In most cases, puppies hump and bite as a result of sexual stimulation, as humping mimics the mounting and thrusting they do when mating. Humping and biting can also be due to nonsexual excitement, drawing attention to themselves, and sheer boredom.
Your job as a dog owner is to stop this behavior in its tracks as soon as the pup starts to show it. It’s much easier to sort this out while the puppy is still young and easily trained.
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Is Humping and Biting Normal Puppy Behavior?
Puppies have a lot of energy, and before they’re trained, not a lot of discipline. This can be the source of a lot of frowned-upon behaviors such as humping and biting.
If your puppy is still young, it’s normal for him or her to try to mount you or nip at you. Most of the time, he might think he’s playing with you or showing you affection.
What Are the Reasons for Puppies Humping Humans?
There are several reasons a puppy might be into mounting your leg and going at it:
Sexual Stimulation
This is probably everyone’s first guess due to the sexual nature of the humping motion. And it’s true, some puppies hump because they’ve matured sexually and want a release.
If you hold off from neutering or spaying your puppy early because of potential health risks, this will be more obvious.
When a female puppy is in heat, she might start experiencing arousal and resort to humping as a form of masturbation.
Similarly, a male puppy will get aroused and start humping inanimate objects or people to relieve his erection.
This behavior is partly instinctive, but there are also other factors at play here that make this a learned behavior. And as you’ll see below, some reactions to humping might encourage the puppy to keep doing it.
Nonsexual Excitement
Part of puppies’ charm is how affectionate and emotional they are. However, this can backfire in case your puppy starts showing emotion by humping your leg.
Dogs can experience nonsexual arousal when there are a lot of strong emotions around them. If you’re meeting with friends at home, hugging or laughter can cause your dog to get “hyped up,” so to speak.
This might trigger the humping and nipping, as he’ll think he’s showing you affection like your friends are doing.
Drawing Attention
An awkward encounter where your puppy started humping your leg and one of your friends laughed might seem trivial. However, it can be the reason your puppy keeps humping you.
Some dogs are natural-born entertainers, wanting attention all day, every day, and from everyone.
A puppy’s intelligence can help him associate certain reactions to his behaviors as rewards in and of themselves. So, in this case, a laugh or a cheer from an amused friend becomes the reward for the humping behavior.
Boredom or Understimulation
You could have trained your puppy against certain behaviors, but he might start humping, biting, growling, or barking because he’s bored.
If your puppy doesn’t get enough exercise or mental stimulation, these bad behaviors might start showing up and sticking around.
Puppies require a lot of attention and stimulation to grow up healthy and happy. Being too busy to spend time with your puppy could drive him to behave badly so you would interact with him, even if it’s to reprimand him.
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How Do I Stop My Puppy From Humping and Biting Me?
There are some measures you can take to stop your puppy from humping or attacking you. This includes:
Identify the Reason Behind the Humping
Treating the behavior should start by understanding why your puppy does it.
- If the reason is sexual arousal, consider neutering or spaying your puppy once he or she reaches the appropriate age.
- If the puppy humps because of over-excitement, try to do more socialization training with him.
- If your puppy is bored and understimulated, exercise can help release the pent-up energy that causes him to hump and bite.
Avoid Engaging and Leave the Room
This is a very effective method of stopping the puppy from continuing with his behavior. When you leave the room, you’re telling your puppy that you disapprove of what he’s doing.
If you share a household with other people, let them know what you’re doing so the puppy doesn’t get confused.
If he receives laughs or praise for his actions, he might continue to do them even if you disapprove.
Don’t be tempted to return to the room before a couple of minutes have passed by any cute puppy-eye looks or whining.
Your puppy needs to understand that what he did wasn’t okay and that it has repercussions.
Use Training Commands as a Distraction
If you’re training your puppy with commands like sit, leave it, down, and off, you can use them to distract the puppy from humping or biting.
Have a few treats on hand, and when your puppy starts humping, immediately tell him one of those commands.
If he obliges, sits, and gets down, you can give him a treat as a reward for following the command.
Be super careful not to get confused and give him the treat right after he humps your leg, though. This will reinforce the humping behavior, not the training command you want him to follow.
Ask for Professional Help
Sometimes, even if you try your best to train your puppy, he can be one of the stubborn ones that refuse to comply.
In this case, it’s best to engage the help of a professional who can tell you what your puppy’s problem is.
This professional can be a:
- Trainer
- Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT)
- Applied Animal Behaviorist, Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (CAAB), or Associate Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists (ACAAB).
- Veterinary Behaviorist
These titles explain the amount of studying the animal trainer did and the certification they received. And, well, some of them are better equipped to deal with a behavioral problem than others.
The trainer or veterinary behaviorist can assess whether your dog’s problem is physical or behavioral.
Based on their findings, you’ll receive a roadmap to tackle the behavioral problem or treat the health issue that causes the humping and biting.
Paul has been creating content for the dog niche for many years. The information he shares comes his first hand experience growing up in dog lovers household and then owning multiple dog breeds of his own as an adult. Paul enjoys doing the hard research to collect, analyze and present our dogtemperament.com readers with the best answers to their questions.