Weird Habit....

I don't know if it is really any big deal. Dogs sense of smell is known to bee its best sensory apapratus....therefore since sense of smell and taste are linked directly to each other, dogs and almost all animals taste things for all kinds of mundane reasons... I totally disagree with the other response, its not because it needs'Iron in its' diet" - He probably just likes the smell of you on them. Human hands touch everything we do, and they are what we use to pet our animal,. So he is going where yours hands 'were' - it almost like he is getting pet by you as long as enough of your scent is still there. You must smell really good, Or maybe like dog food...Hmmmm, PS Was Sam named after anyone?

Not sure why your dog likes the weights, maybe its an iron deficiency lol? I don't have any pets right now, my two kids are quite enough lol; but I used to have a cat that did something just as weird. There was a sweater of mine that he loved. He would take a part of it in his mouth, and knead it as though he were nursing his mother. Oh, and btw, he was a grown cat when he did it. I don't know what comfort he saw in that sweater; I did have him since he was a kitten, so maybe the smell reminded him of his mother. But I just let him have the sweater because he seemed so comforted by doing that.

He's doing a couple of things, one)getting the residual salt from your sweat, two because dogs', like cats and many other animals, sense of smell and taste are so close linked he's smell-tasting your scent, and applying his scent to your own, kind of an expression of pack egalitarianism.

My dog lick my legs when they see it wet, and I don't like that. Anyhow, my dogs do not lick metals. It seems your dog really enjoy it. I don't know if it is weird habit or not, but my dogs like to take breakfast. When they see us having our breakfast, they will sit down on the chair also and wait for their plate to be prepared, but we order them to eat on the floor. They sit on the chair to remind us that they want to have breakfast too. they eat what we eat, and they drink coffee too with cream. What a lucky dogs! After they have breakfast they will get back to sleep.

What kind of finish is on the weights? I would be worried about that. Maybe you should find out or put the weights out of reach. Animals like anti-freeze and other things that taste good to them, but can make them ill. Also could be the salt from people's sweat. Animals like to lick salty things. Farmers put out salt licks for cows and horses because of that.

Hello Lily, My guess is that he likes your smell on the weights and thats why he's licking it OR you should know that we sweat when we exercise and sweat tastes salty. So maybe theres something missing in your dog's diet? OR he's just being a dog. My dog will lick metal things. Ive asked my vet if he might need some iron or something but he said all is normal with his blood test. He might want to make his territory by licking. So now your weights are HIS lol.