# Famale Puppy Humping



## jwemt81 (Aug 20, 2008)

It's an act of dominance and has nothing to do with the fact that she's not spayed. Both of our boys hump things like pillows, stuffed toys, and even each other, but it's not at all sexual and has nothing to do with gender or them being intact. Lots of dogs, both male and female, will hump to assert dominance. Our female GSD would occasionally hump objects when she was a lot younger, even after she was spayed, but it eventually stopped completely as she got older.


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## CosbysMommy (Feb 20, 2010)

Shotzey had this bear, it was JUST like in the movie Click. From the moment he saw the bear at 7 weeks old till I finally threw it away a year later, anytime it was in his site BAM he was humping. (I think I may even have a video of him doing it at like 8 weeks old, and at 8 weeks old, its obviously nothing sexual!) And Polly humps Shotzey, I joke and say "Polly, 1) You're never gonna make a baby that way, 2) neither of you have the right parts." But it's just dominance, shes the top dog


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## inge (Sep 20, 2009)

Tess still does it at 5 months with her doggy, a rather large stuffed animal she sleeps on in her crate. Inside the crate she lets the poor thing be, but from time to time she drags him out of the crate and he gets humped...


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## Nicole74 (May 30, 2009)

Bailey does this once in a great while too. I actually discourage it quick and let it be. I don't make a huge deal out of it. Bailey has been spayed too.


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## RedDogs (Jan 30, 2010)

Er... does anyone have any journal references or some such that is proposing this is about 'dominance'? Dominance has to do with controlling resources... and while toys/towels may be resources...they aren't competing against our dogs for resources....

This can be normal dog behavior... in many cases it is likely a conflict behavior (...something normally in a dog's repetoire but not really appropriate for the circumstances... like a dog lip licking when stressed). In these situations it might be some sort of physiological response to specific handling or I suppose a conflict behavior regarding the handling.


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

Yes, girl dogs hump. Mine has humped every once in a great while. Right now that she is in heat she has been a little more frantic and wanting to hump blankets--in this case I think it may be frustration.


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## zephyr (Sep 29, 2009)

I have always wondered about this!

Oscar is almost 8 months old, NOT fixed, and just about the ONLY thing he ever humps is his dog bed when you lift it up to move it somewhere else. He can't move fast enough to get over there and give it a good hump LOL He occasionally tries to paw at it and kind of hump it while its on the ground, but that's about it. If there is a blanket on the floor, he tries the same thing, but it's definitely not like he goes out of his way to take them off the couch or anything.

He has never even tried to hump another dog, even at the dog park... though he's been humped himself a couple times, by boys AND girls... from both ends!! haha 

I guess I figured he would be humping lots of things by now LOL, since we're hoping to wait until he's at least a year+ old before neutering, but he really hasn't...?


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## rappwizard (May 27, 2009)

RedDogs said:


> Er... does anyone have any journal references or some such that is proposing this is about 'dominance'? Dominance has to do with controlling resources... and while toys/towels may be resources...they aren't competing against our dogs for resources....
> 
> This can be normal dog behavior... in many cases it is likely a conflict behavior (...something normally in a dog's repetoire but not really appropriate for the circumstances... like a dog lip licking when stressed). In these situations it might be some sort of physiological response to specific handling or I suppose a conflict behavior regarding the handling.


Good catch! I decided to look this up and got an interesting read from one vet site. This thread caught my eye because my bitch started humping a slightly young dog when they were being groomed at a friend's house before a show. He had just been corrected by a much older bitch (age 10) and was no longer feeling full of himself (he was around 15 months). My bitch was playing with him in between the grooming sessions, playing "bitey face" and jumping, and they were rolling on their backs and gnawing on each other and pawing each other, but no mounting. But once she saw the correction from the older bitch, I guess she saw a change in his demeanor, because she tried to hump him shortly after that. My friend stepped in right away and tugged the leash to get her off of him. So overall, it appears this behavior should not be encouraged. Here is the link:

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


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## oliver1024 (Mar 13, 2010)

haha, I've never had a female dog but I did have a male Alaskan Malamute that would hump the fleece out of this thick blue robe I had. Never anything else....just that one blue robe. Infact he would drag that one robe around hump it, then dig it up and curl up on it to sleep....my husband used to joke around that he was an insecure lover and had to keep his robe in check LOL.


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## PB&J (Jun 19, 2009)

Lily went through a phase where she was humping the cat... :doh: He wasn't too pleased about it.


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## Willow52 (Aug 14, 2009)

PB&J said:


> Lily went through a phase where she was humping the cat... :doh: He wasn't too pleased about it.


Oh, the visual!

I can only imagine Hank humping our 13 y.o. male cat :curtain:


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## RedDogs (Jan 30, 2010)

rappwizard said:


> Here is the link:
> 
> http://www.vetinfo.com/dhump.html


I'm glad you looked into things some more! I do want to point out that the link is 10 years old, from a vet who -does not/did not- specialize in behavior. I have not seen any peer-reviewed journal articles (... like "Journal of Veterinary Behavior").

If the definition of dominance used in the AVSAB position statement is used...

"Dominance is defined as a relationship between
individual animals that is established by
force/aggression and submission, to determine
who has priority access to multiple resources
such as food, preferred resting spots, and mates
(Bernstein 1981; Drews 1993)."

The mounting puppies are not "making the towels/toys/beds" submit. And this behavior is not determining access to multiple resources, or any resource really. And I suppose to, the bed is not an animal... And even when this behavior is directed towards the owner, it fits more the definition of a conflict behavior (A normal behavior, out of context). 

http://www.avsabonline.org/avsabonline/images/stories/Position_Statements/dominance statement.pdf


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## tmanning (Jan 11, 2010)

RedDogs said:


> I'm glad you looked into things some more! I do want to point out that the link is 10 years old, from a vet who -does not/did not- specialize in behavior. I have not seen any peer-reviewed journal articles (... like "Journal of Veterinary Behavior").
> 
> If the definition of dominance used in the AVSAB position statement is used...
> 
> ...



OK RedDogs, what type of scientist are you? Not many people request direction to peer reviewed literature for their information. Ha!

By the way, my 4 month old female Bella is a humper too at times...on me. Other than that, she seems to be aware of who is boss at our house. Could it be that some dogs do this independent of dominance hierarchy? I'd like to think so, although I only have n=1.


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## Lora (Dec 8, 2009)

OMG! I got so worried the first tme I saw my little Lora hump her bed! I was honestly terrified and tried to distract her as quickly as possible. She is 7 month old and spayed and that's the first time I had seen a female dog hump. When she gets super hyper she starts chewing and scratching in her pillow, swinging it on each side and then humping it. 
I understand I'm not the only case, but should I be worried? Does it mead that male hormones are predominent? does it mean she needs to get laid? LOL What can I do to stop that "sleasy" behavior? ) I'm totlly confused!


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## Nicole74 (May 30, 2009)

Bailey does this when she is really happy and over stimulated with excitement. I honestly think she does it out of excitement more then anything else. I have her spayed.


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## Nicole74 (May 30, 2009)

LOL... I answered this post twice. Old post. Sorry.


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## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

Dogs hump for many reasons: Can be dominance, excitement, initiating play, general arousal, etc.

Simple interruption works well.


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## Retrievers Rock (Apr 4, 2010)

Molly only does this to a large, stuffed bear. I eventually had to destuff the bear when Piper ripped a hole in it, so now she takes it, and balls it up with her front two paws, and yeah... she still humps it. She'll even lay on her side and hump it.

I just ignore it. She doesn't seem to do it nearly as much now as she did when I first got her. As a matter of fact, the bear has been sitting at the bottom of her toy box for days now, being totally ignored. I wonder if he misses her? J/K...


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## GoPack (Jan 3, 2010)

I'm going to go with the "for many reasons" logic since I just had to pull 7-month-old, spayed Maggie off my leg tonight... sigh.


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