Why Your Basset Hound Licks

For some Basset Hound owners, licking is cute, affectionate and always welcome. For others, it is a nuisance and a problem behavior. But no matter whether you welcome your dog’s licks or not, your hound is conveying a lot of meaning to you through his tongue. And even though would might hope to believe so, kissing you is the furthest thing from his mind.

So, what makes your Basset Hound want to lick you and your children into giggling masses of hysteria? The answer could be as varied as each individual dog that practices excess licking. Your dog may lick you because you encourage it or you may even ask for it, and he has learned that this repetitive behavior is something that you like. If you have not encouraged it, though, there could be more subtle a meaning lying under the surface of your dog’s licking behavior.

As you know, dogs communicate with a little bit of verbalization and a whole lot of body language. From the womb, dogs learn how to use body language to communicate with their mother and littermates. As a pup, your Basset Hound was licked when he was cleaned, was licked when his mother wanted him to use the bathroom, and was licked by his littermates in a display of submission or a “be nice to me,” type of communication.

While your Basset Hound is not necessarily trying to groom you when he licks you, he may be displaying some of his behaviors as learned through socialization with his mother and littermates.

Normally, dogs lick humans for two reasons: to display submission or to display dominance. They may also lick children for reasons of play or out of excitement. You may even be a recipient of their playful antics yourself if you get down on floor level and roll around with them.

Submissive licking usually occurs right when you come home or when a guest enters the home. In this display, your Basset Hound may seem overly affectionate and excited. He will lick you or your guest repeatedly around the face, neck, hands or anywhere else he can reach. What your dog is trying to say in this display is: “I’m here. I respect you. Treat me nice.”

Other times your dog may lick to reinforce his dominance. This normally happens immediately after you see stress-related body language coming from your Basset Hound. The lick is quick, forceful and leaves little room to interpret it as an affectionate behavior. You will see this behavior the most often when your dog is introduced to another dog. He may also treat strangers in this way.

Don’t believe that just because licking is one of your Basset Hound’s ways of communicating that you cannot do anything to stop the behavior. In many cases, using firm commands such as “stop lick,” followed with some form of distraction will cue your dog into the fact that you don’t like to be licked. If you’re consistent with the discipline, you should be able to control this behavior quite easily.