Excessive Licking & Itching

Bernie’s Perfect Poop helps battle excessive licking & itching in dogs

When your dog suffers from excessive licking and itching, you just want to figure out how to help them stop. How can Bernie’s Perfect Poop excessive licking and itching?
Photo of Bernie's Perfect Poop grass bits up close.

Good dog gut health is important for your dog’s skin and coat—food and diet impact how much your dog itches and licks. If there’s poor digestion and poor nutrient absorption, your dog may have itchy, infected skin and paws that he can’t stop licking. Bernie’s helps your dog digest foods better, and helps him absorb the nutrients in the food you give. This helps his gut be healthy, and helps prevent excessive licking and itching.
Sometimes, it’s hard for your dog to digest the food you give. Even if you give a high-quality food, your dog may need better fiber to help digest that food properly. The perfect combination of Miscanthus grass, pumpkin and flaxseed in Bernie’s gives your dog the fiber they to move food through the digestive tract and get rid of toxins and irritants that may irritate skin and paws.
Your dog’s gut is in charge of over 70% of his immune system. An unbalanced gut will lead to irritation and inflammation that will cause excessive licking and itching. Bernie’s Perfect Poop also combines prebiotics and probiotics to balance your dog’s gut microbiome. This directly impacts the health of your dog and keeps skin and coat irritation and inflammation to a minimum. The pre- and probiotics in Bernie’s also help prevent yeast overgrowth, which can be extremely irritating for your dog. Bernie’s encourages optimal gut health to prevent excessive licking and itching.
Every cell of your dog’s body needs nutrients. When your dog isn’t able to easily break his food down, he won’t fully absorb all the nutrients. Sometimes the undigested food can leak through the fragile mucosal lining of your dog’s gut into his blood and lymph stream. The combination of enzymes in Bernie’s breaks your dog’s food down better so it’s more easily absorbed.
Bernie’s Perfect Poop is a 4-in-1 combination of fiber, prebiotics, probiotics, and enzymes. Good dog gut health is the key to a happier, healthier life for your dog. Too often, a dog who excessively scratches or licks is suffering from an unbalanced gut microbiome. Bernie’s helps balance the digestive tract and provide a better gut microbiome. Better dog gut health means your dog itches and scratches less, and doesn’t leave those licky paw marks on the carpet anymore!

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What is excessive licking and itching?

When your dog licks and scratches excessively, you know it. It’s often the rattling of their collar that wakes you at 2 am because they’re scratching, or the attempt to bite their paw off because their paws are so itchy that screams something isn’t right.

We all need a good scratch here and there, and dogs lick to clean themselves all the time. But excessive licking and itching mean there’s something that’s causing them to do so, and they seem to have a hard time finding relief.

Excessive licking and itching can lead to bigger problems than just being annoying and irritating for your dog and for you. Often dogs will scratch themselves to the point that they lose hair or cause wounds and hot spots, and the same goes for excessive paw licking. They can lick their paws so raw that they aren’t able to walk on them.

The symptoms of excessive licking and itching include:

• Hair loss
• Red/pink/raw paw
• Hot spots
• Paw chewing
• Limping

Causes of excessive licking and itching

Unless it’s a bad habit, odds are if your dog suffers from excessive licking and itching, it’s because they have poor gut health. Whether it’s allergy-related, leaky gut-related or inflammation-related, good dog gut health can help prevent excessive licking and itching in your dog.
When your dog’s gut health is in good shape, they’re not overproducing harmful bacteria in their stomach. They’re absorbing more nutrients from their food, and less is leaking through their gut lining and triggering an immune response in your dog. When your dog’s gut is balanced, yeast doesn’t have the opportunity to grow out of control and create itchy situations that lead to hot spots in your dog. Inflammation in your dog’s body leads to excessive licking and itching, and a balanced microbiome can help.

Possible excessive licking & itching causes	Bernie’s helps?
Infection	Yes
Poor digestion	Yes
Poor nutrition absorption	Yes
Pain	Yes
Dermatitis	Yes
Yeast overgrowth	Yes
Parasites/fleas	Yes
Anxiety	Yes
Age / habit / boredom	Yes

Illustration of Bernie sitting and smiling.

If your dog excessively licks and scratches, you want to put a stop to it. Not only is it uncomfortable for your dog, it can lead to more significant problems. It’s crucial that your dog is absorbing all the nutrients from the food your provide, and that they’re able to digest it properly to prevent inflammation and irritation. If your dog’s licking and scratching causes hot spots and bleeding, you’ll want to consult with your veterinarian to be sure no further infection occurs.

More information excessive licking in dogs

Good dog gut health is pivotal to overall health and condition of your dog’s skin, coat and body. If your dog’s gut is healthy, he most likely won’t have that horrible case of the itchies and scratchies (super fun at 2 am). Dogs who have balanced guts also are less at risk for diseases or illnesses that may cause later problems.

Fiber may help with excessive licking and scratching

Fiber is helpful in excessive licking and scratching because it aids your dog’s digestive system and keeps everything moving properly through the system. If your dog isn’t able to efficiently and effectively digest his food and push it through the intestines, he’s open to overgrowth of bacteria and toxins that can affect his skin. In fact, that’s precisely what a cutaneous adverse reaction to food is—a reaction to the food your dog eats. The right combination of insoluble and soluble fiber help build a better gut, and prevent adverse reactions because of digestive issues. It also keeps your dog’s gut ready to fight any offensive bacteria that could contribute to their excessive licking and scratching.

Enzymes may help with your dog’s excessive scratching and licking

Prebiotics and probiotics are key supplements to helping your dog’s gut health be at its best. Prebiotics and Probiotics balance your dog’s digestive tract bacteria and microbiome. This means that there’s less chance of harmful bacteria overgrowth, and less chance of inflammatory immune response that brings on excessive licking and itching. The prebiotic in Bernie’s is Inulin, which acts as a fertilizer to feed the good bacteria in your dog’s lower digestive tract. When the good bacteria in your dog’s digestive tract gets the right nutrition, they thrive and keep your dog’s gut healthy and balanced.

Probiotics are the good bacteria in your dog’s gut. When you add the probiotics in Bernie’s to your dog’s diet through supplementation, you’re ensuring that there are plenty of good bacteria to fight inflammation and irritation. When the good bacteria get the proper nutrition, they thrive. When they thrive, the gut becomes more balanced and functions properly. And a properly functioning gut means no more Itchy and Scratchy show.

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Enzymes in Bernie’s Perfect Poop will help your dog’s digestive tract break food down better. When your dog’s food is broken down better, they are able to absorb more nutrients. When they’re more efficiently absorbing nutrients, they’re less likely to have undigested food leak out of their gut lining and bring on inflammatory response. The better your dog’s digestion, the less itching, scratching and licking they’ll have.

Other ways to help

Wipe paws after being outside
Feed quality foods
Make sure your dog is hydrated
Keep your dog well-groomed
Keep your dog’s ears clean and dry

Additional reading

Related terms

Doggy dandruff
Canine dermatitis
Yeasty paw
Cutaneous adverse food reaction
Red paw
Itchy butt
Licking disorder