Inappropriate "doggie" behavior?

[DDD]

Ace (our six year old male boxer) had a "play date" in our backyard an hour ago or so. easy child/difficult child and his girlfriend brought their pit bull puppy over for the first time. The puppy is maybe six or eight weeks old. The two dogs ran and circled and raced around...and then... Ace made multiple attempts to mount him. WTH???

Ace has not been "fixed" and is not around other dogs except at the groomers. The groomers always comment on how "nicely" he plays with the other dogs. Hmmm....why would an adult male try to mount a male puppy? When Ace's name was called he backed off and they began running around again.

I am NOT an expert in dogs but seriously what to heck does that mean? Do same sex dogs get hot and bothered??? Cane, the puppy, evidently does mount furniture etc. at his young age but Acey has never shown an interest. So...family experts...I'm a bit shocked and wondering what if anything we should do so that they can innocently play together. easy child/difficult child is moving into his new house in a few weeks and has promised to take Ace when husband is no longer able to care for "his baby Ace". I am more than dumbfounded. Help, guys. DDD

 

[Suz]

D3, you described pretty normal behavior for a non-neutered dog. My Rufus was the mounting king for a few weeks after he was neutered until his hormones settled down. Even now, several years later, it happens occasionally. It's more of a dominance thing than a sexual thing. Ace was telling the puppy that he is BOSS.


You will want to monitor them to make sure that no one gets hurt.

Suz

 

[Hound dog]

LOL

Sorry..........needed to laugh. Rufus does it to Maggie.........well, not anymore but when he first came and he was 6 wks old. He does it to Ammo all the time...........and Ammo is HUGE. It looks hilarious. Ammo could care less.......but then he's just a pup too, although a huge one. (and fixed)

Rufus and his brother Vader do it to each other the first few minutes they're together. Never have figured out who is "boss" out of the two.......they must because it stops after a while or they lose interest.

It's normal male dog behavior and more about Boss (rank in the pack) than sex. It's not uncommon to see a neutered male do it due to that. It's also why usually I tend to lean more toward female dogs. Although if Rowdy ever did it, it wasn't in my presence. (he was not fixed)

Shoot, female dogs will do it too.

Supervision is wise. But it should be ok.

 

[Dixies_fire]

My 8 month old min pin/poodle is trying to mount my 2 year old neutered male cat.
The cat is bigger then the dog and hasn't hurt the puppy ^yet^ but he's not having it either

I have the most awesome cat in the world though. Good with children, the baby,us and the dog and thankfully religiously litter box trained. We had to get rid of our other cat because this was not the case, and the puppy only recently decided to try to potty train again.

 

[GoingNorth]

It's NORMAL dominance behavior. Ace is just asserting his dominance over the puppy. It's nothing to worry about. I do have to ask, though: WHY is Ace not neutered since you obviously haven't used him for breeding? Boxers are not long-lived dogs and Ace will be much happier and healthier if "fixed". It's not a major surgery and is not expensive.

Is your husband suffering from some sort of "male" hangup about castrating his dog?

 

[SuZir]

In that kind of cases, it is purely about dominance. Some dogs may be overly sexual and try to mount bi*ches that are not in heat a lot. And don't eat and are very anxious, if somewhere nearby there is a bi*ch in heat. And is not uncommon for a puppy to mount pillows, their toys etc. But mostly mounting another dog not in heat or male is about dominance. At times it seems that neutered males may smell a same as a bi*ch in heat and that may confuse other males. And when it is about dominance, gender really doesn't matter. We once had a bi*ch, who often tried to mount other bi*ches and also male dogs. Purely dominant gesture. Of course often that dominance is not real, but just an arrogant gesture trying to show dominance. In fact difficult child's little over half a year old, tiny german spitz, with all her (almost) 15 pounds and impressive height of twelve inches tried to mount (several times) our 5 year old, big, 100 pound alaskan malamute male. Yes, she was trying to flip a bird to him (being middle of doggy version of typical teen) , but that was so laughable that even our dog didn't take it seriously. Just used his paw to put a tantrum throwing little missy on her back.

With Ace, just tell him no and play nicely with a puppy. Mounting in other than mating purpose is bad behaviour also in doggy world and usually other dog tells it clearly to one trying it, that it wasn't the bestest idea. And of course it is not nice to terrorize little puppies so you should look after them when they play now at first and tell Ace no, if he is too rough.

 

[AnnieO]

Perfectly normal. Just be glad he isn't humping your kid's wolf pillow. We had to throw Wolfie out.

 

[BusynMember]

Normal. I would fix the dog though.

 

[donna723]

That's perfectly normal doggie behavior, especially in an intact male. Even females sometimes do it. It's not really a "mating" kind of thing, it's to show dominence. He's just trying to show the puppy who's the boss. If this is the first time you've seen him do that, you're very lucky! Most intact male dogs will do that to other dogs, cats, small children, sofa pillows, and the legs of guests visiting in your home! I agree with GoingNorth -he would probably be a lot happier and healthier if he was neutered. It's a very simple procedure, not that expensive, and they get over it very quickly.

 

[nerfherder]

Yah, Pita the Schnug likes to do that to the young goats when the moms are out of sight. Why? Because Marley the lab is 5 times her size and Cowboy the Chihuahua is smaller but has tiny sharp teeth and a temper.

(And yes, castrated goats do it too. Heck, 2 day old buckling goats will do it, falling over more often than not.)

 

[witzend]

Mandy and Oscar are spayed and neutered and both mount each other and other dogs when they're overexcited. It's about dominance, not reproduction.

Definitely get the puppy neutered. It helps with behavioral issues and keeps them from marking territory. There are plenty of dogs in the world, so there's really no reason to let a dog breed if you're not a breeder.

 

[TerryJ2]

It's an alpha thing and he wanted to show who's boss. Plus, if he's not neutered, he'll mount anything. One of my dogs mounted a stuffed animal, and when I was a kid, a dog grabbed onto my leg and went at it!
It has nothing to do with-a male not being really a male.
Time to get him neutered.

 

[DammitJanet]

My dogs have done that whether they were males or females. Buddy my tiny havenese tries to hump my mixed breed pit. She is 10 times his size, if not more. He has also humped larger stuffed animals including the lovely stuffed bear I got him for Xmas this year before he attacked it to get the squeaker out...lol. He is fixed too and has been since before I got him.

 

[DDD]

Well, thanks to you all and my easy child I have learned something.......something that I would have preferred not to know, LOL! easy child told me her very very small fixed female does that now and again at the dog park. My husband and I have had more disagreements about Ace than we have had over the eight children! husband will NOT allow HIS dog to be fixed. Yes, he is an educated eighty year old and yet he will NOT agree. Since Ace is the only pet at home and does not display any signs of sexuality I'd rather forgotten that he had any hormones.

Cane is going to be fixed much to my amazement. easy child/difficult child and girlfriend have talked many times about how much money they could make breeding Cane and I almost fell out of my chair last night when girlfriend matter of factly said "we are going to get Cane fixed". Yeah!

I have been counting on Ace living with easy child/difficult child. I "get" that it is dominance and not sexual. on the other hand do I "get" that the only way to stop the activity is to watch all the time when they are together and then call Ace off??? Somehow it does seem unlikely that constant supervision would be something to rely upon. Surely I wouldn't want the puppy to get injured. What happens when the puppy grow to be the same size as Ace? Does the quest for dominance continue until one dog is the winner? Is it plausible that Ace sought dominance because it was HIS yard and would not be doing it in Cane's yard? I'm still shocked Ace knew the front from the back, LOL. DDD

 

[SuZir]

Neutering a dog doesn't have only positive effects. In fact neutering them young causes much more troubles with hips etc. And neutering adult dog can cause some problems too (usually with fur and keeping their weight down.) In Europe dogs are not neutered routinely like in USA and I wouldn't ever neuter my dogs if not necessary because of health issues.

Anyway, about Ace and Cane. Yes, first you have to keep them in eye, but after they get used to each other and Cane gets little bigger (he is very small yet, I guess) and if they stay friendly, it's not that necessary. Of course considering the breeds, it is possible they may not get along when Cane grows up, but they are most likely to come along just fine at least till he is a year or two. And because of the age difference it is very possible they will be friendly also when he grows up. But you never know with breeds like that and same gender. Puppies often play rough and adult dog may be very vocal about when the puppy gets over the line and it may even look bad, but usually it is just lots of noise and adult dog is careful not to actually hurt the puppy (but the puppy may scream rather convincingly even though not hurt.) And yeah, depending the puppy, they may be on to it again five minutes later...

 

[TerryJ2]

Yes, what goes around comes around. We used to have borzoi--a large breed--and the female would tease the male puppy mercilessly. We'd laugh and say, "Wait until he's bigger; you'll be sorry." Sure enough, the day came when he was waaayy bigger and he ran past her and knocked her to the ground. It's just part of who and what they are.
Usually, unless it's a Chihuahua and a great Dane, you don't have to worry about the size. It's all play fun until one gets hurt, screeches, and then growls and fights back for real. Usually, the real fights only last about 20 seconds but to a human it seems like an eternity.
And in the meantime, yes, you can call off the bigger dog when he's mounting, and you can discipline him. Call him off, then give him a command, like "Sit," and give the puppy the same command. Then say "all free" or whatever and throw a ball or something that's a diversion.

 

[witzend]

We just ignore Mandy and Oscar when they do it. Unless poor Mandy is trying to go potty while Oscar is telling her he's boss. Our neighbors are convinced that Oscar is gay. I wonder if we need to send him to Big Gay Al's Animal Sanctuary?

 

[DDD]

I'm sure that it is possible to be naive when you are 72 and have always had a dog...BUT...I was afraid that Ace would head to the only cavity available and end up hurting the 22 pound puppy. I'm gathering...am I right?...that from your responses I don't need to fear that "entry" would be the problem???? I can't cope with the idea that our big innocent male dog would or could hurt easy child/difficult child's much loved puppy. Yikes. DDD

 

[Hound dog]

Entry won't be an issue, no. And as far as getting the right area of the body........well, most don't seem to care if they even get the right area. LOL

One has to laugh, otherwise you might rip out your hair. lol

If a dog doesn't want to put up with such behavior, they won't hesitate to make it known, regardless of age/sex. Betsy was my first dog with an issue this way.........it showed up after spaying.....and it just grew worse with age. Pillows were her main target as she found out Mom would get mad if anything (a toddler for instance) else was a target. Molly let her know immediately she wasn't going to tolerate it. Usually a warning growl and maybe a nip is all it takes to get them to stop.

I'm wondering how this is going to play out with our family dogs now as there are more males than females, both females are spayed. Ammo is spayed. Neither Nichole or I am inclined to spay our new pups anytime soon as vet warned it has been shown over time to cause hip issues. He's recommending not prior to 2 yrs unless issues crop up with wandering or aggression. If I'm gonna wait that long........which I probably will (hip surgery is far more expensive than getting him fixed) ..........I most likely won't ever bother to get it done. Because for me that will mean I've managed to keep him in the yard without issue.

 

[witzend]

There's never entry if the dog is neutered. Our standard poodle was not fixed and was quite successful on the other hand. Generally unaltered males don't succeed unless the female is in heat, and if that's the case, it takes about two seconds.