Neutered dog (8 months) humping

[stillchasingdereksheppard]

Hi,

Just looking for advice / experience of others as have no experienced this before.
Rescue dog has been here about 2 months now. He's approx 8 months old.
He was neutered (by the rescue place before adoption) just before he came to us so around six months.
He's settled in well and is amazing generally. We've had almost no issues with him. He's smart and food motivated so he's been a dream to train.
He can be a bit jealous of other people getting my attention but he gets kicked off the sofa if he starts or crated and he stops immediately and doesn't carry on.
This morning he humped my legs?! I was watching kids on trampoline and he was wanting my attention I think.
Told him 'off' and he did as he was told and didn't try again
He's just come in from the garden (back doors open) with his, erm, lipstick? Out!
Ignored him and he just sat there and eventually went away and then chewed on his toy and was normal.
Is this a thing? Presumed that as he was neutered so young and presumed before puberty this wouldn't be a thing?
Should I expect this behaviour?
Obviously I will not tolerate it at all and nip it in the bud. He already knows 'off' as he went through a stage of guarding his toys on the sofa but we're long past that but he knows what it means.

What else if anything so I need to be doing?

He's well exercised. 2-3 walks a day. Generally 20 mins morning and evening and a longer middle of day one but depends what we're up to.
Sometimes one long one and a trip into town or whatever. He also has puzzles etc to keep busy.

Not an expert but it seems quite normal to me. My male rescue was neutered at 9 months. It didn't stop him mating (3 times!) with my female rescue when she was in season months later. It was during lockdown, so her spay had been delayed.

More knowledgeable dog ppl will be around soon but if my memories of my childhood lab are accurate, neutering doesn't reduce the humping, just the deposits 🤢

Interesting!

No other dogs to mate with here so that's one positive!

Obviously is feeling frisky atm!

My NDN have a lot of dogs! No idea if any are female and if they're spay or not if so. Maybe one of them is in season and he can smell?

Is a dominance thing not sexual
and they may have excess energy they need to get out

Perfectly normal! Dogs hump for all sorts of reasons - they're excited generally (not necessarily sexually), they're overstimulated or overwhelmed, it feels nice...etc. Neutering doesn't stop them doing it, just means they can't make puppies.

100% normal. They do it for a variety of reasons - from anything from over-stimulation and bordem. Bitches do it as well.

Mine do it less when they're well-exercised and well-stimulated. 20 minutes twice a day with a longer walk in the middle doesn't seem very long...unless you have something like a Frenchie? If you really want to knock it on the head, you might want to up your dogs exercise or stimulation - but it probably won't do anything. Dogs will be dogs.

The longer one in the middle is approx 1.5hrs and around 2-3 miles and playing ball in a field. All off lead. He is mixed breed of nothing in particular but he's about the size of a jack russle ( he's not a JR just size wise)

Would be surprised if he needs more exercise than that at 8 months old?

He's knackered after that?

We also have a big garden and the kids are forever playing fetch with him out there etc. Usually him that stops and lays down.

Gosh, I hadn't realised by longer that it was that long! I thought you meant like 30 minutes, not 90!

That's 100% overdoing it so almost certainly your dogs issue is overstimulation. Have you taught him to settle at all? Or to be calm? On command I mean, not just him exhausting himself or stoping play?

Yes we have taught 'settle' it was introduced a couple of weeks ago at puppy class. Success with it varies to be honest.
Around the house he's generally calm (apart from normal puppy zoomies and normal puppy play). We have been trying settle for example at a pub or cafe whilst we're having a coffee etc.

He generally wants to sniff and look for scraps so have been practicing settle. He does it for a while (5 mins?) Then wants to go again. We are just rewarding when he is doing it etc and hoping gradually he will extend the time.

We have a blanket we take and that's his 'settle' place. Will usually take him a chew treat or Kong and when he lies down will give it to him.

At home he has his blanket on the sofa and his bed in whatever room we're in and he does generally sleep or mooch unless he wants to play.

All round he's pretty good really hence being shocked he random now wants to hump me today.

I'm going to speak to next door over the fence if they're out in the garden today and ask if any of the dogs are female and if they're in season.

Honestly, humping is just one of those things dogs do - it's nothing to be shocked by. Just distract him when he does it and redirect his stimuli. He'll settle down in time., he's still very young.

My 20 month old was adopted at 4 months and described as "a humper" by the kennel manager. He wasn't wrong! He was neutered 2 months ago and actually, I think it has decreased a lot.

Like @SirChenjins said, we distract if in company, but otherwise we just ignore. He's not humped our legs though, just soft dog beds or large cuddly toys.

Humping is rarely if ever sexually driven.

Puppies tend to bite and mouth when they are tired overstimulated and over threshold. Once they have all their teeth this behaviour often changes from biting and mouthing to humping.

It usually occurs for the same reason so over tired, over stimulated etc.

So stop ball throwing, remove items they can hump eg cushions and toys. They often hump at similar times of day early evening etc so preempt this by giving a natural chew or a calming activity.