I have seen many male dogs trying to hump people, but i think this is really horrible. I am planning on getting a male pup, but am wandering how hard it is to stop them doing it and how common it actually is for a dog to do this, or do all males do it until trained not to.

My bitch does it! its not pleasant! though will stop if you tell her! she grabs hold of your leg and rubs her ERRR "bits" on your foot!!!!!!

Most adolescent dogs do it, but once adult if they do it at all, most don't, it is usually a dog and not a person, it is not only the dogs; in fact my bitch is the worse offender. Thing is never let them do it to a person, to stop them altogether when they are growing up would be possible but as far as I am concerned as long as it is not a person that's OK.

Hi all,
Now i dont feel like such a plonker to discuss the same problem with my gs girl, shes 12 weeks old and twice now she has been seen trying to "hump" haha.
I know its not really a laughing matter though as especially if my girl grabbed hold of 1 of my children.
However she has tried to do this on my wifes leg and tried it with our other dog?
It is puzzling as to why, i mean shes only a baby and hormones surely would'nt be irritating her this young?
I dont know the answer as i and the wife are just learning.

Dogs learn from play, and at 12 weeks that is what it is, you will see pups still in the nest doing it. By the time they are 6 months or so it stops being play and seems to be something they like doing. Would discourage it on children and the wife but her bed or cushion should not hurt, they do grow out of it when they grow up just as we do and will stop playing Doctors & Nurses.

My Aunt has 2 girl lurchers, they are sisters, Tess the slightly bigger of the 2 will often try and hump my uncle and even more often will hump Maddy the smaller of the 2. They are 11 years old.
My Uncle gets a bit upset but my Aunt thinks its funny.

Debbie

One of my old Flatcoat Retriever bitches was a nightmare for it - she considered anyone's leg fair game!  I've got 3 Staffs now, the adult bitch never does it but one of her sons (6 mths old) does try it with his brother (also 6mths) but is now growing out of it (I hope!)  We've just learnt to distract him and he quickly stops doing it.

i must "bring this out"in my animals, when i had my horse,she used to rub "her bits" agaist her tail on her stable wall.But if you were behind her brushing her tail shed pin you on the wall and try to do it against you!
arent they embarrassing!

Hi gsd sam,

We've got a female Akita who does this quite a bit to her bed (large soft bed) and I must admit I find it hilarious, although I probably wouldn't if she did it to people.  Also used to have a female GSD and she used to very occasionally try to do it to your leg when you sat in a chair, grew out of it though.  I think you need to bear in mind that puppies are, in the nicest possible way, well ... dumbasses really ;-)

Regards

CJG

Most of mine have done this as puppies to a greater or lesser degree but the only one that still does it to my husbands leg is the oldest because we constantly told her not to.  With the rest of them we just walked away and didn't acknowledge them and they all grew out of it.
Sally

None of mine have ever done this to humans......  We have discouraged this from the beginning as it can lead into all kinds of problems later on.

hi,all,im new to this site+have an eight yr old staff bitch who we,ve had just over 3yrs,she was spayed not long after we had as i have a male staff now 5yrs,for some reason tess when playing with ben,reguarly humps ben!![he dont seem to mind,he just stands there]typical male,eh?she stops it, when we tell her to,he never does it to her!!any suggestions as to why she does it,apart from being a tart,lol,can be embarassing when we have visitors round.

It is not only a sexual thing , but also a dominance thing.A big part of a dogs social behaviour is putting their head over the shoulder of another dog to assert power over them ~ the "humping" is an exagerated form of this.Next time your dog interacts with other watch and see if she/he puts her head on top of other dogs shoulders ..bet they do !!

I am posting my first entry and not sure how to use the noticeboard, so sorry if I have it wrong.  On the subject of humping, really pleased I found so many comments about it.  We have a 20 month old Weimaraner, who has been castrated and is big (38 kilos) and very friendly, never had a cross word (hardly) with another dog.  We decided it would be really nice to get a friend for him to play with off lead and in the garden, he really loves the company of other dogs, so we decided to provide a home for a rescue dog and after looking at types of suitable dogs etc we have just got a 8 month old lercher.  He is also male but unfortunately he is trying continually to hump Tilla (our weim).  The lercher is slight, undernourished and has obviously been starved of affection but is really lovable and friendly.  Tilla gets on really well with the dog until his tries to jump him, then he really has a go at him, making him yelp, the lercher however will not back off.  Trying to wrestly a 38 kilos dog of of Vasu (our new addition) is very hard.  Apart from Tilla's nose being put out of joint with the new addition, the attempted humping has made it much worse.  We are taking the lercher to the vet to ask for an early castration, but meantime is there anyone out there who can offer a piece of majic advice.  We have bought a crate to house the lercher to give them both time out, because frankly they jump at each other all the time when put together.  They walk ok together on lead but that's it. Tilla is also ok when the lercher is in the crate!  The woman from the rescue centre said to just let them 'fight it out', but I am really not too happy with that idea.  The lercher would probably sustain some serious injuries.

Any ideas until the castration and its effects take place?

Gold stars for any helpful advice.

Jill

If I start a post on this Jill it will turn into a novel :( However, all I can say is please, please, please, please, ignore this woman's advice to let them "fight it out"  A more ridiculous piece of advice I have not heard (well actually that is a lie I have) and it will be potentially disastrous not only for the physical health of one of your dogs (probably the lurcher) but the out look of your Weimi!

My JRT from the age of 11 weeks was "humping" his stuffed yellow toy lab... I could hardly belive it but it was soo cute! 

Don't believe it is dominant at all - my dogs and bitches will do it from time to time and it never causes any problem at all, it seems to be part of a game. Pups in the nest do it and I refuse to believe a pup in a strange environment is being dominant, I believe he is trying to communicate and repeating what he remembers from the nest. I do believe you should not allow it with strange dogs but that is a different matter.  Can also tell you that castration does not stop it, it may in some cases but that is the luck of the draw.

It can be a dominant thing to do but so can a lot of things, if you understand the dog you will know the difference between a dominant action and one of play or pleasure.