Chihuahua knows the nose

May 5, 2009 7:28 PM

Why does my dog want to eat our snot? Straight out of our noses!

I have two Chihuahuas, one male one female. And the female has a weird obsession with sticking her tongue as far up our nose as she can. She has done this since we bought her, so I don't know if this was a game at her birth-household, but when we are sitting on the sofa she will leap up on our lap or, if reclining, our chest and attack our faces with fast licks, and the licks start off all over the face, but will in less than 30 seconds become focused on the nose, and then she will start probing her tongue up the nose, even craning her neck to be below your nose for a better angle.

Of course this is NOT something we encourage. She has done it to my wife, to me, and to my father in law when he was dogsitting for us. Our methods of deterrence are fairly mild, by trying gentling methods such as saying "settle" in soothing tones (when possible...if you talk she will many times try to stick her tongue in our mouth as well). Often we end up covering our mouth and nose, and she tries to nuzzle her way in under the hand. She is persistent, agile, and quite industrious about getting under hands, and we really wonder WHY.

She seems to be so happy to be seeing us, to be with us, and it seems like a sign of affection so we have not punished her as hard as we would for, say, not being housebroken or chewing things she shouldn't. But it is something we have to be on the defensive of as it's quite unpleasant if she does succeed in penetrating our nostrils.

So why does she do it, and is there a way to stop it without really deterring her from showing any affection to us at all?

posted by arniec to pets & animals (18 comments total)

It's all about the salt, I imagine.
posted by tomierna at 7:46 PM on May 5 [1 favorite has favorites]

I highly doubt it has much to do with affection. Same reason that my one of my cats jumps up on the back of the couch after I shower and chews on my hair. And my girlfriend's. He (she in your case) just likes the taste, I imagine. It's an unwanted behavior, so don't bother being polite about it. Shove her away and firmly say "No." If she's any sort of intelligent, she'll get the idea eventually.

Now if I could only get my cat to stop eating my hair.
posted by InsanePenguin at 8:01 PM on May 5

So boogers, it must be said, are delicious. Mucous has all sorts of tasty salt and protein num nums to get at. Also, chihuahua tongues are perfectly sized for plundering your nostril. So that, if anything is WHY I might guess she's doing this.
My bird, for example, likes to clean noses and teeth and pick any scabs you may have been wanting to keep.
The way I keep animals away from my face, and please just try this once for me, is to blow in their noses. They really don't like it. Of the four species in my house (including humans) none will persist if you blow into their nostrils. Although the humans tend to sass back.
If that doesn't deter them, a light tap on the nose, just enough to reset their brains so that you can start them off on something that doesn't involve booger plundering. That's the next key step. if you don't want to discipline her away from giving affection, blow in her nose then set her down on the couch next to you or somewhere close by so that she can have non-mucousy approval like petting.

Alternately, you just let her keep it up and never have to clean your nose again. That dog is like five years worth of kleenex!
posted by Cold Lurkey at 8:04 PM on May 5 [4 favorites has favorites]

Why does my dog want to eat our snot? Straight out of our noses!

cause your dog is a dog.
posted by lia at 8:15 PM on May 5 [3 favorites has favorites]

Dogs don't waste protein. It's why they eat nail clippings, blown-nose tissues, feminine personal hygiene items, etc.

My girlfriend goes through, conservatively, 1 large box of kleenex per month. I'd say our golden retriever eats a full 25% of them.

I've given up on training the dog to not eat them and the girl to not leave them laying around. sigh.
posted by TomMelee at 8:51 PM on May 5

I think this is less about "boogers, eww" and more about a dog that needs better training. I mean, we all like a dog that jumps up and says hello, but if she's being as intrusive and persistent as you describe, I think you might want to consider going to an obedience training course.

Seriously, they're worth it. We took one when we got our puppy, and I found that it was a lot less about the dog learning tricks than about us learning how to communicate with our dog.

Saying "settle" while the dog is still actively licking your face is not going to accomplish anything; she's still freaking out and excited and won't hear a word you're saying. Covering your mouth and nose when she's trying to lick it is, from her point of view, you playing a fun game with her of "see if you can dig my mouth out from under my hand!" -- it's encouraging, not discouraging the behavior. You've got to think about your body language from her point of view, a bit.

One useful technique we use when our dog is acting up is to physically hold our dog down on his side, on the floor -- holding him gently, but not letting him get up or move if he struggles. You're not punishing your dog if you try this, there's nothing unpleasant about this for her, you're just keeping her steady so she can calm down. The dog will relax surprisingly quickly; just stay there and keep your hands on her, pet her for a while until she's no longer trying to jump up again. This will take a while the first few times, especially with an active breed like the chihuahua (on the plus side, you won't have any trouble holding her still!) but if you keep doing it she'll get used to the idea that it's time to chill out when you hold her down Our trainer described this as assuming a "dominant position in the pack hierarchy" but you don't need to be all darwinian about it, it works just as well if you think about it like giving a child a time out when they're having a tantrum.
posted by ook at 9:52 PM on May 5 [1 favorite has favorites]

It's all about the salt, I imagine.

Yup. Before you were socialized to think otherwise - you realized the truth! Boogers are delicious!
posted by The Light Fantastic at 10:17 PM on May 5 [1 favorite has favorites]

There is a very strong pro-booger agenda clinging to this post.
posted by redsparkler at 10:50 PM on May 5 [2 favorites has favorites]

There is a very strong pro-booger agenda clinging to this post.

It was either that, or under the desk.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 10:54 PM on May 5

Our old golden retriever liked nothing better than to eat used tissues out of the bin. The boogers, they are tasty.
posted by kjs4 at 3:21 AM on May 6

Yep, probably salt. See these two feet licking cat threads.
posted by fire&wings at 5:48 AM on May 6

Oh yeah, used tissues are a favorite in my house. My dogs just love flu season...
posted by thejanna at 6:08 AM on May 6

Just to respond to ook, I have taken both my dogs through obedience training and am now training them in agility. They are well behaved, and learn quickly and easily. But because she gets SOOOO excited by this, her tail becomes a blur, we just haven't been as strict about it as some other behaviors.

And the "Settle" command does work with her quite often, as it's one of the commands we taught her in obedience class. Tells her to be still and relax, a useful command at the vets to be sure!

Finally, to the rest of you: is this the same reason our other dog seems to lick our ears? Is earwax also salty?

Thanks for all the replies!
posted by arniec at 6:35 AM on May 6

My dachshund does the same thing, given half a chance. Sweat, too. Nothing she likes better than Mommy and Grandma fresh in from gardening... and she raided the (covered! heavy!) bathroom garbage can so many times I've actually had to switch feminine hygiene products!

(TMI. Sorry, but it's true. You've never had a squick moment quite as awful as Daddy saying "one of puppy's poops in the backyard has a string coming out of it...did she get into your yarn stash?" This is the same dog that once put her mouth under my blind cat's butt when he was stepping into the litterbox to get a non-crunchy serving straight from the source).

In short, dogs are pretty gross when given half a chance. Holding her down and giving her a chance to chill, as recommended above, is a good move. But make sure your bathroom garbage cans are secured!
posted by bitter-girl.com at 7:13 AM on May 6

Nthing delicious booger theory.
posted by solipsophistocracy at 7:14 AM on May 6

Dogs lick mouths/faces of other dogs as a sign of submission. Why that's extended into nasal passage cleaning is very likely the taste, as noted above.
posted by Four Flavors at 11:36 AM on May 6

My small (part chihuahua) dog loves my nose, and seemingly, its contents. Gross, but hey. It's a dog. Dogs is weird.
posted by Savannah at 7:37 PM on May 6

On the ear wax thing. My dogs will calmly and thoroughly take turns cleaning out each others' ears. On ear wax (I don't think it's salty, I'm guessing bitter, actually), and because they seem so methodical (as opposed to excited), I always thought it was more of a mutual grooming thing--but I did wonder how they agreed upon it.

Anyway, back to earwax and boogers and every other possible gross thing--my dogs will lick sweaty arms and legs, eat tissues, etc, and would probably try to vacuum my nostrils if allowed. I think you should be more discouraging of this behavior (it sounds like you don't like it).
posted by Pax at 10:11 AM on May 7