Hi everyone, I'm a new westie puppy owner with no experience of dogs so loving this site! Help!! I have a little pup that is 12 weeks old and he is licking everything - all of the time. Its as if he travels the house with his tongue attached to the floor. It doesnt stop there, its the kitchen units, the furniture, our clothing. It seems excessive and I worry that he could ingest chemicals etc. Any ideas?

He's discovering the world the way that pups do - with his nose and mouth!  Personally I've never found that pups seem to do themselves any great harm by just licking floors and kitchen units but then perhaps mine aren't that clean in the first place hence no danger of chemical poisoning!! However, like children, pups need to be able to cope with the environment they live in and shouldn't be over-protected from everyday things - there's a deal of truth in the saying about "a peck of dirt not doing any harm".  But just use commonsense in what products you use in those areas that the pup spends most time in and make sure he can't get access to wherever you keep potentially harmful household cleaning stuff.

Not wishing to depress you but the next stage will be him chewing everything that he's currently licking!!