Most actions that dogs do result from elaborate training with their owners, like sitting, lying, rolling, etc.
Here’s a breakdown of why dogs hump and how to address the behavior, plus key takeaways:
What is Humping?
- A natural behavior where your dog mounts something and thrusts.
- Not always sexually motivated, especially in puppies.
Why Dogs Hump
- Play: Common in puppies and young dogs, a way to express playful energy.
- Dominance: Attempt to assert social rank over other animals or people.
- Hormones: Driven by sexual urges, even in neutered/spayed dogs.
- Overstimulation: A way to release energy in new environments or when seeking attention.
- Stress/Anxiety: Compulsive humping might be a sign of underlying stress.
- Medical Reasons: Sometimes linked to issues like urinary infections or skin allergies.
How to Stop Inappropriate Humping
-
Assess:
- Frequency: Occasional humping may be normal play.
- Triggers: Notice patterns. Is there a particular situation or object that triggers it?
-
Initial Management
- Ignore: Avoid reacting if it’s infrequent.
- Distract: Offer a toy or give a command like “sit” to break the focus.
- Give Space: If overstimulated, a brief timeout in a quiet room can help.
-
Address the Cause
- Activity: Ensure plenty of exercise and mental stimulation to release pent-up energy.
- Training: Teach basic obedience commands and reward calm behavior.
- Neutering/Spaying May help with hormonally driven humping, but not guaranteed.
-
When to Seek Help
- Excessive Humping: If it becomes disruptive or compulsive.
- Medical Concerns: Rule out health problems with your veterinarian.
- Behavior Issues: Consult an animal behaviorist if other methods fail.
Key Takeaways
- Understanding motivation is crucial – is it playful, hormonal, or stress-related?
- Redirect energy with toys, play, or training.
- Consistency is key. Discourage the behavior each time it occurs.
- Neutering/spaying can help but isn’t always a cure-all.
- Don’t hesitate to seek professional help from a vet or behaviorist if the behavior is excessive or concerning.
What is Dog Humping?
What is commonly called humping is the combined activity of mounting and thrusting. It involves your puppy or dog climbing up against an object or person and moving its pelvis forward and backward.
When observed in puppies, it is a non-sexual activity that can be minimized with training. However, it may also be displayed by grown dogs of different ages and can be curbed with training and patience.
When is Humping Commonly Noticed for the First Time?
Humping can be first noticed in puppies around 6-8 weeks old. At this stage, the activity does not have any sexual implications. It is just a playful motion for them. You may observe that your puppy has naturally tended to hump ever since adoption.
The same is an explanation until your puppy turns six months old. At six months, your puppy begins to enter the period of sexual maturity.
Why Do Dogs Hump?
To prevent it from happening, you must first understand why your dog is doing it in the first place. The answer to this may differ depending on what stage of life it is in.
When under 8 Weeks or 2 Months
The most likely reason for this behavior is playfulness. It is biological progress towards its development. You may find your dog humping fellow friends, objects, and furniture in the midst of doing other activities. As long as it is not frequent, there is no need for you to worry.
After Reaching the Age of 6 Months
The most significant difference after reaching the age of 6 months is that your puppy begins to experience sexual maturity. The reasons for mounting now vary.
As a Playful Behavior
Even at this stage, dogs are hyperactive around other dogs and people. They may mount them while playing, which is not a cause for concern.
However, you may want to keep a look on your dog while it is playing if it frequently mounts other dogs since it is not common for dogs to enjoy being mounted on.
This may lead to an aggressive showdown between the dogs, which can be prevented by keeping your dog under careful watch.
To Assert Social Dominance
Pet dogs have everything handed to them. This comes with the flipside of always being controlled by their owners. Sometimes, your dog may hump in an attempt to assert dominance and show that it is in control before its owners or other dogs.
Result of Hormonal Changes
Humping is part of the biological process of reproduction. Irrespective of whether or not your dog is spayed/ neutered, i.e., removing its reproductive organs, you may see your dog mount as it is an instinctual behavior that comes naturally to them.
Your dog is not capable of getting impregnated or impregnating if it humps another dog after a month after it is altered.
Feelings of Overstimulation
When dogs are put in an unfamiliar environment with plenty of stimulation, they are bound to feel overstimulated, resulting in humping legs of furniture, objects, or people’s legs.
If your dog tends to seek attention, this may also be a way through which it attempts to grab your attention.
Response to Stress
If you notice that your dog is humping primarily inanimate objects, it may signify being stressed.
Sometimes, the cause can also be a lack of social interactions that does your puppy lonely or insufficient exercise, due to which they try to release the pent-up energy through mounting.
Due to Medical Issues
You need to check with your vet if your dog has any of the following conditions that may be causing it to excessively hump.
Depending on the frequency, you can determine what is expected and what could be an underlying issue.
Medical conditions like urinary tract infections, skin allergies, and frequent erections may be the cause of its humping.
Another sign of humping due to stress is licking or chewing its own body. If you see it happen a few times, it is safe to associate it with boredom.
However, if this becomes frequent, it is an urgent sign of an issue that needs medical intervention.
How to Stop a Dog from Humping?
Humping is not an activity to be looked upon as a taboo. Depending on its age and frequency of humping, you can train your puppy or dog to stop displaying such behavior eventually.
Turn a blind eye
When you notice it for the first few times, ignore it. Do not act immediately and try to correct its behavior. Instead, use this time to observe how frequently you catch your dog humping. This is to assess what action steps need to be taken to correct the behavior if it can be considered a problem.
Keep Track of the Environment
Take notice of your dog’s environment when you find it humping something. After a while, you may notice that a particular factor is repeating at each instance.
This may be the presence of a person/dog, the repetition of a kind of situation, etc. This will help you narrow down the cause for mounting.
Distract Your Pet
If you see it happen frequently, it may be a good idea to provide it a source of distraction to get it to stop humping.
While in the act, give your dog any other command. It can be to lie down, sit, etc. Playing with it is also a great alternative that is sure to get its mind off of mounting.
Keep Your Dog Stimulated
Your pet may be humping as a way to release its energy. To prevent this, you need to give it an alternate way to exhaust itself. Redesign your pet’s play area such that its chew toys and other interactive toys are placed all across the area to which it has access.
This will help keep it stimulated and too occupied to get to humping.
Arrange for Some Alone Time
Expressing disapproval in a manner that is understandable to your dog is necessary. If none of the above tips seem to work on your dog, take it away to a quiet room and leave it alone for no more than 5 minutes in a mostly empty room with no stimulants after sternly expressing disappointment through a single ‘no.’
Do not express any anger through your actions or words and after the timeout ends, generally behave with your pet.
Consider Neutering or Spaying
If you notice that the humping is sexually driven, you may consider altering it as an option to stop your dog from humping. Known as spaying for females and neutering for males, by removing their reproductive organs, experts claim that mounting caused by hormones can be minimized.
It is essential to keep in mind that doing so at a young age may lead to severe health issues in the long run. Until your puppies reach the stage that altering is safe, i.e., six months, it is advised to use other measures to dissuade them from mounting.
Provide Proper Training
The methods mentioned above are only temporary solutions for dealing with the problem. Training is the only way to make your dog habituated to stopping on command.
Behavior therapy or enrolling in an obedience training class are good options to avail professional attention and solve the problem permanently.
What to Do in Case of Excessive Humping?
Sometimes, the ways mentioned above might not work correctly, and you might notice your dog humping excessively. Hence, it’s your hint to take their actions seriously and prepare for the necessary stuff.
- If your dog is humping objects without any deductible reason, you need to immediately take it to a vet. There could be issues in its urinary tract that a vet can diagnose only after running tests.
- Stress could be the reason for unexplainable humping behavior. Pinpointing a specific factor that causes stress is complex. Seeking medical advice becomes necessary to diagnose anxiety-related disorders and provide medications to prevent the issue from progressing.
- If your dog is not backing down even after trying all these methods, you may need to seek the help of an animal behavior therapist.
You can learn the basics of how to stop a dog from humping through this article, but for complex cases, it is best to involve experts and curb the problem. Hope you get away with your dog humping here and there and save you from unnecessary troubles.
