Excessive lip licking, licking floors and walls, and licking people, often with swallowing and grass eating. This is a common and under recognised cause and it responds to treatment, not training.
• Dental pain. Have the mouth checked.
• Skin or allergy issues. A dog who licks themselves raw and also licks people is usually itchy.
• Compulsive behavior. The tell is that it is repetitive, identical every time, difficult to interrupt, and continues when nobody is paying attention. Licking that happens while the dog is alone in a room is not attention seeking.
• Cognitive decline in seniors. New onset compulsive licking in an old dog needs a vet.

If the licking only happens when a person is available and stops when they leave, it is behavioral, and the plan below applies.

Why it is so persistent

Two reasons. The first is that it has been intermittently reinforced for years. Sometimes it gets a cuddle, sometimes it gets ignored, sometimes it gets a shove. Intermittent reward is the most durable pattern there is.

The second is that the dog is often licking at exactly the moment you are least able to be consistent: when you sit down tired, when you are on the phone, when a guest is being polite about it. Those are the moments that maintain it.

The two week plan

Everyone in the house has to run this. One person who lets it happen keeps the behavior alive.

1. Decide the rule in advance. Zero licking of people, or licking allowed on cue only. I prefer on cue, because it gives the dog an outlet and gives you a clean off switch. Pick one and write it down.
2. The response is the same every time: remove the target and say nothing. Hand goes into your lap or behind your back. No word, no eye contact, no pushing. Two seconds is enough.
3. Mark and pay the alternative immediately. The moment the dog stops or backs off, mark and feed. You are rewarding the pause, which is what turns this from suppression into a trained behavior.
4. Teach a competing behavior. A chin rest on your leg, or a down on a mat next to you. Both are physically incompatible with licking your face and both give an attention seeking dog a legitimate way to ask. Fifteen reps a day.
5. Stand up and leave if it escalates. Not dramatically. Get up, walk to another room for ten seconds, come back. This is the strongest tool you have and you should need it two or three times in the first week and rarely afterward.

Expect it to get worse before it gets better

Around days three to five you will get an extinction burst: more licking, more insistently, sometimes with pawing or whining added. This is the dog trying harder at something that used to work. It is the clearest sign the plan is working.

Do not give in during the burst, because if you do you have taught the dog that persistence pays and the next round will be worse. It typically lasts two or three days.

Guests and children

• Brief guests before they come in. "If he licks, put your hands away and look at the ceiling." Most people will do it if you ask directly.
• Do not let a guest cuddle a licking dog because they say they do not mind. It is your dog's training, not their preference.
• Teach children the statue. Arms folded, hands under the armpits, eyes up. Practise it as a game before it is needed.
• Use a leash or a gate for the first week when guests arrive, so the dog cannot rehearse it while everyone is distracted.

Putting it on cue instead

If you like the licking in principle and just want an off switch, teach it as a behavior.

Put a tiny smear of something on the back of your hand, say your word once, and let the dog lick for three seconds. Then say your release word and remove the hand. Ten reps a day for a week. Then start refusing any licking that was not preceded by the cue, using the same removal response as above.

Within two or three weeks most dogs learn that licking only pays after the word. That gets you a dog who can still do the thing they enjoy without doing it to every visitor's face.

What not to do

Do not push the dog away, because to most dogs that is a hand game and it is fun. Do not shout, which is attention and also raises arousal. Do not use bitter spray on your own hands, which mostly teaches the dog to distrust your hands. And do not correct the licking without teaching an alternative, because a dog who needs attention and has no way to ask will find another way, usually pawing, barking, or nudging, and you will be back here in a month.

Licking is part of the same demand and greeting family as jumping, and the two usually travel together in the same dog. The free blueprint. Download the No More Jumping blueprint covers the greeting sequence and the four on the floor rule, which is the natural companion to this.

Ready to train your dog?

Every drill in this article comes from the WorldWide K9 Academy course library. If you want the full step by step system, start with the $5 intro course.