Help! I have a five-month-old Cocker Spaniel who is a relatively well-behaved boy. However, he has recently started to try and bite other dogs around the mouth area whenever he meets them while out walking. He doesn't seem to be terribly aggressive, but it does worry us quite a bit. We have been told by our dog walker (we both work full-time) that it may just be puppy-type behaviour. Does anyone else have any views about this, or whether it's a sign of something more sinister?
Thank you lots!

Before we (humans) fed pups they would lick their mothers mouths to encourage them to regurgitate food for them.

Older dogs do it as a greeting

Christine

Thanks very much! This makes us feel a lot better.

Welcome to the forum Cloe :-)

It's just part of growing up :D
Sooner or later he will do it to someone who will tell him to "packitin" and then hopefully, having got the message, he will stop doing it. If you have an older dog in the house too, you need to take care that the pup, doesn't trigger the natural reaction that Christine mentioned. My pup has just started to do this to my older dog.Now I have to separate them for a while after feed times, or she gets to eat his tea as well as her own! :rolleyes: