Humping!!!

shortstuff · Dec 12, 2014

A few weeks ago, out of the blue, Shasta started humping Bisou. ALL. THE. TIME. :ashamed: Every single time they play for more than a minute, Shasta humps Bisou (particularly her head) on at least one occurrence. Joel has owned Shasta for over five years and he says she's NEVER done this before. In fact, I've seen how aggressive she gets when another dog tries to hump Shasta. She absolutely hates it.

I don't know where she randomly picked up on it. They've had the same play style for the entire five months we've had Bisou, so this new humping thing is so bizarre to us! I know it's typically a form of dominance, but she only does it when they're playing and they don't seem to struggle with pack rank. We're both on board with stopping it, but nothing seems to work. We sternly say her name, we bop her butt, we separate them... no matter what, the next time they play and sometimes even just a few minutes later, she's doing it again. How do we stop her from doing this? Even if there's nothing "wrong" with it, it's not something we want our dogs doing. It went from one random time, to fairly often, to every single time they play... it's just getting worse!

Alice Kable · Dec 12, 2014

She is just trying to show him she is dominant. I hope she grows out of it or you are able to train her not to, but Ruggles, our EB is almost 8 and he still humps, not other dogs so much as people!

Jakeyjake · Dec 12, 2014

Awww yes the dreaded humping behavior. Jake humps Stella during playtime as well. Stella doesn't care a bit. We correct when we can but they play ALOT so it's not always possible.

shortstuff · Dec 13, 2014

That's the part that's so odd to me! For both of you, it's the male humping, which I'd be totally prepared for. It's the fact that they're both females that's confusing... or is that normal too?

Squishy Walnuts · Dec 13, 2014

Sometimes Wally will try to hump Uma and always gets yelled at from her for it. When they are playing Uma will jump on Wally to dominate him although it's not quite humping, she just holds him down. When Wally was younger and in the humping stage I told him no, dragged him off and distracted him with a toy or some other activity. I found distraction worked for Wally. He'll hump for a bit when they are playing but Uma doesn't put up with it for more than 2 seconds.

davidh · Dec 13, 2014

She is trying to be dominate, just keep telling her NO like you have and eventually she will stop.

2bullymama · Dec 14, 2014

shortstuff said:
That's the part that's so odd to me! For both of you, it's the male humping, which I'd be totally prepared for. It's the fact that they're both females that's confusing... or is that normal too?

agree with the others.... it is dominance behavior. Firm NO when they are trying to do this --- gender does not matter

shortstuff · Jan 14, 2015

I am happy to report that this behavior is gone! Shasta attempts to make a move every once in a while, but no sooner does she start closing in on "the stance," she stops herself and they go about their play business. Yay!

blushy · Jan 14, 2015

shortstuff said:
I am happy to report that this behavior is gone! Shasta attempts to make a move every once in a while, but no sooner does she start closing in on "the stance," she stops herself and they go about their play business. Yay!

Glad to hear! I'm sure it was more "annoying" than anything.

Maybe she feels like she got her point across haha!

Either way at least it's gone!

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