LOL, hilarious!

I think there are two types of humping. In the home it's a release of tension for sure, Woody does it usually before settling down for a nap. It's rare with him now, but used to be every night!

The outside meeting another dog humping I am still abit confused about. Woody gets humped ALOT, possibly because he's castrated, but when I ask the humper usually is too, so why do other dogs always try to hump him? IT can't be just excitement can it? If so, why don't they just run and play?

As for the 'D' word my standard response when someone mutters this to be is that it's been proven that it doesn't exist within dogs so suggesting that is a load of rubbish. As with humans, some dogs are just more assertive/confident than others.

Thinking about it........

Isochicks boxer Murphy humps Teagan whenever we go round.
It's definitaly excitement, as if there was a 'pack leader', it would 100% be Teagan within those 3!!

Poor dogs, us dumb humans blame everything on dominance

HUMANS are the ones hung up on dominance, because we look for it we see it in everything
Although dominance is prob more important in human and primate lives than in most other species it is funny that when we have problems with children we dont go 'oh he takes all the toys because he is dominant'
We train our kids what it rude and what isnt - not based on dominance at all - why shouldnt it be so with dogs?

As for humping - Mia humps Ben when she get overexcited in playing
Ben tried to hump a little bitch that I only found out later was in season (thankfully she was too tiny and he didnt know what to do so humped the air about a foot above her)
Lots of dogs try and hump Ben, and although anyone who knows him would say he is the most submissive polite dog in the world (he will happily go on his back or cock a leg to let other dogs get a good sniff at his bits) he will NOT put up with any dog trying to hump him, I step in before it happens but if not he chases them off
If it was a display of rank then why would he do that to a dog he has just 'submitted too??'
From what I have read, and from how some of the males act when they sniff him (chittering teeth and drooling) I think there is something in the scent of a castrted male that makes them smell like a bitch in heat

I agree with this. Some castrated males often seem to attract the attention of other males, entire or not. Whether it's because they smell like a bitch in season or not, I don't know, but there are certain dogs that seem more prone to being humped than others.

It seems likely that it's a pheromonal thing but of course us mere humans, with our rubbish sense of smell, wouldn't know this!

I do think humping has many, many different reasons behind it. Your example is something I wouldn't be putting up with and I'd physically remove the dog myself if the owner didn't. I've tended to find owners don't like it when you get hold of their dog (baring in mind it's always wise to make sure the dog knows you well enough for you to do this without it feeling threathened!). I used to walk in an area where a man walked a Springer. It was forever trying to hump Woody (again castrated male) and the owner would never bother to try and remove the dog. So one day I just put the dog on a lead and kept walking (the owner was walking some way behind me). Once he realised I was walking his dog he became rather annoyed, at which point I advised him that if stopped allowing his dog to harass my dog I wouldn't have to restrain it myself in the first place. Never had a problem with him again!
Exactly, dogs are so complex it seems ridiculous to me to just assume one action can have one meaning!

That's pretty accurate when it comes to Oscar! He's not a persistant humper, but sometimes when he gets really excited he just can't help himself. I'm pretty sure he has absolutely no idea why he's doing it, judging by the look on his face!

That's pretty much word for word what I said funnily enough! Soon shut her up I can tell you and the subject was quickly changed!

He's certainly not a persistent humper so it's not really a problem. I just keep my eye on him and if I think he's getting over the top he gets removed from the situation. He does, however, think he's God's gift to everything canine at the minute!

Tyler will occasionally try it on with Meg,she doesn't stand for it but does seem to get a thrill out of winding him up and then telling him off,she pushes her rear end in his face and even lifts her back leg up so he can have a good sniff Then as soon as he tries to mount her she tells him off lol

He doesn't hump much at all now maybe his bed once in a while,but when he was a pup like Oscar he did but we used to distract him and it worked quite well.

I wouldn't say it's dominance either,I think that word is very over used.

I know the regulars will have seen this before, but for those that haven't, one of the best articles on 'dominance' I've ever read is right here on Dogsey:
http://www.dogsey.com/dog-blogs.php?t=113522

Love this article and direct people to it quite often!

If there's leader among my dogs it's Rio. She even cocks her leg and has very definite rules about what the other can and can't do. Yet Rogue is the humper of the bunch. Rio came into season on Tuesday, Dan has had a sniff and decided she's not ready so there's no point trying, Rogue has been humping away! She's an 11 month old JRT bitch. My theory is that JRTs are randy little sods - that's why there are so many of them!

I've been reading this thread with interest as I wondered if it would explain some behaviour of my dogs.

One of my Affens, Gozo an entire male, likes to hump and is not fussy about which bit of the dog he does it to, but is such a weedy wuss he rarely gets the opportunity! Most dogs are bigger than him and just walk away or look down at him in confusion. The other 2 virtually never.

Then the other day we met an old (dog) friend of ours in the park who really is on his last legs, poor boy and both the Affens were trying to hump him, of course I didn't let them but they were quite persistent. They were absolutely not excited, there had certainly been no playing or anything. Also this is not behaviour he would have permitted even a couple of months ago but he didn't tell them off.

I'm curious as to what you guys think this would have been about?

J.

No I didn't say that, I said virtually always.

Dominate is probably too harsh a word, but I would interpret Oscar's behaviour as being that the "alpha" human has left the house, so he now considers he's the boss. I have been studying this whole rank thing a lot recently with Tai and Ben and little Gucci. It seems to me that there are different "ranks" according to location. In the pub, Ben is definitely the boss, after my husband and I, but in our home environment, Tai is. Gucci, the little chihuahua, becomes "dominant" if he is up on my lap, something I don't encourage because it sparks off trouble. He was on my knee last night because he had had to be washed under the kitchen tap due to him meeting some particularly smelly fox poo, and I had him wrapped in a towel to dry off. Every time the big guys came near, he growled at them - false illusions of grandeur because he was elevated to their height, and was also sitting in a favoured position - on my knee. But down on the floor, he's a snivelling little git and wouldn't dare growl at either of them!

Quality of food will raise a dog's rank - Tai was fed on Bakers complete when we adopted him, and since being on the BARF diet has become a different dog, both mentally and physically. Ben was raw fed when we took him on.

It is a fascinating subject, and my favourite pastime is to just sit and watch dogs, how they communicate, what causes them to kick off, the little signs that they are about to kick off, or the opposite.