Non-stop humping

[Chris Smith]

At the dog park that I frequently take Nalu to, there is a dog there that spends his entire time at the park humping every dog. From the minute he arrives until he leaves, he does nothing but mount dogs and hump them. The owner does nothing to stop this behavior. They are often there for an hour. The humper goes from dog to dog and usually keeps going until either the dog or the owner of the dog being humped does something to stop it.

Why would a dog do this and is there a "polite" and safe way to get the dog to stop? (or at least to get him off of my dog)

[Melissa Brunoehler]

Hi Chris~

I would stay away from this particular dog while at the park or better yet leave & come back after he's gone. It sounds like this behavior has turned into something automatic for this dog sort of like a bad bullying habit. It is possible for you to read this dogs body language before he mounts & intervene before he does so. However not knowing the dog I would say it's safest to avoid the park while he's there. You could also try talking to his owner. Mounting isn't the safest behavior for a dog to exhibit. He could mount a dog one day gets rather upset....

At the dog park that I frequently take Nalu to, there is a dog there that spends his entire time at the park humping every dog. From the minute he arrives until he leaves, he does nothing but mount dogs and hump them. The owner does nothing to stop this behavior. They are often there for an hour. The humper goes from dog to dog and usually keeps going until either the dog or the owner of the dog being humped does something to stop it.

Why would a dog do this and is there a "polite" and safe way to get the dog to stop? (or at least to get him off of my dog)

[Renee Premaza]

Hi Chris,

I found this article and thought you and others might be interested in seeing the many and various reasons dogs hump each other and other things:

http://www.vetinfo.com/dhump.html

You might want to show this to the owner of the dog who is doing all that humping. It almost sounds like this dog has developed an obsessive behavior, but it certainly could be hormonal.


At the dog park that I frequently take Nalu to, there is a dog there that spends his entire time at the park humping every dog. From the minute he arrives until he leaves, he does nothing but mount dogs and hump them. The owner does nothing to stop this behavior. They are often there for an hour. The humper goes from dog to dog and usually keeps going until either the dog or the owner of the dog being humped does something to stop it.

Why would a dog do this and is there a "polite" and safe way to get the dog to stop? (or at least to get him off of my dog)

[Susan Schue]

Because it starts fights, if your dog won't stop you are supposed to take it out. Bonzo ocassionally does for dominant reasons, and with girls cause he just can't accept that he can't do that anymore. :shock:

He usually stops soon as I tell him (or the other dog tells him), and if he doesn't we leave, we haven't had to leave in a long time now. :D

I can't believe this has been going on regularly and no one has talked to this guy, maybe we just have more busy body types who love to take it upon themselves to remind others of the rules as well as how to train their dogs, and volunteers, who will just scream "NO HUMPING" from across the park. This guy would have been banned long ago where we go.

[Andre Mendizabal]

I think the best thing to do is to keep Nalu away from him... well, that's the second best... the really best thing is try to talk with the owner and recommend very politely ways to stop this behavior on his dog... but as we all know from each other's experience, this is the one thing that may not be possible to do!!! So just keep Nalu away from him.
I know that humping its not really a sexual thing (specially for neutered dogs) but a behavior issue, it has to do with dominance, it might also be his way of "playing", but I bet he just got used to it and now its part of him...
Good luck with the humper!!!! :-D

[Daniela Jantzen]

Why would a dog do this and is there a "polite" and safe way to get the dog to stop? (or at least to get him off of my dog)
If the dog is displaying this behaviour the whole time while it is at the dog park, no matter what dog it encounters, it is probably completely stressed out and is using humping as a stress relieve and redirected behaviour - because it has not learned how to handle such situations properly.
Keep Nalu away from it. If it approaches, block its way. If he is already humping Nalu, walk up to them and gently shove him off, then block its way towards Nalu.
Try to explain to the owner the facts given in the link Renee posted and suggest he might want to redirect the dogs attention to more appropriate behaviours or only introduce the dog to one new and well socialized dog for no more than 10 minutes - and then leave again. Things can turn pretty nasty if that dog approaches the wrong dog like a humping addict!

Danny

[Chris Smith]

It certainly seemed like inappropriate behavior and the dog seems pretty stressed out the whole time. I am just so surprised the owner never calls off her dog. It is always the other owners or mostly the dogs being humped that get it to stop. But as soon as one dog growls at him to stop, he just moves over to the next dog and mounts them.

I definitely plan to keep Nalu away from this. Fortunately, they don't come to the park too often but it may also be why the dog does not know how to behave properly.