# Male dogs and humping



## sprzybyl (May 15, 2008)

I am looking at eventually getting a male dog as a second dog because I already own a female. I have never had a male dog before, and my husband has always had more than one dog and they were always female. He doesn't see why we "have" to get a male. I tried to explain that two females can be trouble, but I guess because he has always had more easy going type dogs- golden retrievers and daushounds the two-female thing works? (or he got lucky)

Anyway, thanksgiving weekend was very busy travelling for us- as such Riley met a bunch of dogs (6 total!). For whatever reason, every male dog we met was humping both her and others like crazy. It was terrible. Riley corrected one in particular and then he started trying to hump everybody, especially my husband and me. We found a way to correct him, but he would just move on from us to someone else and come back half an hour later and try again. Since neither of us have experiences with male dogs, we've never dealt with this before. The owner was apologetic, but we eventually left due to it (i realize that females can hump too, but we've never dealt with that either). This is so bad it is almost a no-go with us getting a male dog (especially since my husband doesn't see why we "should")

My question- if you have a dog that humps a lot can you "correct" this behavior out of them? (say as a puppy like you would biting or jumping?) I don't particularly understand this behavior (i somewhat realize it is a dominance thing?) so any information would be helpful.


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

I have a 9 month old male who will remain intact for some time. I also have two spayed females. He has started to mount them and I correct him with a verbal " Karlo, off", he complies immediately. 
I think eventually he'll get the message and it doesn't happen often. Just now outside, he was trying to mount Kacie and she did not correct him, so I stepped in.
Onyx will correct him, though.
With what happened w/Riley, the dogs were probably not corrected for doing it w/ others(by their own owners) so thought it was acceptable behavior. 
I would get a male vs another female, in your situation, you can train him not to do it. 
The other males I had in the past didn't do it, but they were neutered...


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## sprzybyl (May 15, 2008)

is this a strictly "in tact" dog problem? I think two of the four male dogs were intact. (one was less than a year old)


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## JakodaCD OA (May 14, 2000)

I'm with Jane's post above. I have always had alot of male dogs around, intact and neutered, and the only one that even tried humping the others was a young male aussie I brought in,,I corrected him once and he never did it again.

One male I had who was intact until almost 3 years old, never humped anything, it depends on the dog/depends on the owner.

Humping is also not always about sex, it's most always about "i am the big cheese here, and I'm going to show you that" )

I wouldn't stray from getting a male either,,,


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## Elaine (Sep 10, 2006)

I've always owned only males and never had a problem with humping, intact or neutered. I have brought in fosters that did and have found, for the most part, that it is just bad manners and easily stopped by consistently correcting them.


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## Dainerra (Nov 14, 2003)

I do think a lot of it can be a "manners" thing. Rayden never humped anything, except when he was intact and the neighbor across the road had 3!! females in heat. Then, he would grab his doggie bed and give it a couple of humps, probably from frustration. He would always stop when you just said "ahhh"

I've met many other dogs, male AND female, intact and fixed, that can't go 5 minutes without wanting to hump something or someone. most of them have a lot of other bad manners as well and aren't expected to have any.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

I agree that it's a training issue. Keefer is my first male, and it used to crack us up when he was a tiny puppy and Dena would be laying on the floor minding her own business and he'd jump on her back and start going at it. But I didn't want to encourage it, so we'd tell him "off" if she didn't immediately stand up and dump him off herself. Off is our all purpose command to get off whatever they're on, including the furniture, jumping on a person, or putting their paws up on a table or counter. 

Now he and Halo will both occasionally hump each other in play, but it's always brief and they stop before I have to tell them too. Since neither of them seem to mind it doesn't bother me. The exception to brief mutual humping was when Halo was in heat (Keefer is neutered, but hey, a boy can try!), and he was humping her constantly. None of my dogs have ever humped other dogs or people or objects, which I would not allow, and if other dogs try to hump them (which they don't like) I'll put a stop to it. 

It was perfectly appropriate for Riley to correct the dog for his rude behavior. My dogs are somewhat tolerant of dominance displays by other dogs, but they do reach a point where they'll tell the other dog off, so I try to not let it get to that point because it can easily escalate into a fight. I don't think you'll have a problem with humping if you stay on top of the situation and I totally agree that a male/female combo is a much better idea than two females.


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## elisabeth_00117 (May 17, 2009)

Stark is my first male dog and has tried to hump his pillow once or twice, with a correction of "Stark ah ah" he has stopped. He is almost 8 months old and still intact (and will be for some time) and has not done this in months.

I would have to agree that it is a training issue as well.


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## Riley's Mom (Jun 7, 2007)

As I understand it, it's a dominance ritual. Humans relate it to a sex thing, and find it unacceptable but it's not to dogs. This is normal pack behavior to determine the pecking order. You of course do NOT want your dog humping you or other people because it's a dominance thing. Just like you don't want your dog pee-ing on you or other people for the same reason.

My neutered male still does it sometimes to my spayed female but not often anymore. I calmly verbally stop him "Riley NO" - he doesn't need to show her who's boss since it's not him but me, LOL! It's also my understanding that intact males will do this more often than neutered males and I'd have to say in my case this is true. Riley's humping activity level dropped considerably about 6mos after neutering which is the time frame the vet gave me. It takes about 6mos on average for all the testosterone to work it's way out of their system.


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## KohleePiper (Jun 13, 2007)

Diesel was neutered at 10.5 months.....only humped once before that and never since he's been neutered. In fact, he doesn't even lift his leg yet to pee!

My female though, humps Diesel occasionally!


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## Deux (Aug 16, 2009)

As for the other new dog, all I have to say is when Females do fight, they go to the death. I am not talking scuffle or fuss but if they do fight...... even if you break it up ( and that can be life threatening for you ) one of them will want keep the fight up. One will wait, abide her time and at the first sign of weakness out of the blue....... the fight to the death will be back on.

GSD's are not like other large breeds. Unless you are real real good with GSD's and experianced at handling them, get a boy. Male female is a great combo. And throw your collars away if you get two GSD'S! Only collar them for walks. Once you see them play, you will know why I say take the collars off!

There was a post here about one dog dying from a collar mix up with another GSD at a puppy class of all places!


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## SouthernThistle (Nov 16, 2005)

> Originally Posted By: sprzybylis this a strictly "in tact" dog problem? I think two of the four male dogs were intact. (one was less than a year old)


Nope. Grimm is almost 11 months now and hasn't humped any dog (or any human leg, for that matter), and he is 100% intact. 

A friend of ours has a neutered Retriever who humps a stuffed animal...but not other dogs.


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## DanL (Jun 30, 2005)

My male is intact and almost 5 yrs old and has never tried to hump anyone. He's the dominant dog in the house and he doesn't have to go around asserting himself as the dominant one. It seems like the lower rank dogs are the ones who try to hump. He's calm and gives the other 2 dogs in our house a lot of latitude when they are trying to play with him, but if they overstep their bounds or he's tired of them he'll let them know and they back down. 

Dogs that hump? 2 spayed females, our old dog Midnite would try to hump other dogs, and our Dane Daisy did it for a couple months and then stopped.


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## lovemybuddy (Oct 26, 2009)

Please don't stay away from male dogs! I really thought I wanted a femal gsd, but our Buddy is an answer to my prayers. He's such a joy. Even though I agree with some of the previous posters when they say that humping is a dominance thing, that's not always the reason for humping. Some dogs hump just because they're excited, not because they think they're dominant over you. Buddy is 7 months old and will start humping when he gets excited. (He's intact, will be neutered once he is over a year old.) We immediately correct, tell him no, and praise him when he's back on all four paws. And I just recently started to train him using the clicker, and that works so well. If he starts to hump, I tell him no, then click the second all 4 paws are back on the ground. The clicker really teaches the dogs quickly what is and isn't acceptable. 

I think as long as the owner is correcting the behavior immediately, it will disappear. I'll let you know what happens with our Buddy.


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## sprzybyl (May 15, 2008)

thanks all for all the good stories. I was away from the internet and am glad to come back to lots of responses!!! It is interesting to see this whole world of behavior I never had to deal with before. Thanks for the information!!


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## sprzybyl (May 15, 2008)

I will say that upon reflection we are still 99% getting a male dog. These bad experiences with a few male dogs strung so closely together really made us double think our choice. Not a bad thing though. As annoying as it was, I'm glad to have experienced it because it makes me aware of things I wasn't necessarily aware of before. 

I have another question regarding marking and male dogs. I also realize that females can mark, but I have only had a friend or two that had dogs that were male and would mark in the house. The solution was eventually for them to just take their dog home when it wouldn't stop. I suppose this is also a "correctable" thing... consistent watching and correction, and consistency in your leadership behavior in the pack must be important, as it is with social behavior (and socializing in general). 

It's true... the other dogs I think about that were out of control humping or marking have other bad manners. While I would never question whether or not those owners love their dogs to death, they coud use a few pointers in the training dept. (I try not to be judgemental, but I also do not think I need to subject Riley to their dogs' bad behaviors!)


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## Elaine (Sep 10, 2006)

I'm not sure what your new question is, but I can't even imagine one of my dogs marking in my house or anyone else's house. Who are these people that you hang out with that let their dogs hump and mark as they will? Good grief! These are only dogs that have extremely bad manners that do that sort of thing; raise them right and they don't do that.


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## JeanKBBMMMAAN (May 11, 2005)

What breed were the dogs you met that were pottying all over? There are breeds who do have difficulties in truly being housebroken - the Pomeranian comes to mind as one. 

I have male dogs and have had male fosters and no marking. I have never been able to do corrections with housetraining because I am not fast enough, so it has had to have been positives, including using bells. 

HOWEVER, when Kramer was young we went to visit a co-worker of mine. They had two Lhasas. Unbeknownst (is that a word?) to them, the dogs had peed in the house when the people weren't home. Kramer walked around the house like Columbo, looking and checking everything, peeing teeny bits of pee over their pee. I would take him out, take him back in, and he'd go back at it-like 3 different spots. We were all "EEEEEEEK" and maybe "UTIIIIIII!" until the husband got a black light out...and saw all the teeny, itty bitty pee spots that their dogs had done. They gave Kramer treats and thanked him for his service and called in a carpet cleaning service. I always watch my dogs carefully on home checks though because of this. 

So sometimes marking can be for a reason that no one is aware of. But he never did that anywhere else. And if I did have a dog that did that and couldn't fix the problem (???) I would keep them on a lead or in a crate at someone's house.


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## sprzybyl (May 15, 2008)

the two dogs I am thinking of were a vizla and a dutch shepherd. the dutchie was young (8 months) and the other is my sister's dog... he was a bit stubborn.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

I've never had a dog that marked, either in our house or anywhere else indoors that we've taken them. Keefer still sometimes squats to pee (he's 4 years old), mostly at home, but he will lift his leg and pee on bushes at the park. I don't allow him to mark on leash walks, but when he's off leash I don't care. He has stopped to pee a few times on long walks (3-1/2 to 5 miles), but he'll just stop walking and squat. Marking behavior doesn't seem to really be about needing to go, it's for spreading the scent around.


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## ShatteringGlass (Jun 1, 2006)

Marking in the house means the owner's didnt do a thorough job in making sure they're dog understands, that ALL pottying must be done outdoors!!

Sydney is a VERY dominant female, she marks outside all the time, and she WILL try to balance herself by lifting her leg so she can pee higher than where some other male dog marked on a tree.

Shane is 8 months and is intact. He marks outside, NEVER in the house or indoors.


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## Francine (Feb 20, 2009)

My male has been neutered since he was 4 months old he is now 10 months old and still will hump my female and my male mastiff. I am constantly correcting he stops but keeps trying? I though neutering would solve the problem


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## NancyJ (Jun 15, 2003)

I have had many males over the year both intact and neutered and corrected it the first time they tried it and that was it. With other dogs I also think it is a dominance thing which is usually proceeded by other posturing (head over shoulder etc) that I stop if it happens.


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## Freestep (May 1, 2011)

SouthernThistle said:


> Nope. Grimm is almost 11 months now and hasn't humped any dog (or any human leg, for that matter), and he is 100% intact.


As opposed to, say, 75% intact? 

Sorry, just had to poke a little fun there.  I have a male dog that was neutered at 2 years of age. He's about 6 now, and as long as I've had him, he's never tried to hump anything. The worst humper I ever know was a female toy poodle. Go figure.


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## Draugr (Jul 8, 2011)

I think marking in the house is a housebreaking issue. Mine only ever tried to do that once, when a very foreign smell was in the house that he hadn't encountered before. He was corrected and he's never tried it again. He did in a friends house too, now that I think about it, but it was on a spot that had been previously marked on by another male dog, and mine had a UTI to boot - once it was cleaned up by an enzymatic cleaner (it hadn't been cleaned yet) everything was okay.

I'm not sure how you would deal with a dog who was more adamant about it, though. I haven't ever had to deal with that but then again I've only really ever been around two dogs extensively that stayed for any length of time in my own home (one of them being my dog, heh).

As far as humping...never seen my dog try it. The only two dogs I've ever seen that did it a LOT were two neutered males, and neither of them humped until after they were neutered (to be fair though, one was done at 11 months and the other at 15 months and there is a lot of development, physical and mental, going on there, so it might be 100% unrelated). Since that time the one done at 15 months has mostly stopped the behavior on his own, the one that was done at 11 months still does it a lot.

If your dog knows the "off" command use that, then treat. You kept him from doing something he enjoys (marking/humping) so you need to replace that with something else he enjoys.


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## lar07 (Dec 10, 2007)

Riley's Mom said:


> As I understand it, it's a dominance ritual. Humans relate it to a sex thing, and find it unacceptable but it's not to dogs. This is normal pack behavior to determine the pecking order. You of course do NOT want your dog humping you or other people because it's a dominance thing. Just like you don't want your dog pee-ing on you or other people for the same reason.
> 
> My neutered male still does it sometimes to my spayed female but not often anymore. I calmly verbally stop him "Riley NO" - he doesn't need to show her who's boss since it's not him but me, LOL! It's also my understanding that intact males will do this more often than neutered males and I'd have to say in my case this is true. Riley's humping activity level dropped considerably about 6mos after neutering which is the time frame the vet gave me. It takes about 6mos on average for all the testosterone to work it's way out of their system.


Here's a great article as to why dogs hump and the reasons behind it:

The Down & Dirty on Humping: Sex, Status, and Beyond | Dog Star Daily


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## Davey Benson (Nov 10, 2010)

It really is the luck of the draw. I have two intact males who don't hump.... and a nutered male who is bad about it, and about marking (peeing) on things too. 

I even have a female (all my females are spayed) blue heeler who is bad about humping... 

I agree, it's not a sex thing for dogs, as much as a dominance thing and it is correctable behavior. 

I wouldn't let it be an issue when determaning which gender to adopt, you just might end up with a humpy female.


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## rsk (Jul 7, 2013)

I found a post....this one ... about why I always wanted a female. We had a female "ruhi" who passed a year back. I saw her humping just once when she was asserting herself. I called out her name. . that was it. We now have a 3 month old male.He tried to hump his bedding twice in front of me. Again I called him and said stop, no. I hope that this is not going to be a problem.


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