Dogs lick their humans right? But not the floor that’s not normal is it? Is your dog licking the floor? While floor licking can be harmless, it’s also worth asking the question and finding out ‘why is my dog licking the floor.’ If your dog seems to be doing a lot of floor licking, or it’s come on suddenly, it can give us some insight into whether there’s an underlying issue that needs to be addressed.
In this article, we’ll dive into why dogs lick the floor and carpet, and whether your dog licking the floor might mean they’re sick, as well as our top tips to stop a dog from licking the floor.
If you’re looking for a full puppy training programme, download the Zigzag puppy training app. It’s centred around your puppy’s breed, stage of development, and your individual lifestyle, there’s also a team of professional puppy trainers to help you with any questions you have along the way. They’re available 24/7 via our in-app chat.
Why do dogs lick the floor and carpet?
Dogs lick the carpet or floor due to boredom, anxiety, something lacking in their diet, illness, habit or because maybe you spilt something delicious on it. Let’s figure out why your dog licks the floor, as finding that out will help us to stop it.
Boredom
If your dog is bored then licking the floor can provide stimulation, and give them something to do. Bored dogs will seek out things in their environment to amuse themselves, and this might be licking your floor, but it might also appear in them digging at their bed, or scratching your floors.
Anxiety
Licking can be a self soothing behaviour for some dogs, as the action of licking releases endorphins and can help a dog calm down and relax. While some licking is normal, excessive or obsessive licking can indicate your dogs doing it because they’re anxious.
Licking floors, biting walls or floors are often related to separation related problems, read our full guide to dog separation anxiety.
Nutritional Deficiencies
If your dog is lacking essential nutrients from their daily diet, then they may be licking the floor because they’re trying to find these nutrients for themselves.
Read our full guides to puppy nutrition, raw feeding for puppies, and feeding your dog a DIY or home-cooked diet to learn more.
Pain or Illness
As mentioned previously, licking can act as a self soothing behaviour and releases endorphins, so a dog who is in pain or unwell may lick the floor to try to make themselves feel better.
Pain can also cause your puppy to act aggressively, find out how best to combat that here.;
Habit
We all have our habits, and if your dog has been licking the floor for a while it can just become a habit and something they do as they’ve got used to doing it. A bit like us flicking our hair, or leaving the spoon in our tea.
Do dogs lick the floor if they are sick?
Dogs may engage in floor licking when they are unwell, in pain, or stressed. This self-soothing behaviour provides temporary distraction from discomfort by releasing endorphins. In addition, it can be a displacement behaviour, a coping mechanism for conflicted or stressed dogs. The licking serves to take their mind off it.
Displacement behaviours are actions dogs exhibit out of context. Licking the floor may be normal if you spilled something yummy, but if your dog suddenly licks the carpet, floor, or walls without reason, this behaviour is likely a displacement behaviour. It is a means for dogs to relieve stress, shift their focus, find relief, and communicate.
Licking and biting floors, carpets, walls, blankets or other soft furnishings may also indicate health issues, such as gastrointestinal problems or nausea. Dogs often lick these items to induce vomiting or alleviate tummy ache.
How to stop a dog from licking the floor
To stop your dog from licking at the floor and carpet, make sure all of their needs are met such as the right nutrition, exercise both physical and mental, and teach them basic obedience cues to redirect them and prevent them licking the floor when they still feel the urge!
Managing the area
If your dog favours licking a particular piece of carpet, biting a certain corner of a wall (hello puppy teething) then preventing your dog from getting access to that area is your first step. Management of the environment to prevent your dog practising unwanted behaviour will help to ‘break the habit’ and stop your dog doing it.
Ensure they have the correct nutrition
Making sure your dog eats the right food with the correct nutrition profile, and the right amount so that they’re not hungry will prevent them licking the floor to get the extras they feel they need.
If they’re not keen to eat out their food out of regular dog bowls, try feeding them from puzzle toys, as this can help make their regular food more fun to eat.
Provide mental stimulation
Dogs need mental stimulation to prevent boredom and give them an outlet for their breed specific needs. Whether this is through food enrichment puzzle games, or playing with toys, mental stimulation can help ‘scratch that itch’ to do something, and stop them going self-employed and licking your floors.
There’s a bunch of stuff in our training games library to help you with this.
Give an appropriate amount of physical exercise
This should not be intense games of ball throwing and fetch which can raise adrenalin and white leaving a dog physically tired, can cause long term problems due to increased periods of arousal with no off button or time to relax.
Read our full guides to puppy exercise and puppy walking to learn more.
Give them licking opportunities
If you have a ‘dog who cannot control their licker’ then providing opportunities for safe licking, like lickimats, can help stop your dog licking floors or things you don’t want them to.
You can also use dog safe peanut butter or liver paste spread on the edge of the bath while you bathe them, or giving them a spruce up during a grooming session.
Teach your dog basic obedience commands
Teaching basic obedience commands is not only mentally enriching, and helps provide your dog with plenty of opportunities for reward, it also makes them easier to live with as you can ask them to do other things than licking the floor.
Clicker training and reward based training is great for this.
Teach your dog to leave it
‘Leave that I’ve got something better for you’ can help redirect your dog when they do to lick something.
Read all about it in our guide to teaching your dog to ‘leave it’.
If you have a dog who is constantly licking the floor, it’s important to look at the underlying cause that’s causing the floor licking, be it behavioural or physical.
To rule out anything medical we recommend you take your dog for a quick visit to the Vet, you can often tell by their body language
if they are experiencing pain, and if there is any sickness or diarrhoea it’s definitely worth checking in.
Making sure your puppy’s basic needs are fulfilled with the correct diet and nutrition, appropriate mental and physical exercise, management of the environment, and teaching your dog cues like leave it with positive reinforcement, will all help to stop them licking the floor.
Download the Zigzag app to get your puppy off to the best start. We cover socialisation, toilet training, teaching them to be alone, and so much more! We’ve based our programmes on your puppy’s stage of development, as well as their breed type so you can be sure you get the right content at the right time. There’s also a team of professional dog trainers
on hand to help you via our in app-chat 24/7 so those middle of the night puppy panics needn’t be a thing you handle alone.
