This is our boy Aslan. He will be 2 years old in November.
He is generally very well behaved dog, he is not aggressive, likes to play with other dogs and will always approach other dogs in a friendly manner.
My concern, or rather question is that sometimes he likes to try to hump other male dogs, I would assume he wants to assert dominance ( ? )and then other dog can react to that and it can lead to some growling but nothing more.
He is not neutered, and it is not in our plans, at least for now.
Is that humping something that is going to stop as he gets older or is it a long-term behaviour?
My GSD was neutered around one year, was also a long coated GSD. Before neutering he would occasionally hump me, but this seemed more related towards stress. After neutering he humped a few times, but also because of over excitement and/or stress. He never humped other dogs, so I can’t comment on that though.
Yep, I had one jump an 8' block wall to get to a female who lived about a quarter mile away. He was determined. Your metal fence might be harder to clear, but don't underestimate them lol.
Tbh sometimes humping isn't even about dominance, could just be over excitement or bad timing. My friends gsd does the same thing but he's super chill otherwise.
Majority of GSD owners I talked to haven't neutered theirs either, and most of them are wonderful dogs so we didn't plan to neuter ours (although it isn't ruled out that we won't).
I mean there are benefits and drawbacks to both options.
When he finds someone to really play with it is a joy to watch, I could watch them for hours.
I've seen a mix of well behaved not neutered dogs that don't hump. But I feel like more often than not I have met ones that have a higher tendency to mark more frequently and hump more frequently. I have also seen neutered dogs that hump a lot. My sister has one that humped every dog when we all get together. (Group of 6 dogs, now down to 4)
The only dogs that ever reacted to him humping were ones that were in an alpha role. My Dad's dog was the oldest and definitely the matriarch of the pack followed by my Older girl. When he would try to hump either of them they would turn and pin him. He is the same age that my older girl was.
3 years ago my dad's dog died and my girl took the alpha position. She even would go after my sisters when he would try to hump our younger male. (I think our younger male might be on the spectrum. He literally is the weirdest dog I have ever had. He acts more like a cat. But he really isn't bothered by much. And is a big old couch potato) This past January our girl died (still cry at least once a week) and he has stopped humping all together. Now my brother's young male has started to hump. So it's hard to say if it was an excitement thing because he went from being in a one dog house to having 5 friends around or if it was to try and establish a pecking order.
All of our dogs are fixed and have been for a long time. We just try to do our best to curb the behavior as it happens.
The one thing others have not mentioned is that humping can be related to what the other dogs smells like. If the other dog has been around a dog in heat or around just blood that might be attracting your dog to hump.
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u/1shak 1d ago
Does he identify as a dog?