[Muppet]

Hello!

I am fostering a 3 year old female German wirehair pointer mix. She grew up with a person who was basically a shut in, so she was not socialized with people well, but lived with a female litter mate and her mother. She has been pretty great and eager to learn and behave. BUT, one issue I have having is that during indoor play, she will often come up to me and try to hump me.

I have not exposed her to many dogs yet because she snapped a few times at the shelter at other dogs, so I have no idea if this behavior is purely with humans. I am assuming that this is a habit that she learned from other dogs to achieve dominance or let go of some energy, but it is still odd. I do not know if it matters with a lady dog, but she was recently fixed.

Anyone else have an issue like this in a female?

 

[KirstenW]

It is most likely an excitement thing. If she tries to do it again, immediately stop play, turn around, and remove all attention for a moment (until she calms). Repeat as many times as she attempts to hump. It should quickly start to improve, but if it is a long-time behavior, it may take some time to stop completely.

 

[KodiBarracuda]

I would not say this is a dominance issue nor is it a sexual issue in your case. I don't have the issue with a female but since I believe its a dog behavior and not a gender specific behavior I'll offer up my anecdotal advice.

Many dogs display that behavior when excited or when playing, its a play behavior, a rude one, but a play behavior anyway. Kodi did it for quite awhile when he played with Roonie, we stopped it by stopping the play whenever he displayed the behavior. When humping = no play, it was enough to stop the behavior.

 

[odiesmom]

My female Poodle/Bichon only humps one of my cats, scoots . Scoots is siamese and mainecoon and HUGE , bigger than Sophie ( the poochon) Scoots just seems to tolerate her and she stops immediatly when i tell her to , its just odd that out of all 6 pets in my house Sophie ONLY does this to Scoots !

 

[timluc0428]

I have found that instead of correcting unwanted behavior, it is more successful to teach alternative behavior. I save corrections for serious issues like climbing up into a window that he escaped from already.

For instance batman likes to jump on people when they first come into our house. (not aggressive just playful and excited) rather than yelling at him or making him take a time out, I tell him to sit. For which he gets rewarded.

at first I did use correction but found that it didn't click in his head as fast. this is why it is so important to teach solid obedience commands.

a dog can't attack a mailman while sitting. he also can't jump on people, hump people, chew furniture, steal food from the counter, and a host of other unwanted behaviors while sitting.

 

[MuttJob]

Hahaha. My female mutt tries this when she gets excited playing with other people or dogs. I thought she was an oddball. I don't think its dominance or aggression...just excitement. I give her a "down" and she gets on her belly to wait for a reward.