# Humping at 12 weeks?



## gewaltiger Sturm (Jan 25, 2012)

Hello,
My 12 week old has started humping. Not people really but he will go through the motions. Like just now, I was tossing his toy and when he brings it back he would start the motions. Isnt he to young for this? I have seen this a couple times now.


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## gypsyrose (Nov 22, 2010)

Gypsy is a femail dog and she humped people she really liked one of our decroaters she really liked stil keeps her distance from Gypsy although she hasent humped any thing for ove a year now. when we play she still wrapes her front legs around me and trys to take the frisbee it kinda looks like humping but its something different she does.


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## Rua (Jan 2, 2012)

No he's not too young and it isn't always related to sex hormones. Sometimes it's a dominance thing. "ie: "I'll show YOU whose boss, toy! Take that!"

Our dog is a girl and she did that a bit with her toys from around 9 weeks to 13 weeks. (It kinda freaked me out the first time I saw her do it because I didn't even know that girl dogs could do that. LOL!) She hasn't done it in weeks now.

Don't worry. It's normal. I've since learned that a lot of puppies do it and then it often goes away on it's own.


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## shaner (Oct 17, 2010)

My 4 month old pup humps my other dog. I always correct him as I do not want that to continue as he gets older. I hope it goes away on its own. She always tries to buck him off, but sometimes he gets his paws locked right in and she can't get free. Strong little bugger


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## Castlemaid (Jun 29, 2006)

In small puppies like this, it can be excitement and play behaviour. Not always dominance, and not in a puppy that young! In dogs, puppy play is a rehearsal for adult behaviours. An 12 week old doing something does not have the same meaning as an adult dog doing the same thing. 

Not something to be concerned about, but definitely stop him and discourage him from doing it, otherwise it can become ingrained behaviour - you don't want him to be humping everytime he starts playing or gets excited.


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## Samba (Apr 23, 2001)

My puppy Sheltie was humping every toy in sight at 7 weeks old. It is puppy humping and not uncommon. They get excited. It may be a developmental thing.


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## vom Eisenherz (Feb 13, 2012)

Toy-related would make me guess it's probably just excitement and an outlet for it. 

With regard to comments that it's "too young" to be dominance, that is just not the case always. It is probably generally true, but there are lines where very early displays of dominance do occur. True, it's not sexual so much at that age, but while they may not have a conscious reason for doing it, it's stemming from a will to dominate, which some have more than others. 

I have a bitch whose puppies regularly start humping each other around 4 weeks, then humping me and biting me around 4.5-5 weeks. I will go in to feed them and have them all over my legs, all hanging on with both teeth and legs. Cute, at first. Then not so much, toward week 6. :laugh:

Hallix's puppy, Cierny, would hump and bite her brothers at 3 weeks. She was a holy terror.


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## Castlemaid (Jun 29, 2006)

I know pups will show dominance behaviour among themselves, over over a toy. I was trying to avoid labeling the pup in the OP's post as dominant. Too many people read too much into a puppy's behaviour, and once the label is applied, every thing the pup does is read as "dominant". In this case, as in most cases, it is just play.


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## Samba (Apr 23, 2001)

I don't know that we know puppy humping is a dominance thing all the time. It may have other developmental functions. It also is elicited reflexively by pressure on the genital area in pups. So it is a part of normal development.

Yes, Lucia, if it is related to dominance in a dog it is unfortunate the thinking that has come to be popular in many places as to what this means that talk of it also almost makes me cringe.


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## Clyde (Feb 13, 2011)

My guy did this occasionally when he was 8 weeks and for the next few weeks. It was just an excitement/play thing with him and I would just put his front end back on the floor and hold his chest there until he was less "excited". It never developed into anything else.


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## gewaltiger Sturm (Jan 25, 2012)

Thanks for all the replies. Im thinking its an excitment thing being that he only does it when he is , well, excited. He has a very high drive and normaly when I have seen this behavior is when he first comes out of his ex-pen and is having paly time. He does get corrected by puting him down and telling him no. Once he has calmed down play time startes again.


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