Recently, I received a question from a dog owner who was concerned that her neutered male was a dog park predator — hooked on humping. She wondered if there was any harm in letting him mount, and whether she should be discouraging the behavior.
Unlike most other mammals, neutered male and, to a lesser extent, neutered female dogs will continue to mount other dogs. Quite common and quite normal. In fact, neutered male dogs tend to mount more than intact males, presumably due to a lack of discriminatory experience.
Despite the fact that humping other dogs is a normal and natural doggy behavior, though, it is considered by many other dogs and people to be unwanted, annoying, and inappropriate. If your puppy-dog gets all perky in the park, I would suggest that you first ask the owner of the other dog whether it is OK for the dogs to play and maybe mount. Many owners object very strongly when their dogs are physically humped, especially when the humper has the ineffably rambunctious joie de hump of a Lab-cross.
Also, if your male dog is un-neutered and his prospective mountee is female, please make sure that she is either neutered or not in heat. (Humping is how unwanted puppies are made, after all.)
To prevent or stop your dog from mounting, simply instruct him or her to “Sit”. In fact, a simple sit will prevent most annoying or inappropriate behavior problems; a dog cannot sit and misbehave at the same time. If your dog sits promptly and reliably when requested, you can easily control his behavior. If your dog does not sit promptly and reliably when requested in the face of temptation or distraction, either practice a lot until he sits on command every time, or keep him on leash.
“Sit” as a solution is so beautifully simple, yet most people think it would be impossible and so they don’t even try. “How can you control a dog’s basic instinct with such a simple command?” Well, think about it. Controlling your dog’s instinctive desires is the point of all training. Furthermore, most people learn to control their no-less-powerful instincts and cravings, and to teach a dog to do so is actually much easier than teaching a young human, especially if training is integrated into the dog’s social encounters and play sessions.
If you frequently interrupt play to ask your dog to sit – “Rover, Sit. Good Dog. Go Play” –interaction with other dogs now becomes an extremely effective reward that reinforces training, rather than remaining a distraction to training. In our most recent DVD — SIRIUS® Adult Dog Training* — there is a section on controlling dogs during off-leash play. A small Poodle named Dolce is in the process of mounting another dog until requested to “Sit” by his owner. He sits immediately and is rewarded by being told, “Go Play.”
Even when other dogs’ owners are perfectly okay with your dog mounting their males, neutered females, or anoestrous females, be prepared for the other dog to object. Whereas it is normal and natural for male dogs to try to mount anything with a pulse and most things without, it is also perfectly normal and natural for other male dogs and neutered, anestrous, or even unwilling estrous females to strongly object to unwanted and overly amorous advances.
To avoid other dogs or dog owners from becoming upset, we don’t allow our three male dogs to mount other dogs in public places. When we are at home, mounting is okay so long as it is not disruptive – if mounting disturbs the peace, we simply tell them to knock it off.
In fact, as I wrote that last sentence, Dune was humping little Hugo. Kelly said, “No Dune, get off him,” and Dune dismounted.
* Available from www.jamesandkenneth.com
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