7 month old male cavalier constantly humping bed

Hi there,

I just wondered if anyone had a similar experience. My 7 month old male puppy recently started humping his bed, I've had dogs before and realise that this is normal behaviour. However, my puppy has been humping to the point of him bleeding quite a lot, this has happened more than once now so I've taken away the bed and replaced it with something that he can't fold up into a suitable shape. Is this likely to continue for long? I've now booked him in to be neutered in 2 weeks, however we didn't really want to go down that route, but don't want to see the little chap so frustrated and in pain.

He should grow out of it (and neutering won't necessarily stop it!). In the meantime all you can do, I think, is what you are doing, minimise the opportunities and give him plenty of distractions, like removing him to elsewhere as soon as he starts humping and giving him a chew to concentrate on. Opinions vary about neutering, but I would consider 7 months rather too early - 12 months as a minimum age, to allow bone growth to cease etc. Have you discussed it with your vet? If Charlie's humping is excessive, there may be a physical reason for it such as hormonal imbalance.

Kate, Oliver and Aled

Thank you, I'll look in to that, hadn't thought about the possibility of a hormonal imbalance. Thanks for the info/advice. Aly

My Aled is the opposite way! His puppy farm kept him as a stud dog but he is low on testosterone and refused to perform! So he got dumped on a rescue at 18 months and I was lucky enough to get him.The downside is that he is neutered and obviously smells like a bitch to other dogs - we get them running across the park to hump him, much to the embarrassment of their owners who have to put their dog on the lead and drag him away

Perhaps your puppy has too much testosterone! You can ask your vet for a pill that will have the effect of neutering your dog without actually doing it - this would show you whether neutering is going to help the humping without actually having to do it at too young an age. Not sure if this pill would be OK with a young dog, your vet can tell you.

Kate, Oliver and Aled

Hi there, I actually have a similar problem, dogs will run across the park to sniff my puppy and will often then growl and become aggressive towards him. He is currently on a lead walk due to having a poorly knee and it is a real pain when other dog owners (often owning much bigger dogs) don't seem to take control of their dogs at all. My puppy is such a happy, cheerful little chap, and he always just wants to play so I'm not sure why they turn on him, I wondered if it was his hormones as he is 7 months old.

Hi,

My Charlie was always humping his bed or any furry toy that had a head on it. I took away those furry toys and got rid of the bed that I had for him that had sides on it that he could hump and replaced it with a soft blanket. He is now 15 months old and will maybe scrunch up his blanket and try to hump that, but otherwise he doesn't do it much anymore. He is also neutered and was still doing that.

Our two sibling pups, Fred and Ginger, are just six months old, and Fred has already begun humping Ginger. She will be spayed in a few days. We discussed this with the vet, who said it was a good idea. We plan to have Fred neutered later.

Roy and Jean