My friend has sent me a message asking if I know what could be wrong with her YT, he has started to hiccup and she thinks his throat is going into a spasm, he is constantly licking but has no swelling to his face throat area. I had first thought maybe a reverse sneeze but she knows what thats like and says its not the same. I am stumped anyone have any ideas please.

Has she checked he has nothing stuck in his mouth/teeth/throat anywhere? Something like a piece of stick/bone etc?

Yes I thought of that too, any she cant see anything, he hasnt had anything either that she can think of. I've just thought maybe acid reflux? will have to do some research though as haven't had that with any of mine before.

My dog occasionally gets acid reflux and she starts swallowing a lot and wanting to eat grass rather then hiccuping or licking.

OK thank you Jodi :)

Rennie tablet, 1/2 a tablet or even a 1/4?

My nearly 13 year old dog has been doing this about once a month for the past year or so.  Vet suggested acid reflux.
Vet gave me Omeprozole which I give him at the first signs and it stops it within the hour

I am just about to post you my story. I have to gi and copy and padte it first, so bare with

I'm hoping that by sharing our story that other leos can be saved and it might give an explanation to a behavior sometimes seen with our bergers.
At 10pm on Saturday night, our nightmare began. The dogs were in their bedroom and we were getting ready to go to bed when I could hear gagging and wretching coming from their room. I ignored it for a minute thinking that it would pass, but it didn't. I could then hear panting coming from the room too. I went to see what was happening. It was Astrid. She'd had these episodes a few times before and it involves air gulping, panting and a desperate need to eat. I'd always put it down to a bit of reflux as she had a few episodes whilst in whelp, she also gets them when she's moulting. normally it is all over and done with very quickly, particularly if she has something to eat. Not this time. Even after having half a chicken carcass she continued to gag, pant and gradually looked more and more frantic. Oh shit. Was it bloat? Although her abdomen wasn't swelling, the gagging, wretching and panting are the signs we are supposed to look for, aren't they? The visible bloat happens when just before the torsion?
We left for the vets and Astrid was examined straight away. There wasn't an obvious bloat yet upon palpation, but she's a big girl and the stomach could swell a considerable size before feeling or seeing could be seen. Giving her presentation, the vet xrayed her. She wasn't at immediate risk and so the vet monitored her over night. In the morning she re-xrayed her again and found her stomach had increased in size. It was now becoming an emergency. They prepared her for surgery and rang me to say they were taking her in.
A few hours later I received the call. Astrid was being woken up. When they opened her up, they were greeted by a giant fur ball. A fur ball the size of a rabbit! What they were seeing on the xray was the stomach using its defence by filling her up with acid to combat the fur ball. Luckily (or not) it wasn't actually bloat she was experiencing but an obstruction in her stomach. The vet has never removed a fur ball from a dog before despite practicing for years.
Astrid is set to make a full recovery and came home today. She bounded over to me dragging a veterinary nurse when i went to fetch her, but it could have been a very different story.
I have heard that there are numerous leos out there with similar episodes to what Astrid periodically had (panting, gagging, wretching, a need to eat, pacing, telling you that they NEED to go out).
She is raw Fed so has tummy acids capable of dealing with bone, however hair does not digest in the strongest of stomach acids! I am still researching what can be done to avoid this happening again. Although the vet does not feel there is any reason why it should happen again - Astrid is not an avid groomer, neither does she eat hair. This is just something that has built up over time from general, average grooming, eating things off the floor etc etc. She has however had a major molt after the puppies which has meant loads of loose hair floating about/being swallowed, which could have contributed to the things coming to a head now.
Please please, if your Leo has had similar symptoms that only last 5 minutes, get your Leo checked. It could be “harmless” heartburn or tummy ache (some reasons listed by vets for this behavior) but it could be something more sinister like Astrid’s furball that was quietly growing in her tummy over time, only symptoms it gave were the odd episode like described above and it could have killed her!

The amount of people that have come forward with similar stories to this is remarkable, considering this was my first experience. Funnily enough hairy breeds seem more susceptible to "acid reflux" if that is really what we are seeing. Astrids reflux was "cured" albeit temporarily with ranitidine, but what wasn't realised until my poor girl was on death's door, is that her reflux was being cause by a hidden hair ball and it was only the illusion that it was bloat, that caused me to go and take her in.

Tanya1989 thank you for sharing your experience, I hope it helps someone, it will stick in my mind from now. I am pleased Astrid made a full recovery.

Update on my friends dog, she took him to the vets yesterday and they diagnosed tonsillitis and gave an anti inflammatry injection, he has settled now. So I am hoping that is all it is.

Tanya, thank you for sharing.  What a horrible experience. 

Glad you shared as in 45+ years with dogs I have never heard of this.  It isn't a bad thing to improve my canine knowledge.

It seems like quite a few of leos have gone through this which is why, after a lengthy discussion with Astrid's breeder, I decided to send the information to the breed clubs and to all my contacts over Facebook etc, and surprisingly, a lot of people have had similar stories.
I started off in a breed that didn't moult (giant, poofy and now crossed with everything that resembles a dog) and acid reflux was never an issue. I'd never had a dog with it, nor heard of anyone who had been through similar.... Now I have a giant, incredibly hairy and super moulting breed, more and more "acid refluxes" are coming to the surface. It might be a coincidence, but I'd like to know if any further investigations had been carried out to determine the hidden cause of reflux. Astrids had presented as reflux on several occasions, its only after a massive flair up (we thought was bloat) that we found the cause.