Excited Mounting

[GregoryGraves]

Hello Adrienne,

 

I'm quite new to the site and this forum. First, I'd like to give a bit of background.

My husband and I recently (a week and a half ago) rescued a three year and nine month old German Shepherd mix. He is mostly German Shepherd and we are unsure what the mix may be or what potential percentage. His name is Shadow, and he's such a lovable guy once he's warmed up to you.

The history that we received from the shelter is as follows:

His first and only family, before us, had him since he was a puppy. The father had a regular 9-5 work schedule, and the mother was stay-at-home. They had three kids, the eldest around five or six while the youngest was still crawling. The reason the family gave for surrendering him to the vet was that Shadow was nervous peeing when the father came home. This created problems with the youngest sometimes crawling through the urine. Also, at the shelter, he displayed nervous, fearful, and reactive behavior, especially toward men. In fact, it took four days before he did not bark at us upon return to the shelter, which I was happy to see that he was actually glad to see me return on the day we finally adopted him. He also knew very basic obedience in terms of sit, down, and shake. Other than that, we got to see that he was highly motivated with playing fetch, and was as nice way for us to warm up to him. That's all we were able to learn before adopting him.

After adopting him, I looked up training programs online and came across yours. Other than starting a routine of three walk and three fetch play sessions during the day, we also got him brushing up on his obedience 101. He is leash reactive, so we've been working on keeping him under threshold and doing desensitizing and counter-conditioning on our walks. We even had a very successful session with our nephew yesterday. We had our nephew sit in the field at the High School a block from our house. We walked a half circle around him at first, giving treats liberally each time he was "alert" to our nephew. Slowly we approached, but even if he barked once, we were still able to distract him and get him to do a command. Eventually, we were able to approach our nephew where we pulled out the ball he loves, had him sit and lie down, and then offered the ball to our nephew to toss. With just one or two bark, Shadow warmed up immediately to our nephew.

Because of that successful session, I think we're making progress. I still remain aware that I need to be cautious and methodical though. I want to avoid as many setbacks as possible.

We just have an issue when we have people over at our house. For example, our nephew came back to the house with us, and we had him play fetch with Shadow for a while in our fenced backyard, thus securing the positive association. When we finally entered the house, Shadow remained extremely excited. Usually with us, he'll spend his free time chewing on his favorite ball. He brings it to us, but we just set it down for him as we don't want "fetch" to be an inside thing. We also do our best to capture calm moments when he's inside. However, when someone new is over, he remains excited and potentially anxious. If he is not distracted with something, he tries to mount the new person. He also did this for the first four to five days with us, usually around the hours of 5-8 PM.

What I've been doing is telling him "off" as a command and then get him to sit. I try and wait about a second and a half before I give him the treat, but I'm still worrying that I may be creating a chain command that involves the mounting. I have seen him go to do the mounting, stop, and then look at me. Again, I'm worried that that may have been a sign that he was learning to do that to get a treat. Also, it is rare, but every now and then, during what we call his "anxious hours" (5-8 PM), he tries the mounting with us still. It is definitely not a frequent as it was those first four nights with us. If it occurs with us, I ignore the behavior and get him to do a sit command instead. This is something I am very embarrassed about, but I know that he's still new to us and we're new to him, so he needs time, patience, and consistency.

I'm curious about your thoughts on this mounting behavior and what you think would be the best approach for it. He's doing well with his brain training, and we're on to elementary for him. Other than that, I think we're making some progress with the reactivity, especially with the successful session with our nephew yesterday. However, we still have to work on securing it in several different environments with different stimuli, but we're taking it slow for him.

 

Hope all is well,

Greg

[Adrienne]

Hi there, 

Welcome to the forums, and thank you for rescuing!

It is wonderful that you are taking your time to help Shadow become less reactive on leash. It takes great patience to work with these fellows, and the fact that you were able to get lovely results so quickly goes to demonstrate your dedication. Knowledge is power, and the fact that you are aware of the potential for setbacks puts you in a better position as you'll know what to do (take smaller steps and aim to lower those threshold levels). 

To answer your query about the mounting behavior, we need to first understand that the behavior is quite normal doggy behavior, just as barking, digging and stealing things from counters. However, this doesn't make it acceptable. It goes without saying that mounting is an impolite behavior and it's best to be discourage it, especially when humans are on the receiving end. 

From what you describe, it is possible that he has chained the two behaviors, and there are ways to tackle this to break the chain.

 My favorite is to simply catch him before he has the chance to mount. In other words, don’t wait for the hip action to begin, interrupt him before he gets to grab a leg with his front legs, or even better, the moment you see him walking towards a guest or you notice that look (or some lip smacking some dogs do before the act). This is also helpful because he is prevented from rehearsing the problem behavior. The more dogs rehearse behaviors, the more they become habit-forming. 

With humping guests, my preferred course of action is to train an alternate behavior.  Many times dogs learn best if we can train them to perform an alternate behavior that is far more rewarding to engage in compared to the mounting. 

We can therefore train our dog to interact with guests in better ways. For instance, we can train them to target the guest's hands with his nose in exchange for a tossed treat. We can do this exercise several times. Here's how to train it: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/preschool/targeting/

and then, after several reps, we can train our dogs to go to a mat and reward them for staying there with a long-lasting chew: 

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/video-archive/train-dog-go-to-mat/

You can certainly do the sit to re-direct, but once again, you'll have to ask for it before he gets to start mounting, and therefore, you will need a super fast, almost reflexive response and you may have to use an upward hand gesture to get his attention initially (gestures are more salient to dogs than voice).

This training though takes time, so ideally, prevent rehearsal of the problem behavior in the meanwhile through management (keeping him in a crate, in an exercise pen, tethered or behind a baby gate or in separate room when you have guests over and give him a long-lasting treat like a stuffed Kong), while you work in the background on the desirable behavior you’d like your dog to perform when guests come over.

Worth mentioning are also these options in case he manages to try to mount unexpectedly:

Tell your guests that your dog is in training and instruct them to get up and walk away the moment you or them notice that your dog is about to start mounting. 

Alternatively, you can have your dog around guests, but have him wear a short leash snapped onto your dog’s collar so that it is trailing. Keep a close eye on your dog, anticipating his behavior and step in to interrupt it in a timely manner. Therefore, every time he tries to mount your visitors, without any fuss, grasp the leash and lead your dog to a quiet room, where you can socially isolate him from any contact for a little while. Make sure he has access to some chew toys in the room so he can keep occupied. After this “time out,” you can then allow him to return, but be ready to repeat as needed. Remember: it is far easier interrupting the behavior before he gets to mount than once he has latched on.

Use caution: some dogs may react aggressively when they are mounting and you try to remove them from a guest's leg or other body part. If your dog ever reacts this way, enlist the help of a dog behavior professional, and in the meanwhile, keep him safely crated or in another room when guests are over. 

It would be also important to consider Shadow's underlying emotions. The behavior may stem from excitement, but there may also be some level of anxiety at play. Not all dogs may be totally comfortable having guests over, and sometimes this may lead to some stress. Or perhaps, your dog may have already been exposed to some type of stress prior to your guest's arrival, and now it's time to wind down and release some of it with a little bit of humping activity.

Mounting in this case may be what ethologists refer to as displacement behaviors. These are out-of-context behaviors that take place when dogs are faced with conflicts. For example, your dog may overly excited, and perhaps even a bit anxious about having a new guest over, so mounting may be his way of acting out so to relieve his excited energy or stress.

Basically, it boils down to this: when your dog is unsure on how to behave in a certain situation, or if he’s overly excited about the arrival of guests, mounting helps relieve his tension.

If your dog is anxious, it may therefore help to take steps to reduce his anxiety. Ask your guests to talk in a calm tone of voice and use subtle movements. Create positive associations with having guests in your home, give treats for when they talk louder, laugh, get up or move around. Reduce the number of stressors from your dog's environment as much as you can. He is very new and all the changes can be taxiing on dogs. 

If you are noticing a tendency to mount/act overstimulated in the evenings between 5 and 8 PM, then there is likely a need that is not being met during this time, so your dog tries to change how he's feeling himself by humping. Often this stems from a need for interaction or mental challenge at this time of day. So brain games and maybe a walk may turn helpful during this time so you can interrupt Shadow's need to do the unwanted behavior and prevent it from becoming a pattern. Humping tends to increase the arousal/excitement level so it is particularly important to prevent it from happening. 

I hope this helps,

Keep me posted on his progress.

Best,

Adrienne 

Disclaimer: The above tips are based on dealing with a dog who is friendly and safe and not a bite risk. If you are unsure or have a new dog, best to play it safe and consult with a dog behavior professional.

[GregoryGraves]

Thank you very much!

 

We'll start putting your advice to use right away.

Thankfully, Shadow hasn't shown any signs of growling or biting with anything yet. I still remain vigilant and keep an eye on his body language in all situations we encounter. If he shows any aggression, we're ready to commit to finding a professional for help. I'm hopeful with some of the progress we've seen thus far though. I nephew stayed the weekend and Shadow was even listening to him. Before Shadow even put up the first paw, our nephew would tell him "off" and Shadow stopped and went to do something else. We just need to establish a much more rewarding activity for him to do at these times. We've already got a Kong, but we've got to restock on the stuffers for it.

We'll work on the longer stay duration and the "go to your mat" command. He's staying for about ten seconds for me in a calm environment so far, so we still need to work on that for him. He's also been doing very well with his target. He even jumps up to hit it with his nose already. He's been a joy to work with as he learns some of these things so quickly. It's amazing to see just how smart he is. I think that as long as we give him the time, patience, and attention he deserves, he'll get there, and it'll be most rewarding just to see him less anxious and stressed.

I'll be sure to keep you updated. Also, some good news is that he barked at the neighbor dog twice but then came running back for his toy ball earlier today. He's often more reactive toward other dogs, with a much farther threshold, so that one will likely take longer for him. I'm super vigilant for other dogs when we're out on our walks, and it's funny just how I've become with most of the neighborhood now. I know which houses around us have dogs and how to stay at a proper distance from them when walking Shadow for the meantime. We also had another good counter-conditioning walk today, about five stranger sightings without any barking, usually remaining about fifteen to twenty feet or more away.

Also, thank you so much for your website and all the advice you offer. It has been a blessing for us in working with Shadow. He deserves the best, and we want to help him get there. It always hurts to see a dog that had to go through the trauma of losing their family and being surrendered to the shelter. We fell in love with Shadow even though it took some time for him to warm up to us, but he seems happier with each passing day. So with your help, I know we're on the road to seeing him even happier still!

 

Thank you,

Greg

[Adrienne]

Shadow is very lucky to have found such dedicated owners!

I am thrilled to hear he was behaving so well when your nephew stayed for the weekend and that he is learning so quickly. It's also great to hear that you are able to see improvements on his walks and reactivity towards other dogs. That's awesome!

I am always here is you have any questions or want to share updates. In the meanwhile, keep up the great work and happy training!

Best,

Adrienne