Axel is basically 5 months. At the dog park if a dog plays with him lots he tries to hump them. This started the first time we brought him in the park at about 4 months old. Then started him in day care this week. The first day apparently he just humped and humped and humped some more. The older dogs were telling him not to but he just kept trying. Day two at the day care. No humping. And it was all the same dogs plus a few new ones. But at puppy class there is one lab in there that he just will not stop humping. I remove him and put him on leash for a time out. Let him off and he goes right back to it. So I repeat. The trainer noticed this and said to neuter him at 6 months old. But everything I read says not to neuter labs until about 18 months old. So I REALLY want to wait that long but I'm starting to feel helpless He is incredibly sweet with all dogs, he's submissive to them. He is incredibly sweet to everyone and everything. So I want to believe it's just an excitement issue verses a dominance issues. But the trainer says that it's always dominance... Sorry for the rant. Tried to keep it brief. Anyone have any tips on how to stop the humping? Anyone have male labs that they neutered early but they still bulked up beautifully?
Humping isn't necessarily a sexual behaviour. It's not dominance. It's often a play behaviour or an attempt to initiate play. It's not a hugely polite way of doing it, but it's well intentioned... My dog Obi is 4 and he was desexed at 7 months. There are some individual dogs that he will always want to hump, without fail. Usually these are chocolate Labradors (also desexed) but there was also one very elderly male Border Collie at our dog club that was a humping magnet (we just had to keep Obi on lead around this old doggie). With all the dogs he humps he's trying to get them to play a chasing or wrestling game. So, humping can be a behaviour that is directed at certain lucky individuals only and it can be a play thing. If it is a play thing, it is most definitely not going to be resolved by neutering. If you neuter your dog solely in an attempt to stop humping you may regret it if/when it doesn't stop the behaviour. But if there are other reasons you want to neuter then go ahead. In the meantime, building a strong recall cue or 'leave it' cue are better alternatives - or just removing your dog off the other dog. And don't worry, your dog is totally normal and it is definitely not something he's doing to be dominant. Think of it as a slightly goofy, slightly socially inept way of sending out a party invitation - that's all it is really
Rachaels right work on his recall and don't let him get to the excited hump stage and if he does just take him away and calm him down. It is really just silly pups not getting it yet. It is very normal lots of pups do it at this age. They do learn that they can play but if they hump the fun stops quickly. Don't be pressurised into doing something you don't want to
I find these comments interesting. Boris now 14 months and will hump some dogs. The most frequents are. He is trying to dominate, frequently followed with the comment that he needs neutering. Last week he was humped by a spayed bitch which seems to negate the second comment.
Since humping is not necessarily done for sexual reasons it may not stop once neutered. Females hump and so do neutered dogs. Dogs can even start humping After being neutered, to wit, my sister's female who was spayed at 5 months. It's hard to correct if the dog is at DDC. People working there don't have time to watch your dog every second and correct him. It would be nice to have a trainer better versed in dog behaviour too. My intact male is 8 years old and he's never humped anything other than his Poppa Bear. He started humping at 9 weeks and I bought Poppa and encouraged him to hump Poppa. I have no idea if that would work, directing your pup to an appropriate toy, at this stage. You could try it, then if it does work you could fade the toy or just let him have his fun with it. We don't mind, we let our dog hump Poppa. Poppa is washable and can be hidden when visitors come. Good luck.
Thank you everyone for the replies. It makes me feel so much better. I am going to buy him a teddy bear and see if that works. If not I'll just keep removing him off the dog until his recall improves. I really don't want to neuter until a certain age and even then I may not. I'll have to see how he is at that point.
We have Teddy for exactly that reason, there is a lot of teddy love in this household and it is quite hilarious sometimes. Teddy does get put away when needs be but so far only Teddy seems to get the love!! My old rescue was a girl and humped many dogs, male or female so I'm not sure it's just a boy thing!!
Haha that's hilarious! I really hope it's not too late to introduce a teddy. Beautiful pup by the way
So far have been lucky with humping in that my boy seems to focus all his loving attention on Eyore - a stuffed toy - rather than other dogs or people! We call this photo "afterglow"
Duncan is 16.5-17 weeks old and he loves to bunch up any soft blankets in his mouth and shove the rest of the blanket under him and hump hump hump away! hahaha He hasn't tried to hump any of his teddy bears or stuffed toys yet, just various blankets that were on the couch I definitely don't think they realize what they are doing since he has done it from the time we first got him at 8 weeks on, but it is pretty funny and we just try and say no and take the blanket and we realized it is when he is about to crash out and pass out for awhile so we just calm him down and snuggle him till he falls asleep
The only real problem with the humping (apart from the embarrassment factor for you) is that it can seriously annoy other dogs (and their owners), and might even hurt an elderly dog (as Rachael said). Best just to stop it each time he starts, in my opinion, not to let him get to the stage where he thinks it is acceptable behaviour. There is one dog in our street who is a terrible humper - he has zero social skills and seems to think all other dogs will enjoy the behaviour as much as he does! But they don't. Not surprisingly, really!
I agree with Karen - we just stop the behavior every time and calm Duncan down since it almost always 100% of the time has to do with him being overexcited and overtired and needing a nap at the tail end of his puppy crazies! I don't think they are trying to be bad or aggressive or anything like some people think, but better off just to stop the behavior and calm them down or whatever you need to do so that they don't start doing it as much as they want anytime they want to!
Sam is 5 months too , so far he's tried dogs and our two cats which didn't end well for him but hasn't stopped him trying he reserves most of his love for his bed though !
Thank you all for your thoughts I do worry that a dog won't appreciate this and turn on him. But we will try out these suggestions and hope for the best!!
My personal opinion is close to Karen's comment - people think it's "cute" when puppies do it but it's a different story when it's a full grown Lab trying it with other dogs or people. So it's not something that I want to encourage in my dog. He was a bit of a humper when we got him at 8 months old - unfortunately his particular object of affection was my brother when he came to visit. I had a house line on him and would pull him off when he started, and it didn't take long for him to realize this wasn't as much fun as he thought it was.
Exactly, I don't want him to keep doing it. Thankfully he doesn't do it to people or objects. Just certain dogs, particularly golden retrievers. Must be the long luscious coat I have been putting him on a leash every time he goes to do it. And repeat quite a few times. But if he doesn't stop I end up taking him home which may be a mistake? He hasn't done it for a couple weeks but we also haven't come across overly excited/playful golden retrievers in a couple weeks either. He did try to do it to a pitbull yesterday. But we put him on leash right at the first sign of doing it. Took him to the side. Then let him go after a few mins and that was it. So progress maybe? Only time will tell.
If you're persistent then he'll learn it's not worth trying it because you've taken the 'reward' out of it. I don't think it's a bad thing to take him home if he does this but it's probably overkill. Getting him away from the humpee and then having him spend a minute on lead should be enough
Well, at the dog park today there was a 5 year old lab neutered male. Axel didn't try to hump. There was also another small dog there and Axel didn't hump. But then comes in a golden retriever and as soon as she was in the park Axel was humping her. The owner was not impressed. So I put him on leash and apologized. Then once the other dog was playing fetch I let Axel off and he b lined it for her. I was working on recall before she had come in and he was recalling beautifully, sadly not when he was in this mind frame. Once again very displeased owner was mad at me and Axel telling me to get him fixed. The golden retriever did tell Axel off and when she did I called him and he did come. So we left.
Sorry you came across a cranky person.... You did your best. Some dogs just seem to be irresistible...! Getting him fixed won't do anything - the owner of the Golden Retriever is wrong (as well as being a cranky person!). If he's humping it might be better to go up to him and remove him, rather than blunting your recall. Do keep working on the recall though - I'm sure you will If only the humans in the dog park would behave themselves
