Jonathan Robinson Webboard User Reg: 07-13-2001
Posts: 34
Loc: South East
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Hey everyone!
We have a litter of 5 week old pups out of our Leerburg bitch.
One of the males is humping our feet or other pups. He is not the alpha in the litter. He is probably 2nd or 3rd in rank.
I believe that this is just his way of trying to dominate others.
My question is how would you "read" this behavior?
Would you consider to be a positive sign or not?
He is a very social and outgoing pup. Not fearful.
I guess this is a question within your question...
What do you mean by saying that he is not the "alhpa"? From my understanding, you really can't tell who is an alpha until a dog a physically and mentally mature adult. As your pups grow and learn, the "alpha" may change many times, from week to week as they learn to experiment with their dominance, playing and all the other developmental phases pups pass through in the first 20wks(all which includes humping, dominating each other, submissing to each other, being confident adventurers & quiet antisocials, etc.) Maybe as a breeder you mean the term in another context. Please fill me in.
Top Paw Training: serving Canyon Lake & New Braunfels, San Antonio to Austin.
Jonathan Robinson Webboard User Reg: 07-13-2001
Posts: 34
Loc: South East
Offline
I understand your point. I guess what I was trying to express was that he was clearly not the "top dog" at the time this behavior was going on. I also was not thinking of the fact that this top position could change from day to day or week to week.
I got my male GSD pup when he was about 10 weeks old. He would hump everything -- our feet, our adult dog's legs, etc... so much so that we almost named him "Sir Humps Alot" <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
He also snapped and growled at me a few times when I corrected him and I took this (and the humping) to mean he was challenging my position as pack leader. I corrected this behavior and it does not happen anymore (he still tries to hump our adult dog occasionally).
He is 6 and 1/2 months old now and he does seem to be a bit dog aggressive/dominate.
In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
My male GSD stopped humping me after I had him for a few weeks. He still trys to hump people when he first meets them. And just a few days ago he tried to hump me again. So it seems he's trying to assert his dominance at different times in his development.
I can understand the dominance that is intended by humping at an older age, but at 5wks. old, a predictable path of development into possibly being a dominant dog, isn't so clear yet. Just keep an eye on his future behaviors. He might end up being more of a balanced, less dominant dog regardless of his humping as a youngster.
Does anyone with experience with puppy "testing" have any opinion on this? I believe if the behavior hasn't stopped after 3-4mo. it might be something to address.
Top Paw Training: serving Canyon Lake & New Braunfels, San Antonio to Austin.
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