help! - confused male dog!

Sol is 2 years old next month and still entire. He has a lovely temperament, easy to live with gets on with everybody and everything he meets, in fact almost too good to be true!

Deef will be 6 in March and he is neutered as is my other dog Kelly who is 5. On Saturday Sol decided that deef is very interesting and started flirting with him as though he were a bitch. He doesn't bother him very much when he is lying down on the sofa or chair but as soon as he gets up he gets followed and nudged and invariably Sol will try and hump him. Deef really laid into him over this yesterday although no damage was done, mostly noise and it did make Sol think a little but this morning we are back to nudging and humping. Along with this Sol is peeing up every blade of grass and licking and drooling everywhere while we are out.

I know Kelly doesn't smell right to other male dogs as he does attract attention but Sol isn't interested in him, only deef. Sol has done the nudgy flirty stuff with deef before but never gone any further so I am guessing that he doesn't have the right smell either.

Is it possible that there is a bitch in season in my village and Sol is just confused? Anybody else had this problem?

Deef is top dog here, no questions and has put Sol in his place several times including once this weekend, I have no doubt that he will do it again but I would prefer not to have world war three! If anyone has any ideas why he might be doing this and any suggestions on how I can stop it I would be very grateful. Could it be his age? will he grow out of it or will I eventually have to have him neutered? Something that I really don't want to do!

I would say its a domination thing..I would say the pup is trying to show his domination over the top dog..Its normal.. All my dogs hump each other now and again.. even the bitch..

I am not sure that it is, he actually flirts with him as though he is a bitch, deef ignores him at first so he tries to hump as though that is a signal that it is ok to do so. deef will then tell him off and he bounces away and comes straight back again as though he is chancing his luck with a girly and is just being persistant

I know what you are describing, my Defa takes a fancy to the occasional male and its absolutely not dominance in his case, its purely playful in my lads case, [ he gets easily confused ].
Gremlin and Silk also do a bit of flirting with each other [ both spayed girls ], which Gremlin absolutely would not tolerate if Silk was trying to be dominant at all.

Yes, sometimes dogs can get a bit confuddled and yes in some cases it will be a dominance thing.

Quite possibly Sol is confused by Deefs lack of obvious hormonal scent, and you wondering if there is a bitch in heat around is very valid particularly as its quite a sudden increase in interest - could Deef have rolled or trodden where an in heat bitch has dripped for instance, or have had close enough contact for scent to transfer on to him - very possible indeed. Far too many people are completely ignorant of the effect walking their in-heat bitches in commonly used doggy areas can have...

I think firstly I`d give Deef a bath in case he does have any bitch-scent on him and if Sol stops the obvious flirting you`ll pretty much have an answer there.
If it continues, the snip mimic injections are an option - definately worth doing for any dog where people are not sure if the snip will help with a specific behaviour or not, [ personally I`m pro-neuter anyway for the long term health benefits to the dogs first and foremost ].

If you tried him with the snip mimic and found it made a significant difference generally, you would need to weigh up your preference for not having him snipped with the potential problems of him losing all reason [ and recall ! ], when there is a bitch in heat nearby which he would probably go after, [ not across a road if lucky ...], or trying it on with a dog which will be far less tolerant than Deef whereby Sol could get badly injured as a result.

With you doing agility and going to shows, though there are rules about bitches in heat not competing, sometimes the rules are flouted and people still take in-heat bitches to shows which can still cause havoc and stress to entire males - if Sol is one of the testosterone laden dogs who can pick up a scent a mile off so to speak, whether at a show or just on a walk, and if there is a risk of him trying to get to the bitch or becoming very stressed, [ or even aggressive ], then the snip would be the fairest thing for him.

So thats what I would do in your position right now, bath Deef in case its a picked up heat scent, and the jabs if the bath does`nt give a clear indication that it was nothing more than a confusing scent addition, and take it from there.



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It started on Saturday after I had given them all a good brush (maybe Sol thought that deef looked sexy? ) and the first thing I thought was that perhaps he had brushed against something when we were out so I bathed him on Sunday when it becam apparent that sol wasn't getting bored, thankfully deef likes the hairdryer! when I left for work today (about 12.15) he was still being a nuisance in spite of both Kel and deef giving him a good hiding (mostly rolling him over and sitting on him (kel) and taking by the scruff and hurling him across the room (deef) )

Tonight when I came home though he is much calmer and not really that bothered so perhaps it was just something that I managed to wash off and being a merle it took him a little while to realise it


Sol's first show was in August last year and was a week long. During that time all three of them were bitching constantly, the worst one being Kelly who is already neutered. I was not the only person that was having this problem, there were lots of others that said both their neutered and entire males were doing the same. At no time were any of mine stressed and once sol was in the ring or back in the garden round my tent I don't think he even noticed. To be honest though I have yet to go to a show ever in the last 3 years where there hasn't been a bitch in season around the rings but proving it is another matter!

I have no plans at the moment to have him neutered for a whole list of reasons which I don't really want to get into

Great minds and all that, I should have known that would have already occured to you, sorry

*Snort* :smt044 :smt044 :smt044 :smt044 :smt044


Bless him, thats a bonus, some dogs can really suffer


Tell me about it !
Mega hyped atmosphere, hundreds of entire dogs in close proximity, and some people are *still* ignorant enough to put their own selfish ` I`m all right jack`attitude first by bimbling around [ and sometimes *in* ], the rings with their in-heat girls

Well, if we ever see a load of dogs with roses in their teeth and wearing tuxedo`s lining up around anyones caravan, it would be fair to be slightly suspicious

I won`t push you on it, but the jab is at least a possibility should you feel it may help in the future and it does wear off quickly

How are things now - still improved ?


:smt001



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