[salesbury]

My 15-week old puppy, Rigby, is going out of control! When my wife is sitting on the floor to play with him, he constantly grabs her wrist (with a good grip too) and starts the "humping" motion. She pushes him aside gently and he does it again. We say "no!" very sternly but he thinks we're playing with him! Does anyone know an effective way to discipline these annoying actions? When our neighbor's kids stopped by this past weekend, he did the same thing when they were just trying to pet him. It's really embarrassing!

 

[Tucker]

Tucker has done that before. It is usually when he gets too stimulated during play. We have just pushed him away like you have. Try getting a soup can and filling it with a few marbles or penny's, put the top back on and tape it close. When he does the humping, shake the can. The noise should deter him. If you are consistent and do it everytime, he will learn that the unpleasant noise happens everytime he humps you and will stop doing it. The can works good with a lot of unwanted behaviors. The problem is having the can ready when it happens. You could make several and keep them around the house.


It also might help if you get him fixed, but at 15 weeks, that is a little too young. He is probably trying to figure out where he is in the pack. He may be trying to place him self over your wife in the pack order. That is not a good thing. All humans need to be top dogs in the pack.

 

[cobismom]

Three votes for Tucker, we had to do the same thing with our second beagle, Cobi. He had to be told who was the alpha dog, and it was the humans. After we did get him fixed, it stopped most of that behavior....but as Tucker said, he is a little too young yet. But you might want to talk to the vet and see when would be a good time, under the circumstances. The can with marbles did wonders....but use it sparingly and never as a toy. He will get used to it, and ignore it if you use it too much.

good luck, it does get better I promise, but it can be frustrating.

 

[Double Trouble]

My beagle Oscar did that when he was even younger! My poor sister-in-law came to visit and sat on the floor with him and after about five minutes of cute play he decided to hump here knee - as you say thoroughly embarrassing. I think it is a dominance thing - at the time we didn't realise what a strong-willed young pup we had on our hands lol!

 

[Jesslyne]

My brother did the shake-can (I think he used a Coke can with pennies in it) thing for his very strong-willed Shiba Inu. I've never tried it with Willie, but most of his problematic behaviors (like freaking out in the crate when we're gone), it won't really work for anyway. Maybe for his propensity for trying to steal people's food...but it's hard to imagine anything deterring him from food. He's not a really big humper, but on the rare occasions when he has, it's when he's just overstimulated from aggressive play.