# 5 month old humping--sexual or not?



## Gogoclips (Apr 27, 2013)

Within two days of bringing Kidogo home he started humping his brand new dog bed. He was 12 weeks old then and other whippet owners assured me that it was just the puppy excitement, was not sexual, and it would go away, there was no need to try to stop it at this age. At that time he was just doing the motion, not showing his pink parts. We took that bed away, gave him a homemade bed to sleep on (less fluffy) and the behavior went away. 

Couple of weeks later my husband brings home this giant teddy bear and he is in love with it. He chewed on it, dragged it around, slept on it, etc. Fast forward to about 3 weeks ago, after forgetting about his teddy bear for awhile, he finally rediscovers it, and now instead of chewing on it, he wants to hump it! Now, when he does it his pink parts show and he ignores me when I try to get his attention. It takes me, physically touching him for him to snap out of it. And then he goes right back at it. When I take the teddy bear away he sits in front of where I put it up on and whines. Every time the teddy bear comes down he goes right for it again! (with the dog bed he doesn't hump it anymore, he sleeps in it now) 

I was hoping to wait until he's closer to a year old or 18 months to neuter him, but have been advised to neuter him at 6 months so he doesn't develop more "intact male behaviours". I am not planning to do agility or lure coursing with him so it probably wouldn't hurt too bad (growing-wise) to neuter him early. I would like him to be able to play fetch, catch a frisbee, go hiking, etc. though. 

The thing is, he still squats when he pees, and shows no sign that he's going to lift his leg anytime soon. I've only seen him attempt to hump another (male) dog one time, so I'm not entirely convinced that his humping is a sexual behaviour. Opinions?


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## Analytical Ada (Apr 23, 2013)

My female dog used to do that with pillows and smaller dogs at the dog park - really embarrassing to explain to people who don't know much about dogs. It stopped completely when we spayed her. We did wait until she was just about 2 to spay her, though. I'd definitely weigh the health risks with the annoyance that the behavior brings. I'm sure there is probably a way to train him to stop the behavior on cue.


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

Plenty of people keep intact males with no issues. Yes, he's starting to go through puberty and will hump things, but you can train him out of it. I would stick to your plan and not neuter him til 12-18 months.

ETA: Watson started humping things like crazy at 5 months but it has considerably subsided now at 9 months. He didnt lift his leg consistently until 7 months and has never humped another dog (though he has jumped on them in a way that suggests he might want to try). Intact males go through a hormonal period, but IMO it's not a big deal or reason to neuter earlier than planned


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## megs2219 (Feb 23, 2013)

My 9 month old puppy has gone thru most of the stages you described. At first he'd hump things (his favorite thing actually is trying to hump my arm when we're hanging out on the couch) and no pink part showing, now he does the same things and the pink part is exposed. He's also a lot more aggressive about it, I have to physically push him off me or take him off the dog beg or whatever he's trying to hump. But he doesn't whine afterwards he just goes and does something else. He does try to hump other dogs occasionally but that's pretty normal boy or girl, neutered or not. I am trying to wait till at least a year to neuter him but I think the bad behavior that would make me neuter him earlier than that is if he started marking things inside the house. That I won't tolerate! He did start to lift his leg at about 7 months but he only does that outside when peeing. It's super cute because he's got short little legs and the way he lifts his leg isn't quite right. Makes me laugh every time.


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## Gogoclips (Apr 27, 2013)

Puberty! I was told that would come closer to 8 months. I'm not prepared! According to the research I've done on the Internet, early vs late neutering seems to be a very popular debate. A few years ago neutering early was all the rage- to prevent "bad behaviors" that are the result of hormones. Now, most research points to neutering after the hormones have done their job in terms of growing. My vet has verbally given me a list of pros and cons each way, and I still have no idea which one she encourages. 

For now, I will be working on training him to stop the bahaviour on cue. Any helpful suggestions?

Question: after getting neutered will he still try to hump things? 
Also, if he does start marking in the house, do I approach it like regular house training or are there some other things I can do to prevent it?


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## HollowHeaven (Feb 5, 2012)

Humping is a behavior that a dog may do whether neutered or not. I know plenty of in tact makes who won't hump. Neither of my males have ever offered to hump me -though Troubles has went to town on some toys when his favorite bitch went into heat- but I've seen A LOT of neutered dogs go wild on anything, including people.

Humping, marking... it's all behavioral that may or may not be helped by neutering. That's a chance you take. 

You can train the behaviors out.


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

IME, the "bad behavior" isn't any more annoying or difficult to train away than typical adolescent behavior. It's not like intact male dogs suddenly turn into hooligans while their neutered counterparts are perfectly behaved. All adolescent dogs are a PITA. 

I have not been successful at stopping humping on cue, but the behavior considerably decreased because I don't let him practice it. If he starts humping a pillow the second I leave the room, all pillows get picked up. If he starts humping his bed or toy, the bed or toy get picked up and put away. Pretty simple. You can also learn to anticipate the behavior and ask for a sit or leave it, but once he's in full on hump-mode the only way I can stop him is to physically remove him or the object.

And yes, neutered dogs still hump things. My friends have dogs who were neutered before 8 weeks (way too young, IMO) and one humps everything. Also, both went through a period of marking things indoors and marking over top of whatever the first had marked. Neuter doesn't prevent or fix most of these behaviors, but training does.

Marking in the house is a house training issue and can be trained. I have found that my male dog has no interest in marking indoors unless another dog has already marked there. So he has marked in the training facility a couple times and once in a pet store, but all were because other male scents were present. He has never attempted to mark in our house because we don't have another dog.


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## Gogoclips (Apr 27, 2013)

Picking up the bear is about all I can do, as I can stop his whining on cue by shushing. If training him not to mark is as easy as housetraining him was I will be quite happy. I guess I don't have to worry about that unless he starts...

We have been desperately trying to train him to "leave it" with his mouth. He is showing progress but not quite there yet. I will try to use the same command for the bear and see if we can train both behaviours at the same time.

Thanks elrohwen!


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## CptJack (Jun 3, 2012)

I have a 6.5 year old, intact male, and a 4 year old intact male here quite often. The 4 year old tried to mark a few times, but an interruption and pointing him out the door got the message across pretty quick. They're both well past humping or other bad behavior, though I will say that both have been around females in heat for the majority of their lives, the older has been used to breed (he's the father of the younger) and neither one of them is overly excited on that level, since it was always just treated as another distraction they weren't supposed to acknowledge (unless asked, I guess). My marking and humping issues all came from Bug and Kylie (both spayed females).

Thud's 6.5 months old (pushing 7, really) and still squats to pee, has more puppy fur than not, and has never humped anything. I am suspecting this is because he's a large dog and is just being slow to mature. We'll see what happens when he gets there, but having Jack and Frost around has given me a lot of confidence in my ability to leave him intact until maturity - or forever, honestly.


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## packetsmom (Mar 21, 2013)

I knew a neutered male Chihuahua that had a favorite "lovie" that he would hump like crazy. He'd been trained that this was his only special stuffed animal and he left everything else alone. Besides the potential embarrassment to his owners, who actually found it amusing, it didn't seem to be much of an issue for them.

All of my dogs, up to now, have been spayed or neutered early and it hasn't seemed to make much difference when it comes to humping behavior. I had a female Sheltie, spayed early, who would hump legs if allowed. We redirected her any time she tried. My males have actually seemed less likely to hump for no good reason.

We're planning to wait for neutering on Sam, until 12-18 months, depending on how his growth goes. Our vet is in the camp of "the evidence goes back and forth every so many years" and her opinion, as long as an owner manages their dogs well, there is no real definitive proof either way is better. We're also considering a doggy vasectomy as a possibility.


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## Dog101 (Jan 18, 2011)

Fenway always humped things like that. We had him fixed at 6months and even though he had complications, and he was in a lot of pain, that's the first thing he did when he got home.


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