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Thread: Mr. Humpy

  1. #1
    Senior Dog bmathers's Avatar
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    Mr. Humpy

    Diggity is 9 months old and I have not neutered him yet. He is super smart and is doing awesome in training. He's gone through two levels of obedience and is now in Level 1 Attention. He has also taken an intro to nose work and we are doing beginner dock diving. He excels at every training experience I throw at him. He also has high energy. He absolutely LOVES other dogs. He loves daycare. I had taken a break from daycare for a few months and took him back today. When I went to pick him up, they told me he is not well suited for daycare anymore because he was non-stop humping. They tried to give him time-outs and tell him no and they even put him in his own yard for a bit after their noon nap so he could burn off steam before going back in with the dogs. Nothing worked.

    I have noticed that when he plays with another dog (friend's dogs), he has gotten more and more humpy over the past few months. He doesn't seem to understand when he gets a correction. If the correction is stern enough and it makes him yelp, he will back off for a few minutes, but he goes right back to humping. What I have observed is if the other dog plays with him, he doesn't hump. It sure seems to me that he humps to try get the other dog to interact with him.

    Yesterday I was at a friend's house who had a 5-month of lab and a 2-year old lab. Both are males. The 5-month old lab wanted to play with Diggity. The 2-year old didn't. Diggity was so focused on the 2-year old and kept humping and getting corrected. But he kept at it until the dog finally relented and played with him. Then when he stopped playing, Diggity started humping again. After awhile, we took all three dogs on a walk in the woods. Diggity did awesome off leash and the humping stopped.

    Any training advice? I really don't want him to think humping is okay. I do pull him off and tell him NO, but he goes right back to humping. Based on the fact that daycare tried to remove him and put him in timeouts, I'm not thinking that will work. I am seriously close to taking a squirt bottle with me to my friend's house and squirting him with water when he starts to hump to get him to stop. Several trainers have recommended this approach, which I originally didn't like, but I am starting to think maybe it's the best way.

    Will this stop when he is neutered?

  2. #2
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    Well....

    I know a Border Collie from walking in the park. Rocky has been a humper since day one. His owner did nothing to try to stop him...I hadn't realized this would be the case until I had to pull him off Danny (who was much smaller than Rocky) when Dan's yelp and subsequent snarling did nothing to stop what was going on...unfortunately, that yelp seemed to be why he started favoring his right hind leg (a big problem as he aged).

    Anyway. Rocky eventually got neutered and never stopped humping. He's approx. 11 now and at some point the humping proved to be domination and Rocky turned aggressive toward all other dogs.

    I keep my dogs away from known humpers and resent it when owners don't at least state a warning when we meet. Neither of mine now can afford to have a dog mounting shaky rear ends, but I protected previous dogs, too.

    I never had a serious problem with humping. My female yellow humped her chocolate brother's head while he slept...he didn't care. Dan humped his mother's shoulder a couple of times (scared himself by getting stuck outside and needing my intervention to get him back to normal). Most of the pups humped favorite stuffed toys for a while. With the exception of that yellow female, no one humped anything after neutering. Everyone mentioned got neutered at six months.

    So...I have no training advice but recommend, based on Rocky, that you definitely try to keep him from doing this...for the sake of any other dogs he will be meeting. You don't want him starting fights...perhaps inadvertently...or hurting someone else's dog.

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    Senior Dog bmathers's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SunDance View Post
    Well....

    I know a Border Collie from walking in the park. Rocky has been a humper since day one. His owner did nothing to try to stop him...I hadn't realized this would be the case until I had to pull him off Danny (who was much smaller than Rocky) when Dan's yelp and subsequent snarling did nothing to stop what was going on...unfortunately, that yelp seemed to be why he started favoring his right hind leg (a big problem as he aged).

    Anyway. Rocky eventually got neutered and never stopped humping. He's approx. 11 now and at some point the humping proved to be domination and Rocky turned aggressive toward all other dogs.

    I keep my dogs away from known humpers and resent it when owners don't at least state a warning when we meet. Neither of mine now can afford to have a dog mounting shaky rear ends, but I protected previous dogs, too.

    I never had a serious problem with humping. My female yellow humped her chocolate brother's head while he slept...he didn't care. Dan humped his mother's shoulder a couple of times (scared himself by getting stuck outside and needing my intervention to get him back to normal). Most of the pups humped favorite stuffed toys for a while. With the exception of that yellow female, no one humped anything after neutering. Everyone mentioned got neutered at six months.

    So...I have no training advice but recommend, based on Rocky, that you definitely try to keep him from doing this...for the sake of any other dogs he will be meeting. You don't want him starting fights...perhaps inadvertently...or hurting someone else's dog.
    I totally agree. Just trying to figure out how to stop it. He has never humped a human or an inanimate object. It’s all about humping another dog to get them to play.


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    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    If you want to try a wild guess, what about an approved toy he is not only allowed but encouraged to hump? Oban is intact and has never humped anything but Poppa Bear. I'm actually rather doubtful this will work with Diggity as Oban started at 9 weeks and that's when I bought the big teddy bear. Oban seems to "love" Poppa after a good meal and a good walk, not the times Diggity humps. But, worth a try?
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    A lot of times it's from over stimulation and a focus on the other dogs. I personally am not a fan of just putting dogs in a room or a backyard to wrestle. I prefer walking with them, hiking, things like that. You rarely see humping then (as you've noticed) and I think there is a reason for it. At your pup's age, he's going through a lot of stuff, and he is hormonal to boot. I agree with not practicing the behavior, but maybe putting him in different situations and managing it is a better approach. If you want to do any type of competition with him, I'd take him out of doggy daycare anyway.

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    Senior Dog bmathers's Avatar
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    Yes, in his case, it is definitely from over stimulation and it happens when he is playing with another dog or several dogs. My previous dog had little interest in other dogs. Diggity, on the other hand, is so social and just loves other dogs so much. It’s hard to strike the right balance of training, exercise, and socialization.

    As far as taking him out of daycare, he’s done now anyway. They said he’s not suited for it at this point because of his humping. Looking back, I could see this coming. When I was taking him to daycare before (several months ago), they had to put him in timeouts because he would run around non stop. At some point, he figured out humping and added that to the mix which is when they said he can’t come anymore. I do appreciate that because I wouldn’t want my dog getting humped all the time in daycare.


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    Mulder was a humper - I never could get him to stop (and tried literally EVERYTHING, including an e-collar), so I managed it instead by constantly watching and intervening if he started. That would help for a few minutes but then he would be right back at it, so he never got a ton of free playtime with dogs other than my own (who he rarely tried to hump). He was intact but I don't think it was sexual at all.

    Sass humps Chloe when she (Sass) gets excited. She's tried it on Cookie once or twice but Cookie doesn't tolerate it - Chloe is a very tolerant mom! That is completely from overstimulation and redirecting her is the only thing that helps. Fortunately she doesn't have the nerve to attempt it with strange dogs, so it's not a huge issue.

    I guess my point is that I consider myself a pretty competent dog trainer, but this is one behavior I haven't been able to train a dog not to do.
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  12. #8
    Senior Dog bmathers's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Annette47 View Post
    Mulder was a humper - I never could get him to stop (and tried literally EVERYTHING, including an e-collar), so I managed it instead by constantly watching and intervening if he started. That would help for a few minutes but then he would be right back at it, so he never got a ton of free playtime with dogs other than my own (who he rarely tried to hump). He was intact but I don't think it was sexual at all.

    Sass humps Chloe when she (Sass) gets excited. She's tried it on Cookie once or twice but Cookie doesn't tolerate it - Chloe is a very tolerant mom! That is completely from overstimulation and redirecting her is the only thing that helps. Fortunately she doesn't have the nerve to attempt it with strange dogs, so it's not a huge issue.

    I guess my point is that I consider myself a pretty competent dog trainer, but this is one behavior I haven't been able to train a dog not to do.
    I may be dropping him off at his breeder sometime in May to have her do some training with him and will ask for her help on the humping. If anyone knows how to handle it, she will. But, you’re right — I have heard consistently it is a very difficult behavior to correct. I know 100% that in his case it is from over stimulation from being around other dogs. He goes from 0 - 100 in a nanosecond when he sees another dog. Although, I can get him to calm down when we are training and all dogs are on leash. It takes a few minutes, but he does settle down and starts working.

    So, meantime I am working hard on his impulse control, which I hope will help.


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    The worst humper I ever had was my first Lab, Ella, who was obviously a girl, who was also spayed. I think it was a dominance thing, as she was very much an Alpha bitch.

    Brooks tries to hump Sophie, and usually all I have to do is tell him "leave it" which makes him stop pretty much immediately. If I'm not right there, like when they are playing in the yard, Sophie will sometimes just stay there, other times she turns and tells him off.

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