Is it harmful to my 6 month old (non neutered toy) poodle to get yelled out
everytime he tries to hump something? Is not letting this sexual energy out
going to harm him in any way? he goes into "nutzo" mode sometimes and runs
around crazy trying to hump everything. at the same time he is kinda
aggressive and nips at everything in sight. how should I deter this
behavior? or shouldn't I be deterring it? thanks for any help.

"MauiJNP" wrote in message
...
Is it harmful to my 6 month old (non neutered toy) poodle to get yelled
out everytime he tries to hump something? Is not letting this sexual
energy out going to harm him in any way? he goes into "nutzo" mode
sometimes and runs around crazy trying to hump everything. at the same
time he is kinda aggressive and nips at everything in sight. how should I
deter this behavior? or shouldn't I be deterring it? thanks for any
help.

Unless you plan to show him in conformation shows you should neuter him.
Firstly, it'll significantly cut down on his humping tendencies. Secondly
its known to cut down on overly aggressive or dominant behaviors.

You should certainly discourage humping but yelling probably isn't the way
to achieve that goal. Distract & praise is one method (get his attention
away from humping) while another is to simply remove the object in question.

A family member has a male dog, intact due to human male ego/fears, that
humps *everything* that isn't too fast to hump. Even though I know dogs do
this I, being a dog person, am still disgusted by it. He's also extremely
dominant and has been allowed entirely too much freedom to make his own
decisions. Between the dominant personality, lack of clear leadership &
being intact the dog is pretty unruly and unpleasant to be around.

--
Tara

On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 19:45:59 -0500, Tee wrote:

"MauiJNP" wrote in message
...
Is it harmful to my 6 month old (non neutered toy) poodle to get yelled
out everytime he tries to hump something?

Yelling would increase his stress.

/snip/

A family member has a male dog, intact due to human male ego/fears, that
humps *everything* that isn't too fast to hump.

If an owner is determined not to neuter, some of the stress might be
relieved by getting the dog a vasectomy, which some owners find more
acceptable. Then if there is an intact female in the household, when she
goes in heat the dog can act like a 'teaser tom' cat and relieve his stress
and hers with a 'sterile mating'. http://tinyurl.com/6q98w


Margaret

"Margaret" wrote in message
. ..
On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 19:45:59 -0500, Tee wrote:

"MauiJNP" wrote in message
...
Is it harmful to my 6 month old (non neutered toy) poodle to get yelled
out everytime he tries to hump something?

Yelling would increase his stress.




it seems that I made a mistake here. In my neck of the woods, we use the
term yelling to simply mean getting punished, not actually yelling. The
punishment that he gets when humping is redirection, picked up and crated.
I do not yell at him ever.

MauiJNP wrote:
Is it harmful to my 6 month old (non neutered toy) poodle to get yelled out
everytime he tries to hump something? Is not letting this sexual energy out
going to harm him in any way? he goes into "nutzo" mode sometimes and runs
around crazy trying to hump everything. at the same time he is kinda
aggressive and nips at everything in sight. how should I deter this
behavior? or shouldn't I be deterring it? thanks for any help.


Be aware that humping isn't necessarily a sexual behaviour, it is
sometimes a bonding behaviour. My dog Roz ( a bitch) used to jump up
with her paws on my thigh while I was sitting in my computer chair and
hump thin air. I was curious of this behaviour and decided to let her do
it uninterrupted to see what would happen. After about 5 seconds she
would get down run off and return with a play toy wanting to play. My
interpretation is that after allowing her to hump (or "bond") she was
excited and wanted to enhance the relationship with play, there was
never any sexual conitations. After about a week of her doing this
intermitantly the behaviour ceased, she was calmer, more obedient and
seemingly more content overall.

I really believe humping is a very misunderstood behaviour and people
need to be careful how they interpret what is really going on in the
dogs mind and as such how they deal with it.

Paul

On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 16:31:32 -0500, "MauiJNP" wrote:

Is it harmful to my 6 month old (non neutered toy) poodle to get yelled out
everytime he tries to hump something?

That would depend on exactly who or what he is trying to hump.

Is not letting this sexual energy out going to harm him in any way?

Oh yeah, I tried to use that excuse. The girl didn't believe it.

he goes into "nutzo" mode sometimes and runs around crazy
trying to hump everything.

Kind of like most teenage boys.

at the same time he is kinda aggressive and nips at everything in sight.

Kind of like most teenage boys.

how should I deter this behavior? or shouldn't I be deterring it?

My feelings on this are, as a very general rule of thumb:

If it's a dog he's humping- let the dog tell him off (unless the owner
of the other dog is really bothered or if its a dog that will rip his
head off), but don't let your dog be a bully. Call him off or leash
him if the behavior is too obnoxious.

If he's humping his toys, let him be dominant over his toys. It can
make for a dandy party trick.

If he's humping people - yes, deter the behavior immediately.

Ludwig Smith

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