The first time I brought my dog home, she was about 3 months old. She was so cute. I let my dog play with a teddy bear. It suprised me when she got on top of the teddy bear and started humping. She also do this when there is other puppies around. She would try to get on top of them and hump. I thought that humping was only for male dogs.

I have a female 5 lb Pomeranian that does the same thing. She is almost a yr old. She humps any and all stuffed animals. I can't figure it out either. But I also have 2 boxer golden mixes and they are both males and they constantly hump each other but not the female golden, that is fixed and their mom. Both of the males were fixed when they were 6 mos old.

Mounting is completely normal puppy behavior. It is usually play related when they are young and socially related when they are adults.

I have seen where adult dogs will hump people's legs. I am just worried that if my dog will do the same. Is there a way to prevent this from happening? I just think that its very embarassing.

My two year old Bearded collie also humps, but only my leg! she got "fixed" when she was younger, and i also thought it was only male dogs who done it! apparently its a dominance issue, and they are showing you who is boss! she also gets an awful fishy smell now and again which makes me think she has not been fixed properly....

she also gets an awful fishy smell now and again which makes me think she has not been fixed properly....

The fishy smell could very well be her anal glands leaking. My dog has anal gland issues and has had to have her glands expressed by the vet a few times. The smell is aweful....stong and somewhat fishy smelling. I would bring this smell up to your vet because if its not her anal glands it could be another problem that needs attention.

Originally Posted by indiandog

I have seen where adult dogs will hump people's legs. I am just worried that if my dog will do the same. Is there a way to prevent this from happening? I just think that its very embarassing.

If you have a good relationship with your dog, your dog will probably never attempt to hump you as a way to try to gain control (dominance). However, there are many reasons a dog might hump that are not related to dominance including the release of pent up energy.
Neither of my dogs have ever tried to hump me and they are 6yrs old and 10 yrs old.

For a dog that mounts people, my first suggestion would be to interrupt and redirect the dog to a more appropriate behavior. This could be done in combination with other things (more exercise, NILIF) depending on why the dog is doing it.

the fishy smell is definitely an anal gland issue, as I had a cairn terrier female w/ it growing up and my male mini-schnauzer has it.

As far as humping my female cairn terrier used to hump across our male cairn terrier (which was quite odd as she was fixed right after her final shots)

My mini-schnauzer humps me and he was fixed at birth due to a prolapsed umbilical cord....

It's not definitely a male trait or related to sex. As other people have pointed out, females do it, as do puppies.

I have castrated male goats and they do it to each other as well, but at their age it is linked to a dominance issue.
If the 'humping' starts to get too frequent I know that we are in for a bit of a challenge on the pecking order side of things!

Ok so .....all dogs do the famous thrusting action but when does it stop or does it ever....To make a long story short I rescued a husky about 2 months ago and he was in bad shape. Anyways he is a lot healthier now......not to mention neutered....however he tries to hump balls...lol....and other dogs if you let him.....he once tried it with me, but I think he learned real quick I am not the humping kind:shock:

Anyways he is a year and a half....will this continue or will it fade as he gets older?

I think if he is 18 months old then you should be looking now at ways to discourage him.

He just has to learn what is acceptable behaviour.
What about carting a squeezy bottle full of water around and giving him a little squirt when he starts doing it to other dogs or people?

I must admit I have never tried this approach in this particular situation but it has worked for me in the past with a dog that tried to steal food all the time.

We had a collie last year, and she tried humping my husky... he did NOT go for it, my mom's poodle did. But not Bandit. He turned right around, and nipped her to let her know he's the boss of this house... well the canine boss anyway. He knows I'm the supreme ruler around here. After that, the only humping that occured was when she went into heat, but our husky is fixed so there was no problem of her having puppies.

It was kinda cute when we were dog-sitting a couple of puppies, and they tried to hump her... she was almost twice as tall as they were. They usually had to wait till she laid down.

I've had the humping issue with my dog before... Also a neutered male. It's only been a few times nearing my "special" time of month. Do you think dogs can sense/smell that and is it more likely to make them hump? I mean, it scared me to be honest!!

I also figured that since he's neutered, this shouldn't be happening.. If this is all a thing of dominance to them, that scares me also. Maybe he is too spoiled and gets away with too much, so thinks he is in charge?

Ha, I'm glad I'm not the only one. My 9 year old American Eskimo, who has been neutered since he was 6 months old, still does this. It drives me crazy!

I do think that what starts off as playful puppy behaviour, can develop into either habit, dominance or a sexual issue as they get older.

To be honest I've never had a dog that had this habit, although it has happened on the odd occasion.

A deterrent is needed, as in Bandits case where the dog got a canine telling off. If this doesn't happen then maybe the squeezy bottle thing will work?

Originally Posted by spike

I've had the humping issue with my dog before... Also a neutered male. It's only been a few times nearing my "special" time of month. Do you think dogs can sense/smell that and is it more likely to make them hump? I mean, it scared me to be honest!!

Dogs can definitely smell when a woman is near her "special" time of the month. Their noses are way more sensitive than a human's. Its also more likely to make them hump because when a female dog goes into heat she is more receptive to mounting. I'm guessing that both situations smell similar to a male dog. Don't feel bad spike, it's happened to me on occasion, and scared me too. It wasn't with Bandit, it was with one of my parents' dogs when I was a teenager.

You do have a point Bandit, and it makes sense.

I once knew somebody who kept Pot Bellied Pigs, they said the same thing about them.

You had to steer clear at certain times of the month

I have a female staffi and when its my 'time of the month' she becomes so protective of me & sticks to my side, I've noticed this always at this time of the month.

But shes a female, so I dont get the link? she doesnt try humping me of course lol

Maybe she's made herself your guard dog, and thinks that only she can approve of a 'mate' for you. That's about the only thing I can think of... we never really had many female dogs when I was growing up, only 2 that I can remember, so I don't have much experience with this situation.

Mhmm my friend has two neutered males, a yorkie and a wiener dog and they would hump like crazy.

I have a scotty dog and a big heinz 57 dog thats bout 8 times his size, and the scotty humps the living day lights out of him constantly LOL He'll grab a back leg and just go to town LOL

I think it's just the male in them heh Cant get rid of the testosterone And with the females, It's dominance. I had female pet rats that would hump all the time to show who was boss.

Scotty Mommy