# Humping



## kathylcsw (Jul 31, 2011)

Buster is the first male dog I have ever owned so this is all new to me. He is a Toy Fox Terrier who is 4 months old today. In the past week he has started humping against Lola's back. She is spayed so no hormonal scents from her. How do I stop this? He isn't too bad with it yet but I would like to nip it in the bud.


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## naturalfeddogs (Jan 6, 2011)

Our four month old Australian Shepherd is doing the same thing, and I think neutering is going to be in order. I can't really thing of anything else other than getting rid of the testosterone. Someone else may have a better idea though.


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## MissusMac (Jan 6, 2011)

Miko was about that age when I saw him start humping, and we were able to nip it in the bud pretty quickly. He'd already learned "leave it", so when he would mount up I would immediately say "leave it" and distract him with a treat. We haven't had a problem since he did it the first couple of times.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

We don't allow humping at all, and we have all girls. It's not just a sexual thing with dogs...your male pups are probably just trying to establish their role in life more so than or being a reproductive urge. 

The more they hump the more it'll become a learned behavior and habit. Just pull him off and away, if he immediately goes back at it...separate them for a few minutes. 

Neutering may help some, but if it becomes a habit then neutering will not help at all.


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## Caty M (Aug 13, 2010)

Our male neutered dog (at 6 months) humps still. He never humped until well after he was neutered. Our female puppy (11 months, not fixed) humps too. So it's not necessarily a testosterone thing. Could be dominance or just the dogs being insecure and trying to find out where they fit in the family. Willow, the 10 yr old basset, doesn't hump at all. She knows she's top dog. :wink:


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

my neighbor's intact male pug humps Rebel every time he sees him. He can only hump about ankle high. I am thinking it's probably a domination thing rather than sexual.


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## Liz (Sep 27, 2010)

Neutering is not going to automatically cure humping as it is often more of a learned/allowed behavior. I have three unneutered males an no one is allowed to mount anyone else. If they do they are told to "leave it" if they don't respond I physically seperate the two.


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## GoingPostal (Sep 5, 2011)

My almost five year old male who was neutered four years ago just discovered he can hump, unfortunately my older girl is laid up because she would correct the crap out of him and my other female doesn't seem to notice so we are correcting him, it's fairly easy to tell when they are thinking about it and distract but they learn a lot quicker from another dog. We had a rat terrier foster that was intact and a crazy humper, I just kept him on leash and corrected like crazy, he did calm considerably after his neuter though.


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## kathylcsw (Jul 31, 2011)

Thanks for the responses. I have been physically stopping him every time I see him. So far it is only now and then so hopefully I can get it under control.


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## Huginn (Nov 21, 2011)

Ajax does this. He is almost four and has been neutered since a young age, but he can't resist the urge to hump Huginn, its like an obsession with him and we stop him every time we see it. It's bad enough with him that when we don't let him back near Huginn he whines, pants and tries really hard to escape. It took us a good three hours to get him to stop the first time, three hours of pulling him off of Huginn and then separating them. Huginn only does it to Ajax and I think it is a learned behavior that he only does to Ajax because Ajax does it to him. I have never seen him try to hump another dog. . . yet. With Ajax we are 100% sure it is dominance, having another pup come into his house he feels that he has to show him who is boss.


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## Dude and Bucks Mamma (May 14, 2011)

Dude (who is an intact, 8 year old male) was never a humper and absolutely never tolerates it from other dogs. When he was younger, he would hump Dude and I have always felt that a dog who learns from other dogs AS WELL AS from people that it is not ok will learn faster than a dog who has never had another dog correct him for it. Therefore, we would let Dude correct him since Dude is great at puppy correcting. Dude put a stop to it a lot faster than we could have. 

It is no longer a regular thing but there are some dogs that he just can't seem to resist humping. The minute we see it start, we put a stop to it. The worst he has ever been with humping was with Abi's Leo this past weekend. Except he couldn't manage to get the ride end of poor Leo... Well, I guess not really poor Leo since Leo was just as bad! Hahaha. And keep in mind that Leo is a neutered adult dog. It isn't just intact males. Her Dixi does it too. 

Friends I grew up with have a female chesapeake bay retriever named Bailey who, when left alone with her brother's black lab, Paris, would start a humpfest. Paris and Bailey would constantly hump each other for as long as it was allowed to go on. Both females. 

In conclusion, humping isn't as big of a deal as people think as long as you are willing to put in the time and effort to correct said humper. To me, it has always been no different than teaching a barker not to bark, a digger not to dig, and an escape artist to respect fences.


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