Ever saw your dog licking its bed and wonder, “Why do dogs lick their bed?”
You might have noticed that some dogs lick their bed.
It might be because they want to keep their sleeping environment clean.
Or maybe, they just seek attention from their owners, or due to an underlying medical condition.
One of the ways the dogs use to communicate is licking.
They lick to express their love, eat or drink, and clean themselves or their puppies.
Most of the time, it is just a usual behavior or a sign of boredom.
We all know that too much is harmful.
So if you’ve observed that your dog has been licking its bed often, then this article will help you solve your problem.
Reasons Why Dogs Lick Their Bed
Why do dogs lick their bed?
When you see your dog licking your furniture and stuffs all over your house, it may be because they are hungry, bored, or anxious.
Providing your dog with food to eat and allotting time to bond and play with it may obstruct it from boredom and anxiety.
Despite that, your dog may continue to lick almost everything–which means that you might have misunderstood its needs or wants.
Moreover, it keeps on licking areas where they regularly stay, such as its bed.
If you’ve observed your dog excessively licking its bed, you should learn these five potential causes behind this kind of behavior.
Identifying the reasons why your dogs lick their bed can help you improve their health.
Reason #1. Luxurious sense
Dogs usually feel so cozy and warm in a particular area that they claim it as their territory through licking their bed.
So if you noticed your pup licking its bed before nap time and comfortably settling on it, it’s a sign that it’s establishing itself, cleaning, and spreading its scent on that area.
You don’t have to worry since they’re just doing it to find comfort for themselves while they travel to their dreamland.
Reason #2. Hygiene
Another reason your dog licks its bed is its appetitive behavior, where they clean up areas with traces of crumbs.
Dogs usually stay on their bed, and if they find it stained with any food, they tend to lick it until they can clean it.
Cleaning the areas where your dog typically stays, especially on its bed, will lessen its bed licking.
Reason #3. Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Before a dog’s behavior escalates to an obsessive-compulsive one, some factors influence it, which leads to the development of such a disorder.
When your dog feels disheartened, isolated, stressed and anxious, or experiencing neurological and other health problems, they are most likely to develop OCD.
Dogs also have their perturbations to deal with, and obsessively licking their bed is one way to deal with it.
So if you’ve observed your canine aggressively and repeatedly licking its bed often for no particular reason, you have to seek a vet’s help.
You might need their help to relieve your pet’s anxiety and stress with medications and therapy.
Otherwise, if you’ve observed that it has no health problems, allot some time for the both of you to bond and play to uplift the mood and the environment’s aura as well.
Reason #4. Seeking attention
Your dog might be licking its bed nonstop simply because it wants to seek attention from you.
It may have realized that licking its bed brings your attention to it.
Why so? It’s because every time it does it, you stop whatever you were doing and sometimes nag because of its behavior.
If you have observed that this behavior has been repetitive for a certain period, give your dog more time to make it feel safe and loved because it may be showing signs that it needs attention from its owner.
Reason #5. Declining years
One factor to take into consideration why dogs lick their beds is their age.
Some symptoms of dogs licking their beds are appetite loss, confusion, defiance, slower reflexes, disrupted sleep-wake cycles, and irritable behavior.
Dogs’ brains are also affected as they age older, which may cause them to develop canine cognitive dysfunction.
Dogs with this kind of condition show recurring habits such as licking their bed, confusion, disrupted sleep-wake cycles, and ability to understand.
To cure this condition that causes dogs to lick their bed, drug therapy and modification of their environment and behavior can help ease this problem.
Final Check!
There are several reasons “Why do dogs lick their bed?”
And some of these are due to their age, comfort, medical health problems, owner’s attentiveness, or personal hygiene.
So if you’ve observed that they unusually lick their bed, pay attention to them because they might be showing you signs of what they feel.
It’s only you who can fully understand your dog’s behavior, so if you have noticed that your dog lately has odd behaviors, give time to bond and play with it.
You may also provide diet plans and exercise so that they would maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Most importantly, do not hesitate to bring your pup to a vet to guarantee the real cause of their bed licking and for them to be provided with the best treatment.