Dog won't stop humping my children

[MadCap]

Hi all. I have a 9 month old unnuetered male pup who we rescued about 4.5 months ago. He's quite a large boy. He is 25.5 kilos and 27 inches at the shoulder. He is properly in the throes of the stroppy teenage phase and most of his previously lovely behavior has gone out of the window.

We returned Saturday from a 3 week holiday. He stayed with inlaws and dh came back early to look after him. Since then, he seems obsessed with jumping on the dkids and humping them. He often mouths at them at same time. I obviously can't ignore the behaviour. Currently, I'm saying a stern no and distracting him, but I can't leave them alone in the same room. I'm having to crate him if I go to the toilet or make dinner.

Should I neuter him early (was planning on doing at a year old)? Any other suggestions? Thanks.

The children aren't toddlers either. They're 7 and 8 and also dog savvy. I kind of think it came about because they turned their backs to ignore him if he jumped up.

I feel your pain. My delightful 3yr oldnephew yells "no humpty dumpty" at mine when he starts. The phrase has stuck and now all the kids are telling the dog off for humpty dumpty - even when isn't humping anything! I can barely manage to intervene for laughing so much! Mostly I drag him off and make him sit. If he humpty dumpties me I stand and turn my back with a firm "no". Generally it takes a few turns of the back and "no"s until he gets the message.

Mine gets all humpty dumpty when he is tired or over excited. Perhaps this will calm a bit when kids go back to school and normal routine is re-established?

Hopefully. I think there is some excitement going on. I think he missed them tbh! Also some hormonal stuff going on. I swear he has his nose permanently wedged in my crotch too.

The onl problem is due to his size he knocks ds7 over which makes the bitey jumpy game all the more fun!

Could you try a filled kong for when you need to leave the room? Or you could teach a down and wait starting off with just a few seconds and building up to a few minutes.

I don't think you should be leaving them alone with the dog at those ages anyway, regardless of how good/bad the behaviour.

When ours gets over-excitable (he went through a humping phase a while ago too) we distract and get him to do something incompatible with humping - get him to sit and do some training with him (a new focus and should tire him out), take him outside and let him run around a bit on his own, or use chews. Ours has calmed down a LOT since we started giving him natural chews everyday - he has a mix of tripe, paddy whack, goats ears, pigs ears, stuffed bones/hooves and ducks/goose necks. He loves them, it focuses his energy on something tasty and they can keep him occupied for hours. And once he's finished he tends to fall asleep!

I know food can play a big part in poor behaviour - what are you feeding him?

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try his orbit kong and his snake. I also do try not to leave him alone too much with the kids.

He had some food issues and parasites (girardia sp?) that he came to us with. We think we've finally cracked it. He's on James Wellbeloved grain free puppy kibble with a pouch of grain free lamb and veg on top to make it more appealing. He was on raw but he was having constant runny poos and was super itchy.

I honestly believe he's just now starting to feel settled and behaving more puppy-like (with added teenage hormones). When he came to us he lacked confidence and really didn't know how to play with people, so it's nice to see him lively and acting more doggy. I just don't want him to accidentally hurt the dcs.

Use a water spray. Every time he humps he gets sprayed with water, every-time he looks like he is going to do it water spray. Worked on my dog and 'cured' it within three days. Although saying that he probably does it when I am at work

We planned to wait a year before we got our lab neutered but did it around 10 months for this exact same problem. My dn(34) still has a visible scar on her face just below her eye from when as a child an off lead dog tried to mount her and caught her face with his claw.

Don't leave the dog unsupervised with your dc or let it off lead outside anywhere it could meet any children.

Yeah we definitely don't let him off lead at the moment. Like all the other training we've done, recall has gone out the window too. I feel like we have to start all over again.

The water spray trick was effective in getting the cat to stop picking holes in our carpet!

Could you not have him neutered? That is usual nowadays unless you want to breed from him. Would solve the problem.

I had a rabbit and a cat, they were great friends and would play indoors for hours. The rabbit seemed to think he was a cat! Then one day he tried to mate with my cat! End of a lovely friendship.

The vet and trainer advised us to wait until he was a year, because of his size to make sure his joints/bones were fully formed. It seems to help with hip dysplasia and bone cancers from my research.

We would never breed from him. We can't actually as it was part of the contract with the rescue (who also advised waiting until a year for neutering).

That said if he doesn't stop we may have to.

I found that the jumping was more a dominance thing, not an actual belief they could have sex with DD. So very firmly it in place at any attempt, and done so immediately has stopped it. Only took a few days.

Humping even....

Oh well, it won't be too long until his a year old. Take your vet's advice. Cold water spray sounds like a good idea.

Be careful with the spray as it's technically negative reinforcement - jump up and a bad thing happens without them really understanding what they just did. And you'd have to be watching him the whole time for it to be consistent, he'd just learn to do it when your back is turned. Or it just becomes another game!

Does this help?
www.dogstrustdogschool.org.uk/behaviour/puppy-development-behaviour/jumping-up/

Have him neutered. There's no point waiting until he's 12 months.
Do not leave him with the Dc until you can absolutely trust him.
Be very firm with him when he tries to hump Dc i.e. Very firm No! Whilst pulling him away with collar.
Until you get to the point of watching him with Dc and I when you see him try to mount, call him away and give him small treat when he does come.
Hth.

Just a warning that neutering him may not stop the humping. My dog was neutered at 12 months old, he still humps me when he is excited, not quite as often, but the habit is still there at two years old.
Distraction is usually the best bet.

Have him neutered. There's no point waiting until he's 12 months.

I’m sorry, that’s simply not true.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/vms3.34

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4096726/#!po=0.746269

Couple of papers just from a quick search. For a large breed dog, waiting until full maturity for neutering is a completely sensible decision. Also, neutering may or may not have any impact on behaviour - the only thing it’s guaranteed to do is stop the dog reproducing.

OP, it’s just a training issue. Correct the behaviour when you see it (in a detached manner - don’t make the correction exciting) and reward him when he’s behaving in a way you want.

Also, train then cue an alternative behaviour if you can see he’s in the kind of mood he’s likely to start. And until you’ve nipped it in the bud, don’t leave the kids alone with him - not just because he might hurt them, but also because they can’t give the correct training responses yet. It’ll be a lot quicker if you just fix this now!

Love using the phrase ‘humpty dumpty’ 😅 I think I would try all the useful suggestions on here for deterring the behaviour and see if you can hold off the neutering until he’s 12 months.

Spraying a dog with water will not teach him the behaviour you want, it just teaches him that if he humps he gets a face full of water. Much better, and kinder, to get him to stop and then reward him for stopping.

Positive reinforcement is much easier for him to understand and much more effective in getting the behaviour you want from him.