Humping

[fuzzy82]

Humping is a massive pet peeve of mine, I just find it really rude and icky.

I have a just over 3 month old JRT x, and he has been humping stuff for at least a couple of weeks. At first it was just stuffed animals, so I removed them from the floor. Problem solved.

Then I noticed he likes to hump his bed, not while it's lying flat on the floor, but after he has played with it and it's scrunched up into something humpable. I flatten it whenever I see him doing it, having been told that humping is self-reinforcing, and the more he humps the more he will want to hump.

This evening I was sitting the floor doing a training session with him (clicker training) and when I took a break from him to work on my other dog for a few minutes he jumped up and started humping my arm/side. I pushed him off, and he tried another 3 times and was pushed off as soon as he jumped up, before he gave up.

He then went over to his bed and tried to hump that again, and was stopped.

I asked some more experienced dog people about it last week, and they said to train 'leave it' or 'off', but the first time I saw him doing it I tried to call him over with treats, and was completely ignored, so I think he enjoys humping more than food (and he loooves his food/treats) so I'm not sure that would work.

If I keep stopping him, will that reduce how much he will want to hump? Is he going to give up on humping in front of me if I keep stopping him? Is it true that the more he does it, the more he will want to do it?

[*Bones*]

Tell him "no" in a growly voice. Reward him when he stops and comes. You have tried other things, now try that. Let him know it is not ok to hump and he will stop in time. Maybe quickly, maybe not. Be consistent with training.

[mackenzie11]

we had a JRT x yrs ago and he humped everything in site, he would do it all day, nothing worked to stop him, he was a horny little bugger and no amount of distraction stopped him, on walks he never did it just a home - his toys, his bed, his kennel,

he had one stuffed toy he dragged around the back yard he would throw it about, terrorise it and then take it to his kennel and have his way with it,

desexing never worked only made him worse

[PupPup]

My 10 month old Golden Retriever has just started the same thing, he even plays around fluffing his bed up to make it more humpable! We try to growl at him but he keeps going back. Now we just try and entertain him with something else.

I presume it is just something natural though and hopefully he will just grow out of it.

[rotts4ever]

My 10 month old Golden Retriever has just started the same thing, he even plays around fluffing his bed up to make it more humpable! We try to growl at him but he keeps going back. Now we just try and entertain him with something else.

I presume it is just something natural though and hopefully he will just grow out of it.

I had a Rottweiler that use to hump his teddy every night until he fell asleep, he was a great dog never once tried to hump a leg etc and he stopped humping teddy with age.

He never even bothed our bitches unless they were spot on ready to mate and even though I never used him for stud he was great at telling us when the bitch was ready to be sent for mating. After we desexed him he was still a great indicator of when a bitch was ready.

Letting him go to town on teddy never progressed to more serious humping. Most of my dogs that are feeling happy and healthy hump toys at some stage but have never tried to hump a leg etc. I guess some do it out of dominance but some just hump because they feel good and it's natural

Cheers

[Sandra777]

For one that bad I would administer a sharp slap on the butt. Sorry, but it's just rude and if he did it to an adult he would get bitten if he ignored their warnings - he's ignoring your warnings, time for you to bite him.

[corvus]

Sometimes humping is displacement behaviour. For example, if I had one of my dogs hump me right after a training session when I'd started training the other dog, I would assume that was displacement behaviour. I would tackle it by training an "end of session" cue and physically separating the dog from me and the other dog.

For other times I would concentrate on training a well conditioned interruptor. It shouldn't matter whether the dog likes humping better than food. If the dog is conditioned to respond to an interruptor (for example, a kissy sound) by running over to you for their treat, it won't occur to them to weigh up the enjoyment of humping against the food. Interruptors come in handy in all sorts of scenarios.

[matilda1]

I have one serial humper. A JRTx, but his humping stems from lack of confidence. he is a very insecure dog and sometimes when things get too much this is how he copes. he also follows my husband around and humps his leg when he doesn't want him to leave. A little bit similar to a small child clinging to your leg screaming "don't leave me"

Humping has very little to nothing to do with sexual drives. (unless your dog is entire and he is actually trying to mate)

My other JRTx (who is a spayed female) has just started jumping up and trying to hump our new spayed female Kelpie.

In this case she is trying to gain acceptance into the new bond the Kelpie and the Blue Heeler have and establish some sort of power/dominance.

[sheena]

From reading this thread...it seems that there are alot of JRT x's out there that like to hump. Maybe it is a breed thing. :p

[matilda1]

I was thinking that too

My ACD and Kelpie never hump.

[sheena]

I was thinking that too

My ACD and Kelpie never hump.

That's it JRT's must suffer from "little man syndrome"

[sheree_e4]

I have used with great success a remote vibrate collar, it works for barking,digging or any other unwanted behaviour so long as you are there to see whats happening and press the button. He may also be doing it for attention, he humps you yell and he gets the attention he is seeking - negative reinforcement.

I have also used it with 2 dogs who would not come when offlead,I would call them and if they kept going the oppisite direction to me one vibrate was enough to get them to come back.They no longer wear the collars but they do come every time they are called

With the collar on I do not say anything just one vibrate and the behaviour stops, this may take awhile before it stops completely but it works very quickly on the koolies

Remote vibrate collar

[sheena]

I have used with great success a remote vibrate collar, it works for barking,digging or any other unwanted behaviour so long as you are there to see whats happening and press the button. He may also be doing it for attention, he humps you yell and he gets the attention he is seeking - negative reinforcement.

I have also used it with 2 dogs who would not come when offlead,I would call them and if they kept going the oppisite direction to me one vibrate was enough to get them to come back.They no longer wear the collars but they do come every time they are called

With the collar on I do not say anything just one vibrate and the behaviour stops, this may take awhile before it stops completely but it works very quickly on the koolies

Remote vibrate collar

Yep....I had one of these things when Bindi was younger, mainly to stop her chasing the cows & chooks. I also have a hand held ultrasonic device, which would be great for stopping your dog humping. When he humps, you just push the button. It doesn't hurt him, just startles him with a sound only dogs can hear & is unpleasant to their ears. He would soon start to associate his behavour with the unpleasant sound & stop it. You can probably pick them up cheap off Ebay but I got the best....it's called a Dazer....great for all sorts of bad behavour. No good if you have more than one dog though as the second dog will also hear it if he is within it's range.

[dancinbcs]

I was thinking that too

My ACD and Kelpie never hump.

Definitely breed related, especially with terriers. I have never had or heard of a Border Collie humping anything.

[dancinbcs]

I have used with great success a remote vibrate collar, it works for barking,digging or any other unwanted behaviour so long as you are there to see whats happening and press the button. He may also be doing it for attention, he humps you yell and he gets the attention he is seeking - negative reinforcement.

I have also used it with 2 dogs who would not come when offlead,I would call them and if they kept going the oppisite direction to me one vibrate was enough to get them to come back.They no longer wear the collars but they do come every time they are called

With the collar on I do not say anything just one vibrate and the behaviour stops, this may take awhile before it stops completely but it works very quickly on the koolies

Remote vibrate collar

Yep....I had one of these things when Bindi was younger, mainly to stop her chasing the cows & chooks. I also have a hand held ultrasonic device, which would be great for stopping your dog humping. When he humps, you just push the button. It doesn't hurt him, just startles him with a sound only dogs can hear & is unpleasant to their ears. He would soon start to associate his behavour with the unpleasant sound & stop it. You can probably pick them up cheap off Ebay but I got the best....it's called a Dazer....great for all sorts of bad behavour. No good if you have more than one dog though as the second dog will also hear it if he is within it's range.

The collar looks good, especially for recalls but those ultrasonic things don't work on all dogs. I had one that worked on friends dogs but none of mine took any notice of it, even if I held it up to their ears I thought it must have been faulty so tried it on some other dogs belonging to friends and they all reacted to it even though mine never seemed to even notice it.

[sheena]

I was thinking that too

My ACD and Kelpie never hump.

Definitely breed related, especially with terriers. I have never had or heard of a Border Collie humping anything.

Border Collies are too busy rounding the "whatever" up, to think of having sex with it Definately a "little man thing"

[persephone]

Most of my dogs that are feeling happy and healthy hump toys at some stage but have never tried to hump a leg etc. I guess some do it out of dominance but some just hump because they feel good and it's natural

okkkkk

It probably feels good , and is very natural to pee/mark things .

However, it is not an acceptable behaviour for dogs living indoors/closely with humans.

It doesn't often happen that someone comes on here and laughs about their dog peeing on a new couch, or all over the clothes left draped on the end of the bed ....

Why then is humping so often seen as mildly/downright amusing /acceptable?

Edited November 7, 2010 by persephone

[corvus]

Why then is humping so often seen as mildly/downright amusing /acceptable?

Well, it doesn't result in anything that needs to be cleaned, or any disagreeable odours. It's not especially annoying unless you can't walk around the room because you have a dog attached to your leg. It often doesn't directly impact humans at all. It comes down to whether you're embarrassed by a non-human animal engaging in sexual behaviour right in front of you and the welfare of those that might get humped. Fact is a lot of dogs and humans don't like being humped, so I would stop it. That's the only reason why, though. Sexual behaviour is not IMO inherently rude. I certainly never bothered trying to stop my hare from masturbating. He's a boy. He has urges I have no control over.

[fuzzy82]

Sometimes humping is displacement behaviour. For example, if I had one of my dogs hump me right after a training session when I'd started training the other dog, I would assume that was displacement behaviour. I would tackle it by training an "end of session" cue and physically separating the dog from me and the other dog.

For other times I would concentrate on training a well conditioned interruptor. It shouldn't matter whether the dog likes humping better than food. If the dog is conditioned to respond to an interruptor (for example, a kissy sound) by running over to you for their treat, it won't occur to them to weigh up the enjoyment of humping against the food. Interruptors come in handy in all sorts of scenarios.

How do you teach an interruptor? I can call his name and that will make him stop what he's doing and come running most of the time, have successfully called him away from playing with other puppies and a person who had yummy chicken on her, but it doesn't work if he's decided to chase one of the cats. If I get him while he's still just looking at the cat it still works, but not after he actually starts moving towards the cat.

Haven't tried it with humping, I usually just remove whatever he wants to hump.

[corvus]

How do you teach an interruptor?

Easy:

The power of this is it is a conditioned response. Conditioned responses take a little time to build, but the more you practice it in a variety of situations the more effective it becomes. I tend to use Erik's name, which is very sloppy because I say it without rewarding too often, but even so, it's been quite useful in a lot of situations. It's rare that I can't get his attention if I call his name, and if I can get his attention chances are he'll do what I ask him to do next. I think this kind of thing is as effective as the amount of time you put into it as a general rule.