Random need to hump

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

Hello everyone! 2 weeks ago we got phin neutered. That procedure went well and phin has made almost a full recovery. He went in for his follow up and the vet was very happy with his incision and how it was healing. This leads me to the reason of this discussion. Our other dog yeti took an interest to phins incision about 2 days ago (after leaving it alone for almost 2 weeks). He would not stop trying to lick it. I thought maybe it had an odor of some sort and he was trying to “clean” it for phin. I brought it up to our doctor and she didn’t seem overly concerned. He has shown much less interest in his incision, but will NOT stop humping phin. He is relentless. Every time they are out of their kennels yeti mounts him instantly. (Keep in mind they are usually out of their kennels together but this behavior has gotten so bad we have had to start keeping one out and one in) Before the procedure both dogs would occasionally hump each other here or there when excited but I never considered it a problem. I am curious if anyone has experienced this and may have some helpful ideas on how to get it to stop. Any help or insight would be sooo greatly appreciated by myself, my fiancé and phin!

side note: yeti went to the groomer last week (without phin because he was still recovering) and there was a female in heat there. Is that potentially causing the problem? (Yeti is not fixed yet)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I have no idea why the humping behavior has increased since Phin was neutered, (although I'm sure it's not because of the female in heat at the groomer's), but honestly, I wouldn't be too concerned about it. It's pretty harmless. 
I'm curious. I thought Yeti was older than Phin? Why did you have Phin neutered first? 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I also just noticed that you posted back last July that Yeti was humping other dogs quite a bit., to the point of being asked to leave daycare. So this isn;t really a new behavior, is it? https://doodlekisses.com/forum/topics/mounting-humping
Now I'm really curious why he hasn;t been neutered yet, lol. 

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

He is set to be neutered next month! They were both supposed to get nurtured in January but we had to take an emergency trip out of town and I didn’t want to leave them with my parents after only 2 days post surgery so when we re scheduled we had to do them a month apart. We waited because we were told it would be easier to recover if they got it done around the same time and I wanted Phin to be at least a year and a half (which he turned in January) but that ended up being pointless because we had to reschedule anyways. It has always been a problem with other dogs but never with phin! It’s been so strange.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Charlie humps dogs when he meets them. It is a problem because it has caused him to be attacked.  He tends not to hump dogs he knows, but once in  a while, he will try.  Everyone is neutered or spayed.  It's not that we are embarrassed by his humping but he has this high energy aura that seems to make some dogs reactive to him and the humping is part of it.  We have been working very hard to make Charlie listen to my commands, be less leash reactive and to curb his Hello to new dogs.  It  seems to be working.  One of the things we are doing is really looking at his body language and stopping him before he humps.  Since it doesn't happen at home with Ned or Clancy, we only have to be on guard when we are out with him, especially at the doodle romps.  We probably will not go to dog parks when we go on vacation though because I get very stressed since he was attacked at one. They will just have to stay on- leash. 

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

This is SO yeti. At the dog park a few weeks ago someone called him the dog park rapist ... and your so right about body language. I can ALWAYS tell when he’s about to do it and stopping before starting works best. I’m not exactly sure what’s going on with him lately but he is relentless with phin for some reason.

[Bonnie and Kona]

I have no idea if this is a possibility, but I believe there are times humping is a dominance issue. I am wondering if Phin was wearing a cone after his surgery. If so, maybe Yeti is feeling he can take advantage and exhibit dominance because Phin is "weaker". Owen humps Kona if he has been at the vet without him. I have no explanation for that one. 

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

I am beginning to think something might be wrong with Yeti. I think its more than a dominance behavior. I let Phin out of his kennel and then Yeti and Yeti LEAPED right onto Phin and has been going at it for the last hour. Yeti is so worked up hes been panting so hard and just wont quit. We are all at our wits end with it lol

[Bonnie and Kona]

I'm sorry. This sounds really hard Haley 

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

This is probably ridiculous but is it possible that phin's scent has changed post surgery and it's freaking yeti out a bit?  In any case I would do some bloodwork on him when he goes for his neuter.  It was an option for us to have some done for Riley before her surgery. 

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

I am thinking it’s VERY possible that his scent has changed. I don’t know how or why or if it’s even possible but that’s the only thing I can think of. It has never been an issue with phin before this. Phin looks at me so so so sad. He will not correct yeti so it just continues.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

I mean his hormones would have changed for sure and dogs can definitely smell those that's why it came to mind.  Maybe after his own neuter he will adjust, poor phin.

[Bonnie and Kona]

I would leash Yeti when he’s out of his kennel so he cannot hump Phin. If you have a short slip lead from a vet office, that might be light enough for him to have some freedom of movement but easy for you to grab to stop his behavior before he gets started. I definitely would not let him get “worked up”. If you stop him and put him in a down stay then you can reward the good behavior. (Note: I am not a dog trainer so this is just another owner opinion you can take with a grain of salt)