Humping at the dog park

[choo_choo_bear]

I've just discovered a fenced dog park that's a 15-minute drive from my place. I've taken my 1-year-old Cocker Spaniel (Dexter) there twice now, and each time he's humped other dogs. The other dog owners (the "regulars" at the park) are less than impressed, and have made it clear that this is something I should train him not to do. What bothers me

Comments

[teacupdiaries]

In my opinion, biting is far worse than mounting, and if an owner is worried about their dog biting another dog, THEIR dog shouldn't be allowed at the dog park.

This isn't really fair considering that even well-behaved dogs will bite if pushed too far. My own boy has good bite inhibition but if, for example, a large puppy kept jumping at his face, he would definitely snap, and he might one day make contact by accident, or if no one stepped in (and, obviously, I consider it my job to protect him from these things).

Humping can be a dominance issue and so some dogs respond incredibly aggressively towards it. I witnessed a very sweet little greyhound female release a nasty put-down on a male grey who thought mounting her would be fun. She is actually a shy little thing and very well-behaved but another dog mounting her pushes her fear buttons, and she snaps.

I'm not well-versed on clicker training but I am sure that there would be a way to use your clicker to prevent humping. Redirection seems like a good way to go, and I like miss_teacher's suggestion of '3 strikes and you're out'.