In New York City, not much raises an eyebrow anymore.
Guys dressed as girls? Must be taking Mom out to brunch. Same-sex couples making out on the park bench? You can see that in a VW commercial. Naked guy on the subway? Well, the A/C works in this car so we’ll just stay put.
Truth is, virtually anything that might have once been considered taboo in this town is most likely featured in a Broadway musical.
But in the city’s dog runs, many of our hairiest residents engage in one of the few acts you’ll see in public which can make New Yorkers uncomfortable: canine humping behavior. Whether it’s fast humping, slow humping, hard humping or soft humping, there’s a chance that at least one pet owner will be none too happy about it.
On a crisp fall day at Madison Square Park’s dog run, canine couplings elicited a wide range of emotions. And of course there was a lot of hot canine-on-canine action, providing an opportunity to see the unedited response to this instinctive behavior.
My Dog Humps Other Dogs!
On the outside at least, most of the people in the park seemed unperturbed by dogs humping other dogs, and take on a “live and let hump” attitude.
“My take on it is that this is just what they do,” said Sue Levine, a creative consultant in advertising who watched with amusement as her “malty-poo” Tony made the moves on a much larger Doberman. “If you take your dog here, this is going to happen. I mean, they are fixed, and it’s not a sex thing anyway, it’s more about dominance.”
Dog humps other dogs. We have shirts with this image! See cafepress.com/petsadviser
After all, many pet owners like to view their animals as extensions of themselves, and in this day and age, it simply isn’t appropriate to go around mounting whatever catches your eye. As a result, the owner of the “top” is often embarrassed, as if the dog’s randy behavior reflects on themselves. Likewise, the guardian of the “bottom” can feel as if their pet — and as an extension, themselves — are victims of an unwanted advance by a stranger.
Canine humping behavior: A Mounting Problem
Attaching such human baggage to all of this might explain why some of the two-legged denizens of the park don’t seem to like all of this free and open dog sexuality.
A younger woman stopped in mid-conversation to yell “Oh no!” as her beagle went after a shih tzu like a prisoner on a conjugal visit. “Stop it! Stop it!,” she yelled, with her pooch, lost in the moment, ignoring her cries.
On the other end of the run, a Lab mutt went after a larger St. Bernard-type mix, and the middle-aged owner of the St. lashed out at his 20-something counterpart. “Will you please control your dog?” the St.’s owner pleaded. “He has a bad back!”
With both participants declining to go on the record (and the mutts not talking), we may never know if there really was a concern for the larger dog’s well-being, or if it was just unpleasant for the owner to see his pet “turned out” in such a fashion.
According to Stu Slackman, whose small terrier, Daisy, seemed uninterested in the humpish goings-on around her, a negative reaction sometimes says more about the owner than the pet.
“It seems to me that those who get most embarrassed about this … well, it’s horny, depraved men who are struggling against an oppressive upbringing,” Slackman said.
Whatever the reason for an anti- dog humping attitude, protesting it and actually stopping it are another matter. Most such canine encounters often proceed with the romantic background sound of humans yelling “Scraps! Come here!” It’s a puzzling gambit, and one that doesn’t really work all that well. After all, if you were in the middle of some animalistic tryst, do you think someone yelling at you would get you to stop?
Let it Be(agle)
Madison Square Park dog-runner Brian Fisher, who was supervising a gaggle of pooches for clients, might have the most logical view of the situation. Fisher believes you can’t stop it, and the dogs can take care of themselves. Much like a scene that will be repeated countless times at East Village bars this Friday night, when one of the potential humpees doesn’t want to buy what the potential humper is selling, a scowl and snarl is generally enough to send the suitor on his way.
“You can’t stop ’em, you can’t tell ’em no, they are dogs, and it’s just what they are going to do,” Fisher said. “They are generally pretty smart, and if they aren’t interested in the other dog’s advances, they’ll break it up. They will work it out, and maybe all the humans around here shouldn’t be so uptight about it.”
So next time you witness a dog (or your dog) humping other dogs — and if you are at a park you won’t have to wait long — try to look past all of the emotional burdens that we humans carry around with us, and live in the moment. See it as what it is: a natural act that represents a wide number of things for the animals involved, who generally know better than we do whether or not it’s appropriate.
So, if you’re saying, “My dog humps other dogs! What to do?!” realize that this odd dog humping behavior is here to stay — and we all just have to get used to it.
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8 Comments So Far - Where Is Yours?
Humping is a delicate subject, hopefully I can comment on this without appearing to be crude.
Most of my dogs have been neutered GSD’s. Regardless, I think that GSD’s have a low sex drive; and I have never had this problem with my dogs. I know that dogs do hump, however if they do not know what to do about their burning desire to copulate, they will hump. They are oblivious to the social niceties and they need to cope with their desires.
There are intelligent people (perverts) who want to experience all aspects of sexual gratification. Our dogs do not know that most people frown upon this. I think that when a dog humps, we should ignore this and involve it in more exercise and training. Let’s face it; dogs love training and its rewards.
What to do when a female dog gets on top of a male dog and starts humping him, when the dogs have little social skils if and dominance issues in general?
It’s natural so what’s the problem? Probably makes your dog feel good too – and that can’t be a bad thing can it?
Of course it is not a problem for the dog who is doing the mounting! But what about the other dog who is being harrassed, chased or mounted? It is rarely appreciated by the recipient, as is usually the case from what I see in my small dog daycare. In fact, it can cause the recipient to feel overwhelmed, afraid or angry. This is a big problem on certain days in my daycare where some male dogs are obsessed with mounting one or two other dogs. The recipients of this attention are definitely NOT having a good time.
If anyone has a thoughtful response on how to resolve the problem, I would appreciate it. (I can spend half the day training certain dogs, watching their every move, praising every time they don’t mount and correcting with verbal correction, squirt gun, and time outs every time they do. But at the end of the day, they can’t seem to stop. Unfortunately I can’t tether three dogs to me all day long and continue to work.) Anyone have any real-life practical advice for how to handle this in a daycare setting?
It is also known that many dogs practice role-reversals in play. It is not uncommon to see a submissive dog mount a dominant dog that he knows very well. The difference can usually be seen in how they do it. A more dominant or sexually charged dog will mount and thrust very forcefully; a submissive dog that is playing will look much more relaxed and goofy. It is much easier to stop a submissive dog that is just playing. You should be able to tell him to stop from a distance.
I work in a shelter, and humping is a sign of poor dominance training, just like jumping, nipping or dogs that are generally pushy. While it’s true that fixed dogs will use humping primarily as an act of dominance, it’s a training opportunity with other dogs just the same as if they were humping your grandmother. If your dog is into this kind of boundary-testing behavior, make sure you teach them not to try and “dominate” everything that moves on its own. It may start with other dogs, but you can be sure it won’t stay limited to just one species.
Thanks Charles. “Training opportunity” is a great way to look at it. Dogs that go on humping sprees likely think they’re the boss, and it’s the pet owner who needs to be “the boss.”
My spoiled-rotten basett hound, 18 months old, is in her second heat and continually humping our 15-year-old jack russell. Any rational explanation? She also does this, but not as much, when not in heat.
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