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Humping...

2205 Views 8 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  Jac
Hope I'm not overloading with too many posts. :(

Max is quite ... ahem.... excitable. He humps everything! and my leg is becoming his fav, I'm afraid to say. :cry:

He's 8 weeks old. Is this normal? Is there something I'm suppose to get for his 'Needs?" and is there a way to "curb his enthusiasm"?

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Just training... He's just been taken away from his littermates, so he's trying to play with you as if you were one of his littermates (the humping is a way of exerting dominance, it has nothing to do with sexuality, certainly not at this age). You'll just have to correct him and redirect him. At this age I would quickly teach him the sit command as a first step.

So when he starts humping you, correct him (tell him "NO" and if necessary, physically remove him from your leg), and then command him to "sit". As soon as he sits, praise the hell out of him ;) That way your teaching him good behavior from unwanted behavior.

Also make sure "play" only happens when you iniate it. It reinforces your role as the alpha dog in the pack. So if he starts humping, chasing, etc. what ever, make him stop, sit, praise, ignore him for a minute or so, and then you iniate a playing session...

One more site I would like to recommend is the following: http://www.pets.ca/articles/article-dog_nilf.htm - it's about NILF (Nothing In Life is Free). It's a highly recommended technique of training your dog, ensuring your alpha role, and make sure your dog develops a desireable character.
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Great advice, Michael!
I agree with everything said here...and would emphasize that you can simply redirect his attention when he does hump...because what he is doing, although a bit shocking to humans, is very common behavior in the canine world.
When my dogs go behave this way, I just show them a toy or a ball and they move on to another interest...it really is no big deal to them.
Jac, I see we've been "downgraded" to Junior Members?!? You, with zillion posts? What's the new treshhold?
:lol: :lol: hahahaha! I never noticed that...now if only they would lower my age!
I also have a question about the humping. Our 13 week old female, Lani, has been humping other puppies and trying to hump us for the past 3 weeks. I was asked by someone in our puppy class how many males were in the litter, there were 8 or 9 out of the 11 that were males. The woman told me that it was all the testosterone from the others in the litter affecting her. True or false? Just curious.
We actually have two female that do the humping behavior occasionally..I thought maybe they learned the behavior at doggie day care..My vet for what its worth said he thinks its just a exhibiting dominance in female dogs more than hormonal ...
I agree - the humping (especially at pre-mature age as in your case) is nothing more than a way of expressing dominance. They litterly show the "humpee" who's the "top dog" by getting on top... I would agree this is instinctive and not hormonal.
Okay, since this appears to be a pretty serioius problem for some new owners, I decided to search my favorite site...there are a few articles on humping. I have not yet read them but I really like this site, so I trust that the articles may answer some of your concerns:

http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx
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