Erik and Lulu - a strange pairing

[ChristyA]

Erik has a habit of licking his front legs, which is how I can tell which poops in the yard are his,,black hair in them:p. So today I heard him licking, licking. I turned around and looked there is Lulu laying on her side, Erik has her front leg in between his 2 front paws and he is licking a spot on the bottom of her paw that looks like she scraped it on something. The spot wasn't bleeding, just looked a little raw. He was very intent on what he was doing and she was just laying there with her eyes half open.

Was he being nice or just weird?:confused:

Christy

[Bichonluver3]

Hi Christy!
I have 1 boy bichon that is aware of any open area on my skin and he will frequently come over and lick it until it is healed. Same thing? I think they know when anyone - human or canine - has a "boo-boo".
Carrol

[SasAndYunah]

Christy hello :)

Yunah has the exact same thing. Whenever a human or animal has a small scratch, an eye infection, a surgical incision, earproblems, allergic reaction, she will sniff if and lick :) She's pretty distant with humans and animals she hasn't met before but whenever she meets a new dog and she starts sniffing them (other then the butt sniffing) I know that dog has some kind of (skin)issue...and she always finds the exact location :D Same with people... Just a few days ago, she kept trying to jump up onto a person she never met before. I initially thought that person might have some nice smell on her hands (just touched something very good smelling) but the woman assured me that was not the case.....all she had was a little cut in her finger :eek: And if given the chanche, Yunah would lick and lick and lick...;) She's known as "nurse Yunah" for this abbility :p I had heard of this but never had a dog that was actually behaving like this. Yunah will be actually used to "sniff out" if a dog has a puncture wound hidden somewhere under it's fur after it has been in a fight for axample. If there is, Yunah will direct you to it :) And even more amazing is that Yunah will also "detect" bruises or sprains.... So even when the skin is still intact but the dog or human has a sore area, she will sniff it and start licking that area.

There are trials about dogs sniffing urine to detect cancer and diabetes and such...and now that I have Yunah, I am convinced that there are dogs capable of this, they will detect the slightest "chanche in scent" and respond to it. Or stories about dogs that kept licking a certain part of their owners skin? And when they finally went to see a doctor, they were diagnosed with skincancer in that area...things like that. I know by now that whenever Yunah is very kind, gentle and "licky" with another dog, there must be something wrong with that dog because normally she is rather dominant towards other dogs and usually ignores all dogs she meets. So whenever Yunah starts to show a close interest in any part of my body, I will make sure to see a specialist...cause she is the best indicator something is wrong :)

Saskia and Yunah :)