# Puppy Humping During Walks



## pinksand (Dec 11, 2013)

My 4 month old puppy has recently started humping our legs when we go out for walks. It is always towards the beginning of the walk, when we're heading away from the house and my husband says he does the same with him as well. He walks very nicely on the way home! Humping has just recently become an issue and we're working on it in the house by diverting his attention using a sit command or starting a game of fetch. If he's terribly persistent he gets a time out. It seems to be when he's anxious that we're going to leave him or overexcited when we get home. However, he can't go to a timeout when we're out on a walk and even though we try to have him sit or lay down, as soon as we try walking again he starts humping our legs. Any suggestions for how to discourage this behavior?

Some background info... he was neutered around 8 weeks by the rescue where we got him. It wasn't our choice to have it done so early.


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## Hambonez (Mar 17, 2012)

My dog was also neutered a little shy of 8 wks old, and he went through a humping phase as a puppy. It's more excitement than anything. He's probably just really keyed up that you're going for a walk. I'd do a similar thing on your walks that you're doing at home - if he starts humping ask him to sit, and stop and wait a minute for him to calm down before you continue on your walk. Humping should mean that the "good thing" (in this case, the walk) stops.


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## lforrest0913 (Apr 17, 2013)

pinksand said:


> However, he can't go to a timeout when we're out on a walk and even though we try to have him sit or lay down, as soon as we try walking again he starts humping our legs. Any suggestions for how to discourage this behavior?


I'd say just keep making him sit/lay down if he starts jumping again. Maybe give him a certain number of chances (like 5 to start out with) before the walk is over and you just turn around and go back into the house. Luckily dogs have fairly short memories when it comes to training or "punishment" (i.e. no walk). So of he fails and goes back inside, you can try taking out for a walk again in ~10 minutes.

Hopefully he'll pick up quick that humping means no walk and when you make him stop he really does need to stop. You may have to I through several false starts before he finally gets it.




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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

Agree with the above. Also, if you can't get him to sit and he keeps coming back to hump, just step on his leash so that he can't get to you, then ask for the sit again.


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## pinksand (Dec 11, 2013)

Thank you all for your suggestions and advice! I'm definitely hoping that it's a habit he'll be growing out of. Walking is very difficult with a dog trying to hump your leg! I know I need to work on having more patience.

I wonder if it's more of an anxious hump than an excited behavior because he also does sit down strikes as though he doesn't want to walk. Once we're on our way home however, he's a perfect little gentleman on his leash. It's as though he doesn't want to leave and then is happy to head home. I don't know what's wrong... too cold, he's worried about the house while we're away? Whatever it is, the anxiety is only during the walk away from the house.


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## llillio (Aug 15, 2013)

Sounds like a perfectly normal puppy behaviour. Our dog used to totally go for the pant legs or my wife's boots when he was around that age. Now that I think about it, him trying to hop on the leg to grab the pant leg probably would've looked like him trying to hump the leg too... with him being so young we didn't even think to consider that humping.

Anyways, our guy was pretty reluctant walker at first too. For first 3 blocks or so he'd sit down every few houses until he was urged to continue. On bad days, he'd sit every few steps. But usually from the half way through the walk, he'd be perfectly fine. That probably lasted a month or two. He's happy to walk now but does have some reluctant morning. So good luck!


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## hanksimon (Mar 18, 2009)

I agree with the sit method. Usually, when a pup is about to hump, they'll get 'that look.' Ideally, you want to recognize that look, anticipate the humping, and say Sit, before the humping starts...


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