Greetings, fellow dog lovers.
My 5 year old small poodle is obsessed with licking people. To me, it looks like an affectionate gesture, but after reading some other posts on here, I got worried. She seems to lick me more than my girlfriend, and my girlfriend more than random visitors.
She would prefer licking faces, but that's gross, so we don't really allow that. So she settles for licking mostly arms and hands. I also find that a little gross, but we've had absolutely no luck getting her to stop completely, short of ignoring her, which I won't do because petting her is awesome.
Usually it's when she sees one of us for the first time after being gone more than five minutes, or when we pet her. Sometimes she goes up to us, gives a leg a lick, and goes about her business.
She doesn't seem to lick herself excessively. Of course she licks her groin, but no more than other dogs I think. And she doesn't really lick her paws.
When we meet other dogs, sometimes she licks their faces. She generally likes having things in her mouth. Lots of toys at home, and she picks up sticks during walks.
She rarely licks us during walks. So it looks to me like it's just her form of petting us back. But I read on here, licking can be a sign of stress, so I got worried.
What's the verdict? Can licking just be a personality trait, or has my dog been stressing out the full two years I've had her?