Our beagle Treacle, who was spayed 6 weeks ago has started humping.

She had never done it before, but in the last few weeks has started humping her favourite cushion. We are looking after 2 dogs this weekend and she is humping the dog, who is the bottom of the pack.

Is this her attempt at dominance, or something else? Will it stop, or what can we do to disuade her from doing it.

Many thanks
Jane

It's nothing to do with dominance.

It tends to happen when they're excited/aroused (which isn't necessarily anything to do with sex) - my two girls (mother and daughter) sometimes start sh@gging each other if they are playing.

Distract her when she starts doing it, and if it seems to have been triggered by a play session, wind things down.

hey, jane! :--)

i would not worry over-much about who is supposedly top, middle, bottom, whatever - dogs are far more fluid in relations,
and the dog who takes every ball in sight can be the same dog who willingly relinquishes the sofa or the cushy dog-bed -
there are typically NO dogs who get every single thing they want, every single time -
let alone RUN everything for all the other dogs, all of the time!

as *pooh said, humping can be any number of things - over-arousal, a social-klutz trying to elicit play, not knowing what
to do so humping is a default-behavior, STRESS can pop it out... all kinds of stuff.
if there is also a F-dog being pup-sat at Ur home, and Ur F is not humping her, it could be as simple as the M-dog does not mind,
and the F-visitor objects strenuously. (shrug)

i would just re-direct her to another (preferable) activity - tug, fetch, chase, a short training-session with RECALL indoors,
and group-Sits with treats for each dog in turn, or whatever else U find to be fun + rewarding for the dogs + the folks.
if U can call here + get her attn, crinkle a treat-bag, squeak a toy, clap hands, ROLL A Ball *Past* Her... do something interesting,
if it works, do that!

if she clasps the other dog intently + is very difficult to STOP once started, get to her earlier in the sequence -
put a drag on her to facilitate getting her away from the other dog without a collar-grab; we don;t want fallout.
once U get her off the other dog, ASK for + reward something else- even a simple sit, anything.

i certainly would not **punish!** her - if this is indeed stress (and visitors can stress residents), punishment only magnifies it.

Q- do U know the number + gender of her siblings?
androgenized Fs come from litters in which they were flanked by 2 brothers in-utero, or Fs were greatly-outnumbered by Ms -
and the adrogenization in the uterine-fluid alters them permanently; when these Fs are spayed, their M / F balance,
heretofore maintained by their ovaries as weighted toward F, is thrown-off, and tips toward M-behaviors.
usually this is a minor thing, and other than monitoring her behavior, it is not cause for worry -
a very few androgenized-Fs develop more serious M-type behaviors, like dog-aggro, and need a vet-behaviorist to help...
but this is very rare.

all mammals have both androgens (M) + estrogens (F) in their bodies - so sexual behavior + gender expression
are a continuum, with very-masculine, very-feminine, and a big wide area in between. lots of room for variation!

cheers,
--- terry

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terry pride, APDT-Aus, apdt#1827, CVA, TDF
*wolves R wolves, dogs R dogs, + primates R us.*
tmp, sept-2007

We had a spayed bitch that would hump the other girls.

My two girls now not spayed will hump each other....no dominance there just get excited with each other.

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Our Precious Girls.

My Roxie dog does this. She was spade a while ago and she started humping a favourite teddy (named Arthur) it started after a handsome german shep came to stay with us... and she did it pretty much everyday... but recently shes calming down and now only does it when we have people round think its an excitment and hormone thing x

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