i have a 5 1/2 month old olde english bulldogge and lately he has been offering up his back-side shortly after he and another dog begin sniffing each other. he also has tendencies to lay spread eagle on his back. i know this can be a dominant/submissive thing but he is 50+ pounds and he has a friend accross the street, a 4 pound bichon/poodle who's roughly the same age, whom even when playing as gentle as a pup possibly can, he still pounds this other dog in a non-aggressive but very dominant puppy rough housing way. and then when he's tired of playing, they begin the siffing ritual and my pup will turn his butt to the other dog as if saying "all aboard". he's started this behavior with random other dogs as well and i don't like it. i'm beginning to worry that this will be a regular thing which will make it difficult to take him to dog parks and other off-leash places and this really bothers me because he has really taken to loose leash and off leash walks. does anyone have any suggestions as to what i can do to stop this behavior?
"CONFUSED" Pup
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I'm not sure I understand. Your dog turns his back to other dogs and you don't like it? I must be missing something. Can you tell me what you think is wrong with this behavior? Or explain what I'm missing?
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Turning his backside to other dogs and offering his belly are both friendly, well mannered behaviours. Not sure why you find it an issue. Maybe some clarification is necessary here..because I'm confused as well.
By lying on his back he is showing he is not a threat, by turning his bum towards another dog he is reducing conflict, defusing stress and "shaking hands" with the other dog.
I think more details as to why you think this is a problem will be helpful. I also think some research on your part on dog communication, calming signals and body language is a good idea.
After re reading your post..I THINK you are saying he is liking being a "humpee"...nothing wrong with that either..Really. If he has an issue with it he will tell the other dog off. If not, and the other dog is not huge I wouldn't worry about it. It's not sexual behaviour, it's not even necessarily dominance/submission. All of play is "mimicking" of natural dog behaviours like hunting, prey sequence, fighting, mating and "manners" training. This is how they learn what is acceptable/not acceptable in the dog social world. Personally I'd rather have what you are seeing in a dog than the opposite.
By lying on his back he is showing he is not a threat, by turning his bum towards another dog he is reducing conflict, defusing stress and "shaking hands" with the other dog.
I think more details as to why you think this is a problem will be helpful. I also think some research on your part on dog communication, calming signals and body language is a good idea.
After re reading your post..I THINK you are saying he is liking being a "humpee"...nothing wrong with that either..Really. If he has an issue with it he will tell the other dog off. If not, and the other dog is not huge I wouldn't worry about it. It's not sexual behaviour, it's not even necessarily dominance/submission. All of play is "mimicking" of natural dog behaviours like hunting, prey sequence, fighting, mating and "manners" training. This is how they learn what is acceptable/not acceptable in the dog social world. Personally I'd rather have what you are seeing in a dog than the opposite.
cracker - thanks for giving it a second read, and yes - that is my concern. he seems very confident otherwise and i just wanted to make sure that this is normal behavior. he is my 4th dog, not including the dogs that i grew up with, and i've never seen this with any of the others so i just wanted to make sure that it's not something that requires intervention before it became a big problem. thanks for the input.
hmmm .... did you read the whole post? i guess the "all aboard" comment might have gone over some peoples heads so i'll just spell it out: he's allowing other dogs to mount and hump him and that's what i'm not liking. i've had dogs in my house for 35 of my 39 years, males and females, and never experienced this behavior before so basically i was looking for advice on how to stop this or if it is in fact something that i should be concerned with at all.
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Yes, several times. I did say that I must be missing something.
And sure enough, I was. I see. I've never heard it expressed as "all aboard". If I had known what you meant, I would have been glad to answer. I have 2 females that hump my other dogs (male and female) so yeah, it's normal play and social behavior.
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Yep. Clarity is helpful..lol
Did either of you see the episode of Bones when Bones tried to describe sexual intercourse to Booth using only hand signals? Perfect example.
It's especially important when we are dealing with only written language to "use your words" lol.
I find more people have issues with humping due to human misconceptions/discomfort with the behaviour than the dogs do. Though Cracker will not tolerate even the IDEA of being humped..she herself, when excited or overstimulated will hump even the air!
Did either of you see the episode of Bones when Bones tried to describe sexual intercourse to Booth using only hand signals? Perfect example.
It's especially important when we are dealing with only written language to "use your words" lol.
I find more people have issues with humping due to human misconceptions/discomfort with the behaviour than the dogs do. Though Cracker will not tolerate even the IDEA of being humped..she herself, when excited or overstimulated will hump even the air!
hey guys - thanks for following up on the thread and getting back to me. sorry for the confussion, i just didn't want to overstep the boundaries into pg-13 (LOL). i'm sure you are correct that it is nothing more than me not liking to watch this and if that's all it is so be it.
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