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Well I haven't seen any sign of him chewing his hind legs at all since I posted this so maybe he was just bored... He will mouth his feet when we brush him lord only knows what goes on in his head... I'm finding dogs are very much like cars when you take them to a mechanic... all the problems seem to disappear

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and commiseration. It's been quite a while since I've had a dog and the first time as the primary care giver for one.

Many dog and cat allergies can be attributed to grains and other fillers found in commercial dog food. Raw diet is great, but you have to be committed to it and finding local sources of raw meat for low cost isn't always easy. I put my puppy on a "medical" vet brand dog food for a while when we first got her and quickly found out that my expensive dog food was of poorer quality than a lot of other store brand foods. Vets get kick-backs from dog food manufacturers and really don't always know what is and isn't a quality food. Try doing some reading on www.dogfoodanalysis.com and it gives some good insight into the dog foods you thought were really high quality. If you're unsure of raw, there are a lot of excellent grainless dog foods out there now that cost about the same as a vet brand food. Orijen and Horizon are high on the list of grainless foods. You might want to give those a try to see if your dog's skin irritation gets any better. Good luck and let us know how your situtation turns out.

Well we did discuss the chewing with our vet and she did say that it was possible that he may have allergies and she mentioned his skin was a little on the pink side. We have since switched from Nutrience to Orijen and we also add in fresh vegetables as well. He seems to be very happy now so I think we have found the culprit. I only catch him chewing his feet once in a blue moon which in dog years is about once every 2 weeks or so So I think it's more of a boredom thing with him now, even when I do catch him doing it it's more of a licking that a chewing.

So thanks everyone for the suggestions and tips it was a great help.