Hi Everyone! My gorgeous chocolate lab is going to turn 12 months tomorrow! Yet, this week she’s been acting very strange. She’s never been one to mount things but this week she’s started to do it! So far, she’s tried to hump pillows, blankets and her big tiger plushie. I allow her to mount her tiger but when I see her making movement at blankets or pillows, I stop her by telling her to “sit” or “lay”. And aside from that, she hasn’t been eating much I’ve been monitoring her closely, she still plays, gets excited when she seems me or others, and goes for walks but I’m unsure if this is normal. Also, at times when she’s done humping her tiger she whimpers. Has anyone else experienced this with their Lab pup? Should I take her to the vet? Could her mounting be a sign of stress? Any advice would be much appreciated.
By the way, here’s more information that can possibly help with this case: I live in California, I take Coco (my chocolate lab) on daily walks. I play with her in the backyard. I mentioned stress as maybe a trigger for her mounting habit because things in our home have recently changed. From March 2018-November 2018 we were taking care of my cousin’s two dogs. One was a female Siberian Husky and the other one was a male cocker spaniel, they are both 6 years old. At the time they were brought to my house, Coco (my chocolate lab) was 4-5 months old. When my cousin took his dogs back with him on Nov 5th 2018, Coco didn’t exhibit any sort of sign of missing them but I wonder if her mounting and then whimpering might be stress developed from separation anxiety of my cousin’s dogs leaving? Since she has a loss of appetite. So far, she’s rejected to eat her treats, food, sirloin steak strips, and rice. I’m maybe making a big deal out of nothing but I just want to be sure I truly love my pup Coco and just want her to live a happy and healthy life. Oh also, Coco isn’t really ever left alone at our house. I live with my mom and grandparents, so there’s always someone home. Coco is allowed to be both inside the house and outside. I take her to the dog park with my boyfriend ever Saturday. We have a very big yard and there’s a huge tree that gives shelter tona family of squirrels. Many times, Coco is found outside watching the family of squirrels jump through the branches.
Hi @JosieLu You might find the following article to be of some interest. Manifestly, there are many reasons why a dog might start humping. https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/animal-emotions/201209/why-dogs-hump You will need to think about whether there is any specific trigger for your dog's behaviour.
Mounting is an incredibly common dog behaviour and it's not really a 'problem'. Humans decide it is a problem, because we don't like to see sexuality in dogs(!) and we have deemed mounting to be a sexual 'thing' (when the majority of the time, it isn't). Dogs are sexual creatures and mounting is sometimes connected to that. (My lab bitch humps a lot when she is in season - we joke that she doesn't really know that's not her role!!) So it's not impossible that your bitch is coming into season, especially if she is approaching 12 months and not yet had a heat - that would be very likely. Keep an eye on her vulva and any vulval swelling, since sometimes they don't spot much blood on their first heat and you don't want to miss it. But humping can also be used at times of excitement, when a dog is just over-excited and has no other way to deal with that or way to process that excitement other than humping. This need not be sexual excitement - we often get 8 week old puppies humping in puppy socialisation class, and they have zero sexual hormones at that age. Humping is hard-wired into them, genetically, as it's required for the continuation of the species(!) - so it's going to manifest itself when they get excited and when their limited behavioural repertoire (at that age) has no other way to relate to other dogs. Humping can also be used by a dog to tell another dog to pipe down and not be a little upstart - typically used by an older and confident adult dog towards a young adolescent who is being rude. It is not at all sexual in that context. And probably in many other ways! Humping is not a behaviour problem or an indication of a problem, unless it is excessive, obsessive, repetitive and unable to be interrupted.
My 2 are both neutered. My young bitch (2.5 yrs) humps my older lad (4.5 yrs) when they are playing. He's not keen (and me, human, does not like it) so I remove her. He has now developed the tactic of sitting down when she does it, which usually puts an end to it. She is doing it when she is overexcited in play. After she stops/is removed they go back to their play. Like @Jo Laurens says, I don't see it as a problem or an indication of a problem as such, it's just an action that me & Coco are not keen on so we both discourage it.
Your dog is in prime time second fear imprint phase. It's a goofy time, but it will pass. We focused on training and not stressing him out with anything.
My female is 11 months and would hump our 9 yr. old male lab (intact) starting at his head. She did this about a week and started her season. She has been wearing the Velcro panties due to bleeding/discharge. She slept more and wanted to be in my lap (which isn’t like her). We are about 3 weeks in now.
