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Humping and Pawing and dominance?



 
 
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Old December 17th 03, 11:39 PM
FurPaw
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Default Humping and Pawing and dominance?

I don't have nearly the wide experience that many of you do in observing
dogs, but I often find myself questioning the "meaning" of humping and
pawing. Not so much that they *can* be and often are dominance signals,
but that sometimes it just doesn't seem like that is what is going on, in
the context of knowing the dogs.

Here's one example: Dylan, our female GSD (9) has lots of alpha traits,
and she bas been clearly dominant (food, attentions, sleeping place) over
Oppie, our Male Lab (7), from the time we got him. She was two, he was 11
wks. Both are speutered. She's pretty secure in her position and doesn't
seem to need to lord it over him. And he doesn't seem to mind taking
second place; he doesn't challenge her. When they play bitey face, he's
the one that usually ends up on the ground. They both initiate play.

Oppie, however, side-humps Dylan on occasion. He puts his head on her back
and moves his haunches as if he were humping her. This happens mostly
either when there are other dogs around, or when Dylan has been getting a
lot attention from us, like when she's been brushed. It doesn't look like
dominance, and Dylan doesn't respond to it as if it were a challenge. She
mostly ignores it, or, if he's extremely persistent, she'll give a little
growl; she has hip dysplasia, so I expect it can get uncomfortable when he
persists. When I can't help anthropomorphizing, it looks more like
possessiveness (she's *my* girl!) than dominance.

Then there's paw placing. When Oppie is upset (he used to get upset when
we'd dance or walk strangely in his presence), he will jump up on his hind
legs and put his paws on our shoulders, and lick our chins. He also does
this if it's well past feeding time and we're ignoring him. Again, I
suppose it could be dominance, but it looks more like he's imploring us to
stop dancing or to feed him.

I'm just musing on the possibility that we may construe the dogs' behaviors
too narrowly at times. Have those of you with broader experience ever
pondered on this possiblity?

FurPaw

--
Brain cells come and brain cells go, but fat cells live forever.

To reply, unleash the dog.

 




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Humping and Pawing and dominance? FurPaw Dog behavior 44 December 20th 03 03:40 PM


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