Hello All, Cooper (5-1/2 months old) has just started humping my leg. This is not acceptable behavior and I tell him "no" and move him off softly. He has not been neutered yet.....will be in three weeks. Is this something that happens this early in their lives? I was sort of surprised he did this so young. I also know that the humping may not go away even with neutering, ditto energy level, calming down. Any experience with this behavior at this age? Thank you.
Re: Humping That's interesting, Yvonne. Pongo is eight months now and still shows no sign of wanting to hump anything... not that I'm complaining you understand...
Re: Humping Charlie started humping things around that age. I took a pretty dim view and he stopped. If it's something you don't like, I think the thing is to try get it stopped early if you can. It might improve with neutering - if his behaviour is the result of testosterone and not (for example) attention seeking. I doubt there is a reason to think he will calm down though. If excitable behaviour were the result of testoserone, all girl puppies would be sensible.
Re: Humping Little Gypsy humps a lot! (12 weeks old) I distract her with toys etc. Hope she grows out of it!!
Re: Humping Castration may help, if the behaviour is a result of the testosterone surging through his body now, however you will need a combination of behaviour modification as well as the castration to tackle it. Continue as you are doing - showing him that this behaviour is unacceptable. Since you are having him castrated soon anyway, hopefully this will sort this little problem for you.
Re: Humping Benson started humping when he was about 6 months old, usually did this was a bit over excited. We made it clear that it wasn't a behaviour that we appreciated, and now it is more occasional and we have more control, initially usually some distractions and C&T (using positive reinforcement, using a clicker to mark the event of the behaviour we want )when calm. He is entire and now 10 months old. Overall I can see nothing in his behaviour which I can link back to his humping...meaning if he was humping as a symptom of high testosterone then I would expect to see more evidence of this emerging in other behaviours with us or other dogs. Actually if anything he is rather submissive, so we at this point have not gone down the route (despite his humping) of castration for the time being
Re: Humping Glad to see a post on this...only had my pup Monty for three days....he is only 10 weeks old but has started humping his Mum anytime I sit down today. I tell him no and put a toy in his mouth to stop him nibbling at me while he's doing it......it seems really early. Had my Mother In Law over tonight....he was embarrassing......especially when he turned his attention to her!
Re: Humping I would treat it the same as biting - extract yourself and give Mr. Humpy a time out in another room.
Re: Humping Only happened a handful of times with Lola and it only happened when she played with a particular toy. The toy is gone and she hasn't done it since. Maybe something triggers the over excitement which leads to the humping?
Re: Humping In case there was any confusion I just wanted to say that I didn't mean to suggest that castration was the only answer to humping behaviour!! It can be managed well just by behaviour modification, but snide you're having your pup castrated anyway then the combination approach will work.
Re: Humping Hi, I'm glad to see we are not the only ones who have this problem, since day one of us getting Ozzie (8 weeks old) he has humped but he does only hump his toy moose, but he always brings it so he is next to you when he is humping it. we take the moose away and throw it towards his crate but he just brings it back and humps next to you. Obviously I am grateful he isn't humping me or the family or visitors, but i wandered if stopping him humping the moose will result in him turning his attention to humping us? He also is a very tall labrador, so people have told us to put off getting him done until he is older because when dogs are done they grow taller, is this true?
Re: Humping [quote author=46heritageway link=topic=7377.msg102633#msg102633 date=1408352930] He also is a very tall labrador, so people have told us to put off getting him done until he is older because when dogs are done they grow taller, is this true? [/quote] Never heard that one before ??? Personally I would move the toy when he does it. Hopefully he'll learn that if he humps it he looses it? If he does turn his attention to people then I would try time out.
Re: Humping Neutering dogs before their growth plates close can delay closure, so a taller dog may result. It's by a small amount though, not something you'd notice day to day, and nothing to worry about. There well may be other reasons not to, or to, castrate a dog, but the possibility of tiny amount of extra height is neither here nor there, I think.
Re: Humping [quote author=46heritageway link=topic=7377.msg102633#msg102633 date=1408352930] He also is a very tall labrador, so people have told us to put off getting him done until he is older because when dogs are done they grow taller, is this true? [/quote] Actually there is evidence which suggests that this does happen. Basically the hormones which signal the bone plates to close are interrupted, thus there is a chance of the long bones in particular growing for a bit longer, thus a slightly taller dog. Now all bones mature and "finish"at different rates, so my concern would be that by neutering this would affect this process, and also would have an effect on the muscles and ligaments by default. Now if I had a smaller, lighter or female lab I wouldn't be that bothered, I think it just depends on your dog and how you personally feel about the subject I guess.
Re: Humping Since we've drifted into the question of whether castration might lead to joint disorders, just to remind people of the study Pippa posted a little while ago for those interested: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0102241
Re: Humping That's an interesting article JulietT. My husband wants to have Ash castrated as early as six months if he starts humping but I'm holding out for him to be at least 12 to 18 months.
Re: Humping hi, i was babysitting my friends 6 month pup while they were on holiday in july,i have never saw meg humping before until then,meg would hump belle and belle would hump meg,like everyone else,i did not accept this from them,but i was always under the impression that this was a domeneering behavour aswell? thankfully when belle went home this behavour stopped with meg.
