Why did he...? (question about Hank)

[CountryWolf07]

I have a question... We've had Hank since mid-October. And for the first time yesterday, when Mike (boyfriend) came over to pick me up for the weekend - first thing Hank seemed to do was to greet him happily then he went straight for his leg and started to hump. My parents said it was the first time they've seen him hump someone. Why Mike? Was it because he is a stranger? He also did the same thing again today when he came over for dinner before I left to come back to Ohio State... but yeah, has this happened to anyone? Hank is only 11 weeks old. I just thought it was strange.

[Taz_Zoee]

Humping is a way the dog shows dominance. Maybe Hank felt threatened so he wanted to show that he was superior to Mike. (I have no idea, just a guess)
Zoee and Taggart just started the humpty dance (as we call it) today. Zoee did it earlier to him and then he did it tonight to her.

Perhaps someone else will be able to give a more accurate reasoning to this. But as I've been told it is perfectly normal. We discourage it around here though.

[Giselle]

How old is Hank and has he been neutered?

Seriously, sometimes, Nature calls :p I really wouldn't be concerned unless Hank was a raging adolescent ruling the house and humping everybody. THEN, I would *maybe* label it dominance ;)

Edit: I just saw. He's 11 weeks. It's Nature.

[CountryWolf07]

Really? That young, at 11 weeks?

I can say that he doesn't hump anyone else but MIKE only. Seriously... lol.. It's just been a LONG time since I've had a male dog in the house.. after having two female dogs in the household for at least 10 years..

[Twisterdog]

It might be dominance ... maybe he is realizing, "Hey, I'm a guy. And here's a strange guy coming into my house. I'm going to show him that I'm the man of the house."

But, I would say, more likely he is just growing up a little bit, and starting to do what feels good to the big dogs. :rolleyes: Mike doesn't live with him as a member of his pack, and therefore doesn't discipline him. Maybe he thinks he can "get away with it" with him. Plus, Mike comes in with all kinds of new and interesting smells on him. He is probably just irresistable.

Just have Mike tell him "No!".

[caseysmom]

Maybe he likes his cologne:eek:

[scrain2329]

When a new dog comes into the house trey grabs his bed and does his business usually with us saying "hey trey knock it off!" Or "aagh trey gross!" When he was really young, we got him at 10 weeks he was doing it a couple weeks later. He came into the house with 2 female dogs, and he would have these rages where he would do the.. hump walk around my brother. Who is a growing teenager. Either boyfriend has a stronger scent of male pheromones, he could have been sweating, or just smells like a dominant male and hank thinks, alright buddy this is my turf! It could be his stature, the way he talks, deep voice, anything. Just hank being hank I'm sure :rolleyes: haha! I wouldn't worry about it but just let him know he doesn't need to do that to show hes a big boy!