Now this is something that has started rearing it’s head in the last month. How do you deal with your new teenager in the house around guests and their children? Or your dog earning the reputation as The Humper in your favourite walking spots? We all understand that coming of age period when there are a lot of hormones and crazy things happening but when your dog starts trying to “hump” the guests and you have to laugh it off, then you start to wonder “How should I be dealing with this in the right way?”. You wonder if you should reprimand the dog, ignore the dog (after all it’s only natural) or is there another way to make life a bit more pleasant for everyone and avoid that awkward laugh or apology.
As Axe, our GSP, has started growing up, he has been a very rumbustious dog. He is full of energy, enjoys his afternoon crazy hour running around like a mad critter, stick in mouth, trying to break land speed records. Now he has moved on to a “teenage” dog, obviously developing urges that we don’t quite know how to deal with.
I’ve been told by people in the know that it could be due to a lack of adequate socialisation/ integration during the formative puppy stage 0-16 weeks. Which could make perfect sense as Axe is a Covid pup and group classes were not permitted. Thanks Boris! So, exposing Axe to other dogs in order to enable him to learn how to greet, communicate, read body language, what’s acceptable and what’s not, has involved us doing a lot of local walking to find him friends and even those that might have put him in his place on a few occasions. Today Axe has some great mates in our rural lane and yes the excitement level does go off the charts when we cross the paths of these more civilised breeds and their owners.
Another belief is that it could be the dog’s way of showing dominance, although in pups under 12 months of age this is more likely to be play or sexual in nature rather than a dominance issue.
A more likely reason I got discussing with a neighbour was the dog getting excited at the arrival of guests or even a person’s voice. As Ilse my partner was the victim of Axe’s advances and as I can attest to her voice being considered exciting, I would be inclined to think I banged the nail on the head.
The Humper is usually a chaser but in Axe’s situation there is nobody to chase, as he is an only dog. However, he’s been on the receiving end of this, so I know what it’s like, to be the concerned owner watching your dog being the victim when you are just trying to enjoy a walk with your pooch in public. So, in the interest of allowing everyone to enjoy public spaces most import of all is to teach your dog to have good recall and if that’s asking too much then perhaps keeping it on a lead is a better option. The command “DOWN” has worked very successfully for us especially as he was forever jumping up as a young pup and “DOWN” was simply learnt because he realised that he only gets attention when all four feet are on the ground. So we’ve used this command on a handful of occasions when Axe has had the urge to grab a leg and then given him some time out, which seems to have worked. We hope this continues to work and it’s just a temporary issue we’ve been dealing with.
Would love to hear any other successful strategies.