Adult DDog has started biting feet

[AvocadosBeforeMortgages]

Adult DDog, about 2 years old, neutered. More issues than Vogue, for context, and an all-round work in progress.

Since the hot weather started he has taken to
a) biting my feet and then running zoomies around me - not hard, very playful in nature, no injuries or pain caused but I don't want it to become a habit
b) humping my leg (front legs clamped around mine, mild rear end action)
... however it has been much cooler for the last 3 days or so, and the behaviours persist.

Both - but particularly the leg humping - appear to be related to over excitement / over stimulation (e.g. me having human food in the park, DDog just having been for a swim). Almost exclusively happens on walks (where there's more excitement). Both are new behaviours.

Ignoring / turning around isn't working - my feet are still there for biting (!) as is my leg. An off command will work to a certain extent with the leg humping, but for the foot biting zoomies he's wayyyy too into it for that to matter.

It's the sort of behaviour I'd expect from a puppy or teenager, but he's too old for this shit TBH. If he starts biting other people's feet we're going to have trouble as I don't think strangers in the park are going to take kindly to it.

Has anyone got any insights / thoughts?

Acocados BiteyDog is 2 in just over 2 months and he still has his moments and yes worse when overstimulated.

I can now say 'no' and he gets that he needs to calm down but if he doesn't do that on his own it's a quick timeout behind a baby gate. He knows if he's zooming about we put stop to it before anyone gets hurt.

If it's happening on walks I would do a similar thing to home so back on lead and just get him to calm down before letting him play again.

I think it's definitely a combination of youth and overstimulation which brings out that puppy zoomie time again.

but he's too old for this shit TBH This was the exact age my boy turned into a monster. Was a very testing time. But grew out of it just as quick.

If its over stimulation that is causing it, then try to pre-empt this. After swimming, can you get him to focus on a game of fetch to distract him from biting the feet.
Or maybe you need to have him on a long line for a bit, leave it trailing on the ground so he can still run around but when he starts the biting/zoomies, you can grab the lead, get him to sit/lay etc and calm down.

The parks in London must be very busy at the moment so very stimulating I imagine. Isn't humping a displacement behaviour like digging and barking....sounds like he is quite stressed. Perhaps cut his walks down a bit, go early or late evening when there are less people about and more chewing toys at home and see if his behaviour improves. Coco dog bolts off very fast in a big circle when she is stressed , it has taken me months to work out the things that trigger it, chiefly too much going on and not enough rest.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has had problems at this stage. I thought as we were through the "teenage" stage and he'd become a bit more sensible we would be past this 😬 Unfortunately going on the lead results in a game of lead tug of war - last time we had a spate of that he had to have a chain lead for a while, so I'm keen not to go down that path again!

I think, however that @thegirls might be onto something - we had a lovely walk yesterday when it was noticeably cooler so there were no picnickers etc. out in the evening. As if by magic, there were zoomies with no foot biting and no humping either.

Unfortunately, when the weather is really warm, the picnickers are all still sat outside when it gets dark at 10pm, so they're unavoidable... the summer solstice was a particular nightmare as the park was filled with people who looked like they hadn't showered since the last solstice playing the bongo drums and guitars, badly, and holding pagan services under trees - it turns out dogs aren't welcome in pagan services(!) Unfortunately the mornings are tricky as I work, and PestDog's behaviour goes rapidly downhill if he doesn't get excessive quantities of exercise - in particular his reactivity becomes much harder to manage 😬. Perhaps I need to find some less fashionable parks and pray to the Gods for cooler weather and a legal ban on picnics