Why all the humping?!

[ChickensHaveNoEyebrows]

Jas was neutered at 6 months. He's now 22 months. Just recently, he has got a bit humpy with one of his doggy mates (gets the wrong end, though) and just now he tried to hump the puppy with hilarious results (The puppy is barely 6 inches high, so in fact he was just thrusting across the carpet in a tribute to 'The Full Monty'). Is this linked to anxiety? He always looks vaguely unsure before the humping. For example, he adores his doggy mate, goes bonkers with joy when he sees him...and then seems to not know how to interact, panics, and humps his face. Luckily, doggy mate is bombproof and merely huffs a bit as I drag a confused spaniel off his head. Just now, with the puppy, he was laying in his bed and the pup was running up and barking at him, play bowing, and generally trying to get him to play. Jas leapt up, play bowed, and then did his air thrusting over the puppy's head. The puppy hid behind my legs. It took Jas several minutes to notice.

I've always thought it was a 'I'm the boss' thing. MuttDog is really submissive, but there is one dog she sees that she always humps - and almost always his head! This dog isn't part of her 'pack' friends, just an occasional interloper and I think Mutt enjoys not being at the bottom of the chain for once.

Friends dog always humps when he's overexcited. When he's in a 'mad dog' mood. He doesn't care what it is he humps either - my rucksack seems to get a lot of attention, and my bosses coat does when she's trying to get it on to go for a walk.

Maybe Jas is just trying to put the pup in his place?

Hmmmm. I am having similar issues with my cocker spaniel. He is 18 months and literally in the last 2 days has just started to cock his leg rather than squat. Along with this has come random humping of other dogs (male and female), stealing DSs toys and his recall is suddenly rubbish. Is he just becoming a teenager or what?

Count yourself lucky chickens, I have a humping 8 week old puppy
DH is scandalised while I am convinced that at 8 weeks it is not a sex thing, rather more likely connected to him trying to assert his very tiny place in his new family

Humping means all sorts of things and only very very rarely dominance. There is no such thing as a dominant dog.

My bitch tries to hump the children when they're all over excited.

My bitch tries to hump next door's neutered spaniel and recently our pet lamb.... Been wondering what that's all about.

My bitch tries to hump my friends dog in that instance it's dominance. With my boy he humps his blanket and with him its like a security thing, gives him a bit of a release as he is a real stresspot. I have a friend with a little poodle and she humps her leg when she gets excited!

So it varies as to what the humping means :)

Like I said, very very rarely dominance. Excitement, over stimulation, habit, bad manners, hormones, because it feels good, stress release, under socialisation, removed from mum and litter mates too soon, yes, but dominance, very, very rarely.

Jas is not a dominant dog at all. He's under socialised, though, and I dread to think what his start in life was like. Oh well, we shall keep on keeping on.

Humping is never ever ever dominance or trying to assert themselves in the family ever.

Look at why and when your dog humps.

If when greeting dogs, your dog needs to learn how to greet correctly, the dogs usually have socialisation issues or can be fearful and over compensate. Teach the dog correct greeting techniques.

Humping could be just cos it feels nice eg puppies humping toys or cushions, use distraction training to prevent this

Humping children is usually when the environment is very exciting and the dog is over excited - gently distract the dog and remove to a calmer situation.

Mine has a fetish for Labs and golden retrievers. All other dogs can be played with happily with lots of running and the occasional rough and tumble. Labs and GR's require immediate and very earnest humping of whatever body part he can manage, quite often without even a "how do you do" sniff first.

Anyone know why this is?