Thanks!

It was just such a bizarre thing to hear a complete stranger declare my dog was dominant purely because he was trying to have a little hump! I certainly let my own thoughts be known so I think they'll probably avoid me from now on.

No idea on the humping thing, but wanted to comment generally on the 'dominance' thing!

Got talking to someone today who mentioned dominance, and asked about Teagan.
I said we were completely equal, and I don't believe in the dominance thing.
She then proceeded to tell me I was stupid, cos Teagan is a wolf, and wolves have packs, so therefore Teagan must be lower down the heirachy than me. (cos i'm so obviously also a wolf)

Well, Im sitting here in my bed, with Teagan - who has more bed than me.
She's also got her own bed in her own room.
She eats before me, can push through the door first if she wants, sit on the sofa.........and the silly woman thinks I rank higher?!

Rupe will hump other dogs (once he decides he doesn't need to kill them before they kill him anyway) but if they even give him a mild telling off he runs away and hides behind me. He only does it when he gets really excited so I'm guessing it's sort of stress relief or something. It's not something I allow him to do because it does generally annoy the other dog but sometimes he's too far away to stop it.

there is a dog who i meet often with Jake. i avoid this dog because of his persistant humping of Jake, poor Jake cant stand still around him for two seconds or else Max is on him so Jake just runs around constantly and stays well away from Max. dare i say it, but i think Max does it as a dominance thing. he can play in a group of female dogs, and not do a thing... but the second Jake joins them, he starts the humping! and now that Jake runs constantly when he is around, Max will nip at him and tries to jump on top of him! he looks like such a bully! this happened the other day, but Jake had two friends (a westie and terrier x) as back up Jake was trying to run away from Max, but he was following Jake so the two little uns' ran nipping at Max's backend! it was like they were saying 'stay away from our friend!' and one of the dogs, willow, has actually snapped at two dogs, who have gone for Jake and she gets in between them, like she is protecting him

btw, Max's owner just lets him do whatever he wants so while i was trying to get Jake back to me, Max was stopping him but i had no idea where to owner was to get him to get Max away.

i personally think it depends on the dog, what the reason behind the humping is.

Well, I don't believe in the whole dominance concept. I think it's a big load of hooey.

Dogs hump for many reasons: hormones, excitement, even play.

I don't think humping is anything to do with dominance.

It's perfectly understandable in a young male dog in puberty when hormone-lead. But I've seen dogs persistantly come back for more despite being told by the other dog, in no uncertain terms, to "leave me alone" ~ I don't think the humper can help himself really. They're willing to risk injury with a bigger, heavier, older dog, who's prepared to bite them, but they still persist.

In other dogs, even castrated males & with some females, I've seen humping when play gets too exciting. I just think dogs can get overly-aroused with excitement & then it translates to humping.

Barney does it sometimes, with certain dogs, usually young entire males, but sometimes with certain castrated males ~ & Barney's been castrated for 3 years. I don't what makes him do it ~ but it's certainly not dominance ~ Barney's the least "dominant" dog I know!

In cases like this, I don't think it's sexual, nor dominance, but more a form of hormone-lead arousal or excitement when they just can't stop themselves.

Then there are the very persistant humpers, that don't even need the presence of another dog to start them off ~ & they will hump inanimate objects or peoples' legs. That's not dominance (unless they're trying to dominate a pesky cushion ). I think it comes as a sort of reaction to stress/excitement & with some dogs it becomes the default setting for what to do when excited/stressed ~ more a sort of coping strategy. But not a conscious act, just something that happens to the dog internally that it can't help.

Contrast the "friendly" humping of a persistant male, with absolutely no signs of agression, with the stand-off & stare with hackles raised, of 2 dogs squaring up to each other ~ I know which I think is the more challenging & assertive behaviour!

I never think humping is dominance, infact I worry more about dogs standing over anothers back....you know head and chest over other dog.

One thing I will say though I really annoys me when other dogs do humping to mine especially when the owner just laughs or says he'll stop soon. He will stop if he trys it with our male, its one of Bruce's pet hates and I end up having to grab Bruce, put a lead on and walk away......before a fight starts

I'm with you on this one ~ Barney's got HD so the last thing he needs is another dog grabbing his rear end. But Barney does a great job of making his feelings known & I've no compunction about grabbing some other dog's collar if it tries it on with Barney. I've actually put one dog on a lead & dragged it back to it's owner who was on the other side of the park & totally oblivious to what was going on

I have that with poor Reah....like she could stand up with that extra weight
In the summer we we're out when a guy with a large muscled Boxer came over, how persistant was that dog I asked him twice to hold his dog back and even went to lengths of explaining why, anyway No he wouldn't listen, in the end I lost my rag with him and told him off
So bloody annoying
I've nothing against people who have dogs like that as long as they are watching them and correct it......like getting thier dog away from mine and not leaving me to do it

Humping is down to pure (well, maybe pure is the wrong word) excitement. Just try to spot the signs and chuck a ball or something to distract him.
And you can always prepare in advance your `dominance is a now discredited theory based on captive wolf packs and now even the scientist who formulated it says it`s wrong... ` speech in advance and watch as your opponents eyes go glazed and they try to sidle away?