My 9 month old male Disel has been acting up a lot lately, just tonight he tried to hump me (his trainer, the one who feeds him..) I sternly told him off, he reacted immediately by backing away and sitting down quietely and I rewarded good behaviour once he had settled as he got the message I thought. Then, after we went indoors he started jumping up on me and nipping and did not let up, I felt that he was a bit agitated even. We have also been working on "down" from Kikopup and I tried that and it worked for about 2 seconds of the 5 that he was in the zone he was in. I put him in his crate and he quieted down. Thoughts, advice? Am i doing this right? Will this stop?
Re: Male hormones with bad behaviour at 9 months! Hello there! When a dog is very excited (I have an excitable one too) it's difficult for them to remember cues and behave well, so getting them calm again is exactly the right thing to do. It's effective to have a dog calm down in a crate for a little while, for sure, and no reason not to pop them in a crate for a few minutes just as you normally would (it's not great to use it as a "time out" or punishment as we want them to love their crates). I think getting on top of humping right away, and never letting it become a habit is a very good thing to do. I dislike humping, although I know some people don't mind it. I don't think they grow out of being a teenager - mine hasn't, anyway - although I'm hoping it's true they "grow up" and become calmer at some point! I think that they just stop being puppies. They don't revert back to how they were. My boy is 16 months now, and no signs of any growing up yet unfortunately (other people seem to have calmer ones though!). ;D ;D ;D
Re: Male hormones with bad behaviour at 9 months! We have a puppy the same age, just hit 9 months So I can sympathise! There are times he can be a bit over excited, when he is in this mood he is a bit of a challenge, he is now a big boy and it not as fun when he was a small puppy. He really can hurt too when he is boisterous! (A head butt from Benson has had me seeing stars!) Take heart though apparently it will get better! ;D ;D When he does get excited, I remove stimulation, walk away, or I get him into training mode, so I show him a treat and get him to sit, as I find this "switches" him off so to speak and he focuses on getting a treat, I wouldn't try a "stay" just something quick to get him refocussed if excited, as I find to keep still is a bit much, so a "sit, paw, play dead" that sort of thing to start off with. Sometimes a "hunting" game where he needs to find a chewy, smartbone,, frozen kong or similar to direct his energy in a more positive way. If this doesn't work, I pop him into the crate just for a few minutes to calm down, I don't use this as a punishment though.
Re: Male hormones with bad behaviour at 9 months! Thank you Julie and Beanwood Your feedback is very helpful. Getting him into training mode in a focused way is also an excellent idea and I think it might work beautifully. I am guessing I will have plenty of opportunities to try that one out with my rascal. Crate time to calm down is getting fairly frequent around these parts and I was thinking that he might be starting to experiencing it as time out/punishment so having another "trick" to calm him is great. He is wonderful most of the time but he can drive me a little nuts. Here he is being angelic, thankfully he also does that sometimes . haha, as I was typing my reply he starting getting over excited with my 10 year old (he only get´s that way with one of my 10 yr old boys) so instead of crate time we did a short burst of training and he is calm as a cucumber. Worked wonders. Thank you again.
Re: Male hormones with bad behaviour at 9 months! He is a very nice chocolate indeed! That dark eye colour is very impressive.
Re: Male hormones with bad behaviour at 9 months! Thanks Julie It helps to have the looks when driving his mommy insane. By the way I totally agree with you on stopping the humping. I was a little shocked when he tried it on me yesterday, but I think (hope and pray) he got the message that it is not a polite/appropriate thing to do.
Re: Male hormones with bad behaviour at 9 months! He is beautiful! Reminds me a lot of our pup Benson Love that calm, regal look, rather different from the wild eyed, tongue hanging out humpy dog I imagine! ;D ;D :
Re: Male hormones with bad behaviour at 9 months! Right Beanwood, he sounds like a real beast but he is actually quite the charmer. I need to remind myself when he gets that humpy wild eyed crazy look I would love to see a picture of Benson.
Re: Male hormones with bad behaviour at 9 months! Here he is...taken a week ago..Benson was born 17th October 2013, so a couple weeks young than your Disel benson 9 months old 5 by kate_beanwood, on Flickr
Re: Male hormones with bad behaviour at 9 months! Gorgeous pups, both of them! Good luck with the humping. My boy definitely did it when excited, it was worse before he was neutered, as he would get especially excited when visitors came and they would become the target. He has largely dropped that behaviour around people (fingers crossed) but still sees the dog park as the Humporama Zone which is a little embarrassing.... :
Re: Male hormones with bad behaviour at 9 months! Benson is very very handsome I can also see that he is a strong boy, just like my teenager. Lisa, thanks for the well wishing. Humporama zone LOL! But dropping it around people seems like a great goal to begin with.
