Need help to stop dog humping!

[kid]

I don't know at what age it stops being play but T is a year old and today we met up with his mum and some sisters. He took a real fancy to one of them and was constantly trying to hump her. It definitely didn't look like play

What should i do in these circumstances?
Today, we grabbed his collar and let the rest of the pups carry on playing. After a couple of minutes we let T go again but instantly he was on her yet again. I put him on his lead for a bit longer but again he went after her the second he was let off!

I'm worried that he will now continue to do this when he is off lead.

Neutering is not an option I'm afraid but I'm happy to put in the effort of training. I just need to know what to do. I know neutering would not guarantee to stop the humping anyway, but I just couldn't get him neutered.

Why not? Are you planning to breed the dog?

No I'm not planning to breed from him. The reason is because my previous puppy died last year at 7 months old during a neutering operation
Also, there is no guarantee that having the op would stop the humping.

I understand your reasons for not wanting to neuter and you are right that neutering will not necessarily help or stop this anyway. Without wanting to sound insensitive though, I do think you need to be aware that your dog could need a GA for all sorts of reasons and the risks of a GA to a healthy dog really are very small. My girls have all had GA's for their hip/ebow scoring and I really wouldn't think twice about it and that's not even a medically necessary procedure.

If it is just one bitch he was interested in, it might be possible that she was just coming into season and that he ill not try it with other bitches/dogs.

If he does do it continue, I would teach him a very strong recall, preceeded in the case of humping with firm 'no' and a noise like clapping your hands if needed to distract him before recalling him. Once he has recalled, give him a treat and let him go off again, or keep him distracted with a ball or something likes. If he persists with the humping, put his lead back on every time he does it and keep him on it for a 'time out' so he learns that any humping mean the end of the play session.

Lots of general training t make sure e pays you his full attention an lstens whn you ask him to do things will help no end.

I'm not expert, but seem to recall one of those dog training programmes covered this - 'Its me or the dog'? and the trainer used some kind of noise distraction whenever the dog did this - although I think she may have recommended castration too, although I can see from your post why you might be reluctant to consider this again.

Thank you Midori
even after all this time, I still have not come to terms with mobys death, I still miss him and cry for him.

There was a chance recently that teddy needed GA to have excess skin around his mouth removed. Just the thought terrified me tbh and I have no idea what I would have done if he'd needed it. Turns out he doesn't as long as I keep skin folds clean to prevent reoccuring infections.

It's so hard because moby appeared to be a healthy dog yet he still died. I know the risk of it happening to ted is very low, but the risk of it happening to moby was just as low. I'm just going to avoid a GA for as long as I can. I have just started to feel comfortable enough to take ted to the vet by myself.

It was just one bitch he was interested in. I did wonder about her being in season but I've only ever owned male dogs so have no idea.

Your advice sounds great, we'll get working on it right away.

Thanks beamur
We have a dog whistle that we have yet to use. Perhaps it's time we introduced him to that.

I did enquire at my vets about the injections but he never did reply to my enquiries and up until yesterday, I had no need to chase it up.

Out of interest, can you tell me how often your dog needs the injections and how much they cost?

As already mentioned here, the dog in question may have been coming into season but even so, I'd like to be able to control my dog offlead around dogs in season. He wasn't totally out of control yesterday but it was extremely hard to catch his attention. He even tried to mount her in the lake!

I'm not entirely sure chemical castration is a long term solution. From what I remember, it only lasts for up to 6 weeks and it does also have a mild sedative effect according to my vet. There is an implant, this is newer and I can't remember how long it will last.

IME, most dogs will occasionally hump others in play, it's pretty normal and standard dog behaviour. Dogs don't usually seem bothered by it, only the owners.

Good training however, will work. My (male) dog will recall from my girls if they are in season and knows how he is expected to behave around them, although obviously is nevr left unsupervised. Heck, even the stud dogs I know, who know that when in season bitches turn up that they have a 'job' to do, will recall from in season bitches that are there to be mated.