# 5 month old FEMALE "humping behavior" LOL - normal?!



## Lou (Sep 22, 2012)

5 month old FEMALE "humping behavior" LOL - normal?!

I tried to post this once my browser window shut down - hope im not posting a duplicate.

She puts her arms on our shoulders when she is behind us and we are sitting on the floor, ans starts the hip movements LOL.... I tell her: "hunny, you dont have the "thingy" that you need to do _this_ and hubby and I laugh hard!!!

But isnt she young to start this kind of stuff? 5 months old and she is female!

she is really big for her age , I dont know if that has anything to do with it , but vet confirmed her age.... so here is a picture to show how big she is.

any thoughts? thanks very much!!


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## stealthq (Aug 4, 2011)

Yep, normal. Humping is either sexual (unlikely), dominance, or excitement. Personally, I don't like a humping dog and will say AH-AH and give a poke in the side and wave a toy to distract them out of it, but other people don't seem to mind and just tolerate it. I will say that if you don't want her doing this for the rest of her life, I wouldn't laugh when she does - poodles seem to interpret laughter as a REALLY good thing and she may pick it up as a favored 'trick' 

ETA: On the age thing - my puppy arrived at my house a humping (and screaming) machine. He was a couple days shy of 8 wks. old. He humped his bed, his toys, me, even in his sleep! With consistent redirection, he pretty much quit by 3mos. old and I haven't seen him try at all since 4mos.


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## Lou (Sep 22, 2012)

I totally agree with you, she definitely knows that when hubby and I are dieing laughing that it means something good and she gets more excited and tries to "entertain us" even more! LOL Ok I will follow your advice and say "NO" or something like that "AH-AH" AND pull her down and distract her, cause I do not want her embarrassing me in front of guests or any situtation... LOL She is a sweetie though, i dont think its dominance, probably just excitement , she gets REALLY excited when we walk in , or when we first see her in the morning, its crazy happiness and jumping and kisses and "gentle bites" (I wanna get her to stop that too, no jumping on people - she is too big, and also no biting hands.... whew... anyway... i wanna let you know and a month and a half she already has learned 20-22 commands, so Im not a bad momma, but some things are tougher for me to know how to handle like the 2 I mentioned above: jumping & luv bites

thanks so much for your help!!! all the best to you and yours


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## Locket (Jun 21, 2009)

Do you engage her when she gets all excited and nippy and jumpy? 

You might want to try this:
When you get home or wake up, ignore her. Pretend she doesn't exist. Let her get all the silliness out, and when she is calm and sensible, then acknowledge her, but do so very calmly (e.g. "hi Lou" and a pat on the side). 

I know I was guilty of getting caught up in the excitement when Matrix was young and wild and he STILL gets all excited and nippy when we come home. He is 9 and a half years old!! Ignoring him has helped some, but he just can't contain himself some days.


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## sweetheartsrodeo (Sep 19, 2012)

Lou is beautiful! Oh my gosh she is a big baby! You got great advice from all... I just wanted to say how pretty she is


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## Lou (Sep 22, 2012)

Locket said:


> Do you engage her when she gets all excited and nippy and jumpy?
> 
> You might want to try this:
> When you get home or wake up, ignore her. Pretend she doesn't exist. Let her get all the silliness out, and when she is calm and sensible, then acknowledge her, but do so very calmly (e.g. "hi Lou" and a pat on the side). .


==========
Well, we have tried it with guests, when they come in she goes nuts, super happy jumping wagging her tail, her entire butt ( *actually right now before i typed the things in between the parenthesies,) a friend knocked on the door, she barked <sounds like a mean/big dog LOL> and he walked in and I said: "No jumping... Down!!!" and I also said the magic word: CHEESE!, "if you _calm down_ I will give you cheese..." LOL She started focusing on me and calmed down considerably... cause I have used the command "CALM DOWN" a lot... and she knows what it means... hehehehehe so thats some progress right? she still jumped a little but just up in the air without touching the person... 
Do you think this is ok?
Cause it would break my heart to have to ignore her when she is sooo happy to see me....


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## Lou (Sep 22, 2012)

sweetheartsrodeo said:


> Lou is beautiful! Oh my gosh she is a big baby! You got great advice from all... I just wanted to say how pretty she is


aaaaaawwwwwww thank you... that just made my day!! I think she is beautiful too  thank you so much.... well... i cant control my self, here are some more cute pictures of her, she poses for the camera... hehehehehehe

Is that your baby on your post? looks like she is "modeling" too!!!! so cute


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## Locket (Jun 21, 2009)

It's totally up to you on how you train her, but when you give her attention when she's all excited, you are basically rewarding her for the excited behaviour. If you ignore her until she is calm, then you are rewarding her for being calm. 

In my experience, it is MUCH more pleasant to greet a happy calm dog, then a happy, crazy, bouncing, biting dog. It's hard to ignore them at first, but picture her when she's full grown...do you want a 50+lb dog biting you every time you leave and come back?


Lou is adorable. I can see why it's so hard not to give in to her excitement!


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## sweetheartsrodeo (Sep 19, 2012)

Oh my I love those pictures! The first one with the sleepy smile... I love it when Remi does that. What a beautiful baby... I don't think there is anything as sweet as a happy poodle.


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## Lou (Sep 22, 2012)

Locket said:


> It's totally up to you on how you train her, but when you give her attention when she's all excited, you are basically rewarding her for the excited behaviour. If you ignore her until she is calm, then you are rewarding her for being calm.
> 
> In my experience, it is MUCH more pleasant to greet a happy calm dog, then a happy, crazy, bouncing, biting dog. It's hard to ignore them at first, but picture her when she's full grown...do you want a 50+lb dog biting you every time you leave and come back?
> 
> ...


*Lou's dad is 90lbs!!!!!! *CAN YOU PICTURE IF SHE IS THIS BIG ALREADY.....

she could jump on me (or anyone) and Id fall right down on my butt.... LOL

Yes I will try what you say.... you are right... bummer! LOL not in the morning though, because she is excited in the morning but groggy so she doesnt jump, she is the "melting puppy" in the morning LOL - is that ok?

I will though, I promise, ignore her when i get home, or when guests come in ask them to do the same.... until she is calm... (do I tell her to "call down" and "no jumping" while the guests ignore her? mmm Im sorry for so many questions dear... I just bought 2 books about dogs and training hehehehe)


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## sweetheartsrodeo (Sep 19, 2012)

Lou said:


> *Lou's dad is 90lbs!!!!!! *CAN YOU PICTURE IF SHE IS THIS BIG ALREADY.....
> 
> she could jump on me (or anyone) and Id fall right down on my butt.... LOL
> 
> ...


I don't know if this would work for you, but it has made a night and day difference for us. I have been teaching Remi hand signals. He has learned to sit, lay down, stay, and hug. When some one comes in, I give the verbal sit, and then the signal followed by a down and stay. When he is totally calm, I say "release" and he is much better at not jumping to great someone. 

Dad was 90 lbs?! Holy Cow... I went about a year ago and looked at a litter in Deep East Texas... The pups were CKC registered but I was in shock, the mom was around 90 lbs but the dad topped out at over 100... I could just see me walking this fuzzy horse lol  I didn't get one of the pups, but I sure wanted one....


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## Lou (Sep 22, 2012)

sweetheartsrodeo said:


> I don't know if this would work for you, but it has made a night and day difference for us. I have been teaching Remi hand signals. He has learned to sit, lay down, stay, and hug. When some one comes in, I give the verbal sit, and then the signal followed by a down and stay. When he is totally calm, I say "release" and he is much better at not jumping to great someone.
> 
> Dad was 90 lbs?! Holy Cow... I went about a year ago and looked at a litter in Deep East Texas... The pups were CKC registered but I was in shock, the mom was around 90 lbs but the dad topped out at over 100... I could just see me walking this fuzzy horse lol  I didn't get one of the pups, but I sure wanted one....


Yes, this sounds wonderful sweetheasrtsrodeo, i have taught her to sit, lay down and stay also (she only stays if i maintain eye contact at this point.) but HUG !!! THAT WOULD BE AWESOME , Im kinda trying to teach her that 
I will definitely try what you suggested as well, I really appreciate your reply!

Yes her dad is a huge red/apricot , beautiful hair also. I wanted a big dog and came across this one by luck (first breeder we went to see and she was the biggest of the litter and there were only 2 puppies left her and the smallest of the litter LOL) my husband is a big guy (football player type) and she wanted a dog he could tackle and play wrestling with LOL. I have to make sure that I get her UNDER CONTROL though, before she gets too big for me to "pull her away from someone that is scared of dogs for an example". I called about puppy classes today  Since she already knows like 20-22 commands and she is so big, they recommended the intermediate (6 mo to 1 year old dogs), I just made a list of a few things I really want to make sure she learns, maybe that training class would help as well... 
in the meantime I will try you guys's suggestions starting today!! thank u


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## Lou (Sep 22, 2012)

One more thing:

Thank you guys for the replies and nice/sweet comments it really melts my heart!

All the best to you


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## stealthq (Aug 4, 2011)

sweetheartsrodeo said:


> I went about a year ago and looked at a litter in Deep East Texas... The pups were CKC registered but I was in shock, the mom was around 90 lbs but the dad topped out at over 100...


Interesting. I've not run into too many standards around here, but the ones I have are nearly as tall as a Great Dane. Kohl looks like a mouse next to them at 24" and ~40lb. I wonder if they are from this breeder?


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## sweetheartsrodeo (Sep 19, 2012)

I don't know. I have never seen poodles that big... There was some discussion as they are calling them "Royal Poodles". After asking around thre is no such, but larger size are coming in from Europe from what I heard... no clue if it is true or not.


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## dcyk (Nov 30, 2011)

Mack used to try to hump my feet and toes, he's a toy poodle.

I put my toes apart and pinched him lightly whenever he tries to hump, he will immediately jump off like on a spring.

Now he doesn't do it, unpleasant for his groin.

He's trying to hump my hands now when i'm sitting on the floor. I hold out a finger straight and it pokes him in the groin, and he goes off too. Hope it gets out of his system soon..

He's still actively trying to hump females when he sees them....although neutered....arghhhhhh


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## Lou (Sep 22, 2012)

dcyk said:


> Now he doesn't do it, unpleasant for his groin.
> 
> He's trying to hump my hands now when i'm sitting on the floor. I hold out a *finger straight and it pokes him *in the groin, and he goes off too. Hope it gets out of his system soon..


Thanks for the Reply, your signature picture melts my heart, what a cutie!

Well, "poking" Lou wont help, *but I get your point,* its just that she is so big... "she doesnt even feel it" , like i have accidently hit her with my knee when she launched toward me and my knee was in pain from it and she felt nothing, keep wiggling her tail (entire butt) like nothing happened- its like a darn horse!! LOL 
I like the idea of poking though... Ive seen "Cesar the dog whisperer" do something like that several times... successfully (like to stop a dog from barking etc, basically get their attention etc)
thank u


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