Flank Sucking Dobe

[billybooker]

Has anyone had any luck curing their Dobe of Flank Sucking Syndrome? If so, how did you do it?

Jennifer

[Khiori]

Oh wow, I just looked it up because I didn't know what it was either.  I did have one episode with one of my dogs with compulsive behavior.  It was scary.  Reducing stress seemed to be the most helpful thing (mostly environmental stress).  I do think that for my boy if things got that stressful for him again he would most likely revert to that coping compulsion.  So we strive to keep that particular trigger out of our home.  I would suggest looking to that and perhaps reading some books on behavior.  I found for myself that the book "Jelly Bean vs Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" by CW Meisterfeld to be enoromously helpful in understand dog behavior / cause and effect.  Good luck with your Dobe.

[PupDaddy]

My Great Pyrenees Kendra does that sometimes, except she clamps onto her lower front leg. It usually only lasts for 15 - 20 seconds. In her it's just a cute quirk.

[GR8DAME]

Has anyone had any luck curing their Dobe of Flank Sucking Syndrome? If so, how did you do it?

Jennifer

My first male dobe was horrible. Finally ended up soaking his flanks several times a day with bitter apple, and he ultimately stopped, but it was a rough couple of months. He had almost sucked all the hair off at one point.
For awhile he was really good, then he started sucking on my younger dobe, and we had to coat him with bitter apple too.
eventually we broke the cycle, but once in awhile he would compulsively backslide and we would have to get the bitter apple again. Luckily a couple of applications did the trick later

[billybooker]

I believe that lick granuloma is the technical term for sucking type behaviours. Flank Sucking Syndrome is a compulsion type of disorder, believed to be genetic, seen most commonly in Dobes.  Basically, she sucks her side or hip(flank) for short or long periods of time throughout the day. (It's sorta like a child sucking a thumb-it's a stress reducer) It is worst when driving in the car. She had this problem when we got her from the SPCA at 14 months old, only I didn't know what it was at the time. We tried bitter apple, she gets hard exercise, and also tried Bach Flower remedies.  She is a nervous dog with many other fear based issues, but I thought someone might have an idea that I havn't tried yet. She isn't actually doing any damage so far, so I'm not overly concerned about it yet.
Thanks.