I would appreciate your advice on castration.
I have a 6 month old Bichon and he has taken to attempting to hump me.  This is annoying and he just won't
take no for an answer. I eventually have to lock him out of the room. Sometimes this takes a few attempts until he eventually calms down.
Castration seems extreme, is there another way of stopping this?  I have heard varying thoughts on castration. One being that it ususally makes your dog calmer which my Bichon could also do with.
What is the opion of you experts out there?

I used to have a bichon who did this, he soon grew out of it.  Just let him know it is not the desired behaviour, I wouldnt go as far as castrating him.

Hi Bart,

there are IMO far less pros than there are cons to castration in the majority of cases.  At 6 months your pup's behaviour is not particularly unusual and something that with consistent distraction tactics being used should be relatively easy to overcome.  While toy breeds do mature more quickly than larger ones, at 6 months he is still very much a pup and "calming down" isn't something most pups learn too readily.

Run a search on the forum and you'll find many threads devoted to the topic of castration which will cover most if not all of the bases for you to make an informed decision.

Regards, Teri :)
  

Castration will make very little difference if you DONT teach him that this is inappropriate behaviour.

My neutered boy will hump my leg in times of stress, when he is frustrated by something. I just have to look at him these days and he knows its not on.

It may be that what you are doing to try and discourage him is in fact making this a big game for him, so i suggest you look at that and see if there is a way you can make it completely unrewarding for him.
For instance if you are waving your foot/leg around and making a lot of noise that can be really quite fun for a dog.

Instead try saying NOTHING, but putting the dog out of the room for a few seconds as a 'time out'.

As Teri says, castration has a lot of downsides and sadly a lot of people dont seem to like to mention them. Castration before physical and sexual maturation is not to be taken lightly and may well have, as one of a few side effects, the effect of 'freezing' your dog as a puppy forever.
This will mean he finds it much harder to learn how to be an adult dog and to interact with other adult dogs appropriately. I have a dog who was neutered at 6 months and this is exactly teh case with him.
Em

My pup was humping his bed as if his life depended on it when he was only 9 weeks old! And always straight after a meal which had the effect of bringing said meal straight back again. I simply moved the bed out of reach at the appropriate time and the problem was solved. If he's looked like giving it a good bothering at any other time of the day I've simply distracted him by providing some other activity.

It isn't only dogs who hump either so castration isn't a cure.

The mood I'm in right now, I'd advocate castrating everything male

lol liberty

I had my yorkie castrated because I rehomed a female.  It hasnt stopped his humping he doesnt do it with as much vigour as he used to but still goes through the motions.

Had my boy neutered at 7 months and it did stop him humping.  But my girl who has been spayed is humping him now :rolleyes:

My girls hump more than my boy!

some boys even after desexing can continue to hump and if there is a female in heat around they will still try because they recognise the smell and know what they are supposed to do. Castarating will take the urge to do it away but it doesnt mean he will stop

you need to look at the pro's and con's to castarating  your boy and not just for you but for him to becuase while it removes health probs like testicular cancer there is still prostate cancer which some have said is more likely in a desexed dog

you need to go right into it and check it right out because you could just set yourself and your dog up for bad health probs in the future

Hi Bart

It's normal for adolescent dogs (both male and female) to get randy and try to hump anything that moves - as with people, there are loads of hormones circulating at that time. 

Adolescent male dogs have 2-3 times more testosterone in their system than adult male dogs, so this behaviour won't necessarily remain once your dog enters adulthood.

Having said that, dogs don't always hump because they are sexually excited - sometimes general non-sexual excitement can be expressed in this way as well.

I'd advise you to try to distract your dog when you see him humping inappropriate objects.  Give him a nice chew or a stuffed kong to keep his mind off it. 

If you do decide to castrate, I'd advise you to wait till your dog is physically and mentally mature before doing so.  This won't be until 12-18 months, depending on the breed (I can't advise on when Bichons mature - ask your breeder when s/he would think they are physically and mentally mature). 

http://www.netdisaster.com/go.php?mode=dog&url=http://www.champdogsforum.co.uk

i agree with onetwothree i have pups at the moment and when they are playing and the males get over excited they start to hump and they are only approaching 8 weeks now

The first stage is to teach him that humping is unaccepatable and bad / antisocial behaviour.  Every time he goes to hump, distract by making a loud discouraging noise, such as "ah ah" really loud and sharply, at the same time removing him from the object of his desires. The noise itself should stun. When he gets down, praise him. He will create an association with the bad behaviour and the noise, and the praise for stopping humping!

You must keep doing this over and over until he gets the message. Also, lots of excercise will burn off the excess energy and make him less likely to want to hump.

If the noise association doesn't work with the "ah ah" try something like banging 2 saucepan lids together, but make sure that when you've done it you don't make eye contact with him. Otherwise he will associate the noise with you and become scared of you.

You must praise him when he stops on command and be consistent. If you don't "scold" for the bad and praise for the good he wont understand what is right and wrong.

Castration should be treated as a last resort. But one way of looking at it is, imagine having all the "equipment " and not being allowed to do anything with it. Must be torture on the testosterone for a dog. Imaging telling a bloke that they are never allowed to "do it" and imaging how they would be!

Good luck, you need to have lots of patience and be persistent and consistent!

Is that you, Victoria.... ????

Apologies if I got it wrong :-D

:P straight out of the programme Curlynutter, but please be aware of little bits and pieces, such as the fact that some sensitive dogs would be absolutely terrified if noise aversion is used...the programme was not bad last night, but Victoria needs to explain that not all things suit all dogs :)

Yes with my dogs the noise would just wind them up, but a water spray acts as a good but to them mild aversive.  A sensitive dog coudl find both of these too harsh, and anoth4er might just find both rather amusing.

That'd have one or two of mine hiding under the computer desk, and the other two barking and joining in.

Not the greatest of solutions.

Aversives are not something i am a fan of, something that seems, like Brainless says in her post, harmless for one dog could do untold damage to a more sensitive animal.

Em

lol spender.