Licking of guests

[Manoli Sporgita]

Apollo my almost now three months boxer likes to lick. Family has no problem with this, in fact we quite enjoy his way of showing his appreciaition or welcome whenever we come back from work.
However this is not true to some of our guests. Apollo will lick anyone visting us. Some guests/aquaintances are distressed by this.

I have two ways of making him stop. The first by scolding him to stop which I hate doing as I dont think he is doing something wrong...and secondly by tying him up until the sensitive guests leave. I dont like doing this either as he looks at us with those dark eyes of his and sometimes issues a slight grill telling us what have I done wrong..

The question is. Is there to make him stop in a way that will not hurt his feelings...
I suppose there is a third way. Scolding my guests lol.

Manolis

[Tulsa-Dan]

You can possibly redirect your puppy's attention from licking to something else. You can have the dog sit/stay BEFORE any guest comes in the house and BEFORE he gets any petting or attention from that guest. This is sometimes difficult because guests are not always as compliant with training as one would like.

You can also redirect by initiating a game such as fetch when the dog starts licking. Have the guest, or you throw a ball and the dog will run after it. Distracting it from licking and redirecting that attention elsewhere. You can have the guest also give the puppy a small treat to re-direct his attention from licking to a treat held in the hand.

Or, give the dog a chew toy to redirect the licking energy.

I agree, punishment and scolding is not appropriate for natural behavior such as puppy licking. It IS a greeting and a way of saying "I'm happy to see you." Natural behaviors are the hardest to modify, so you'll need lots of patience with this one.

Good luck.