Hi all, I'm dog sitting my bitch's male littermate (16 months old). My bitch finished her season about a month ago but we foolishly didn't bath her before her brother came to stay. She has been in the sea and in rivers since so it didn't occur to me (perhaps it was obvious, but I've only ever owned bitches and dogs haven't been showing her interest on walks). He is constantly trying to mate with her and is extremely riled up. She is getting very stressed, eyes like saucers and panting a lot. We have been keeping them seperate for most of the day for my bitch's sanity though I feel awful for her because she is probably wondering why she is relegated to the bedroom while he has run of the kitchen and living room! His owners have informed me that he is a chewer so he requires constant supervision. He is not crate trained either so no joy there. We bathed her last night and washed her vet bed, which has helped some, but his humping is incessant. He must now associate the scent of her season with her. His "leave" command is quite strong and if I catch him early he stops in his tracks, but tries again seconds after. His hormones must be going mad. Does anyone have any suggestions or am I just going to have to keep these two separated for a week? They enjoy walks together where he is less bothersome, but two days in and we're all very stressed. I feel terrible for putting my bitch in this position, and for constantly reprimanding an otherwise lovely young buck!

The Truth About Humping

9 Reasons Why Male & Female Dogs Hump, Even If They’ve Been “Fixed”

I don't think this has much to do with her recently being in season (especially not if she's been out of season for a month!!) but more to do with the fact the lad hasn't been with another dog at close quarters like he is now, before?   He's just expressing himself in the only way he knows how.  To be honest, it needs for her to give him a good telling off, to stop what's going on.  It was always the case with any of my boys who (rarely) got stupid with the bitches.  Any amount of me telling him off was nowhere as good as the object of his affection, doing it.

I'm afraid if she won't sort him out, yes, you'll have to keep them apart.   Re dog-sitting ..... lesson learnt!   Unless you have a set up where the visitor can be contained away from your own dogs it's usually better to sit with the dog in his/her own home.

just a thought  . Does she have any type of discharge ? It might be with checking her with the vet for pyo even if she hasn't. That way you will now its not a health problem in her but his excitment at having another dog around

100% agree with MamaBas.

> it needs for her to give him a good telling off

Absolutely agree, I would leave them together (supervised of course) for a while in the hope she will have enough and properly tell him off, try not to interfere, maybe if you're shouting at him she feels she shouldn't snap at him.

Just to add could it be your girl has an anal gland problem?   This can turn on the boys ..... although I do think he's just being silly with her.

When our second hound joined us overseas after we'd had to leave him back with his breeder to recover from a very nasty gastric problem, our first hound went nuts and wouldn't leave him alone!   I did wonder if the younger boy had been around one of his breeder's in season bitches which turned our hound # 1 on but it would have been unlikely the younger lad would have been anywhere near her bitches.   I had to step in big time or they would have eventually had a fight!

I'd tell the owners your bitch cant cope with his behaviour and put him in kennels for the remainder of the time. Get them to ring the kennel and pay with their card. You did a nice thing to try and help out but you and your bitch shouldnt have to put up with this any longer.

@MamaBas You're probably right, he goes for walks with another of his littermates regularly and I'm told he humps him too! I may well suggest to them that they stud him, he's a professional.

That was my thinking too, but I was frustrated by how soft she was with him, she's very gentle. I tried keeping them apart long enough for her to calm down and recuperate, and reintroduced them when she was in a better mood to tell him off. The biggest obstacle to it was her obsession with carrying things in her gob when she's stressed or excited, she was too busy trying to keep a hold of her Kong!

I made sure she didn't have a toy in her mouth around him and she did eventually get p*ssed off enough to snarl and snap and after a few rounds of that he started playing a lot more PG.

Another commented that my telling him off might make her think she shouldn't snap or discourage her from snapping, I think they're on to something because that occurred to me too and when I stopped reprimanding him (it was useless anyways), she finally told him where to go.

He's been a dream the last couple days, he's a very sweet boy. Turns out they're picking him up 4 days early anyways as their trip has been cancelled.

RE the dog-sitting, I'm a breeder and I've looked after a couple of the pups I've bred, but never had this! I looked after his brother last year and he was an angel, but then I guess his hormones hadn't kicked in yet

@furriefriends She doesn't have discharge, and is back to her normal cheerful self now, but I'm always on the lookout for pyo symptoms around my bitches' seasons. Thank you for the sound advice

RE the anal glands, hers were checked not long ago during a routine health check and all was well. She hasn't been dragging her bum and her poos look healthy too, but if any dogs show interest when we're out I'll take her back to the vets to rule out any infections

Sorry to reply late, I really appreciate everyone's advice. I thought I'd set up email notifications for this post, but nothing came through

> You're probably right, he goes for walks with another of his littermates regularly and I'm told he humps him too! I may well suggest to them that they stud him, he's a professional.

ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!   Apart from whether or not he's good enough to be used at stud, this will likely only make him worse ..... he needs to be gently, but firmly, put right re this behaviour, before he gets into a fight.

Good lord no, if he gets a bitch he will be 100 times worse!  Currently it is just excitement, by the sounds of it.  But if you take an obsessive humper and reward that with sex, then it won't just be excitement any more!

I've never had a male dog, so I can't speak to what's normal behaviour for a 16 month old male. He doesn't hump others on walks, nor people or inanimate objects, I think his obsession with his sister was due in large part to the residual smell of her season, as there was a lot of sniffing her bits and gyrating. I know his brother whom he walks with humps him too and that neither of them are domineering dogs, so I assume that's just play. His humping when we first got him was very problematic but I'm not sure it's a habit of his as such. We'll see what he's like as he matures, though I think it unlikely they'll stud him in any case, my comment was tongue in cheek (for the most part). Certainly studding him in the near future would only reinforce the mounting as a good thing, that's true. I'll speak to his owners to figure out if this is something he ever does it while out walking

> due in large part to the residual smell of her season,

After a month (since she came out of season) -  not so unless there's something else going on back there to attract him.