Bad behaviour - humping!

[PumpingRSI]

My parents have a dog they have rehomed and whilst he's lovely in many ways he humps, a lot. It's very bad for one of my smaller dogs who gets the worst of it, and parents dog is big and v strong / determined and I worried it will hurt him as he really grabs and holds onto my dog. It got really bad the other day when the dog did it to my v young daughter who was on the floor. My parents seem unwilling to tackle it, seek out a behaviourist or take action as he was an anxious dog and they don't want to upset him. But I'm at the point where I'm going to have to stop visiting for the safety of everyone. Does anyone have any advice on how to stop it?

I wouldn't really say humping is 'bad' behaviour and I certainly wouldn't punish any dog for it. I'd say it's more awkward behaviour. A lot of dogs hump out of dominance but in this case as you mention he's already quite an anxious dog, I'd say it's got something to do with that.

Of course you don't want the dog humping your child. That is completely understandable!

But it's all about distractions. The chances of the other dog getting hurt are slim. Yes it may happen, but dogs aren't stupid. They tend to know how rough they can be when playing with other dogs.

Next time big dog is humping little dog grab a toy or throw a ball to distract him. Praise him lots when he stops the humping!

Same if he's doing it to a human.

Punishing will just make him more anxious.

It isn't dominance at all.

In an anxious dog this is a displacement behaviour and stress outlet. Don't let him get to the point that he actually mounts the other dog.

If you know when he is likely to display this behaviour, distract him before hand. Either with a toy or ask for some cues that are incompatable with humping, like a sit or a down and reward him for it!

Agree it's nothing to do with dominance and I have often seen this in very stressed dogs, but they really do need to address it. Telling him off will certainly make it worse.
They need to watch him closely and interrupt before it starts.

A behaviourist would not 'upset' their dog, but at a guess would give them training ideas to build his confidence. It might be a good idea to keep him separate from visiting dogs and children until he settles as they are probably stressing him.

Do they know about the Institute of Modern Dog Trainers? They might be thinking that a "behaviourist" is going to be quite aggressive and use dominance type techniques to train the dog, which would indeed be inappropriate with an anxious dog. However, these techniques are considered outdated these days, and if they look for a behaviourist who belongs to the IMDT then they'll find trainers who use modern force-free techniques and basically are hired to help the owners, they don't do the training directly, they will give the advice and techniques to your parents so that they can use them and advise on ways which support the dog rather than frighten him.

On a Victoria Stilwell programme she said that if the dog was coming and humping your leg just make a distraction noise and move away , and repeat as necessary , can you adapt that to your circumstance . Agree it's not anything to do with dominance and we found with our dog he did it when he got excited , he improved by having him done , but he will still try it on if he's really wound up . I also disagree about it not hurting , it's bloody painful when my 13kg dog grips into my leg so I'm sure it would be very painful for a child .

Update: he wasn't anywhere near as bad and my smaller dog has started fighting back a bit. We are using distraction (doesn't really respond to sit) but shaking a tin can does stop him. Thanks for tips.