Why Puppies Mount Things

Strange as it might seem to some people, puppies sometimes do things that can highly embarrass their owners like eating sick things, biting, growling, and yes, mountings things like toys, furniture or even a visitor's leg! Now although it can be just horrible for that to happen, especially if the person your puppy is doing it to just so happens to be your boss… well, the truth is that mounting is something completely normal; all they are doing is doing what they will as adults, as a matter a fact mount in adult dogs is all about social status. The stronger dog has the higher rank in a pack and this is one way they let everyone know this.

Mounting is a way of communicating for dogs. However if your small teensy little pooch attempts to mount a dog that is much larger in size or that is not properly socialized, the best is to intervene and keep the pooch away from possibly getting hurt by bigger dogs.

As nasty as it is, puppies sometimes use toys such as stuffed animals and mount them. In general this behavior should not upset you as an owner but if it does get to be too much and bothers others, tell your dog in a firm voice to "stop!" or "enough!" and proceed to take away the puppies' "sex toy" and give the puppy another substitute toy, (not a stuffed animal though). If your dog mounts people, you will need to stop him from behaving in this indecent way though.

The following are some ways to teach your dog to not mount things or people:

• Train your puppy to sit and shake when they greet people.
• Encourage your puppy to get plenty of exercise and allow him to participate in a lot of different stimulating interactive games such as fetch, hide and seek etc. When playing these games with your puppy though, don't exaggerate with petting and touching him as it might cause him to get over excited.
• Believe it or not, female dogs also mount things; obviously they do this less than the males do, nonetheless it does happen. One option is to have the puppy spayed or neutered. Although neutering and spaying may not take care of the problem entirely, it can help a bit. It is important to keep in mind that mounting isn't entirely related to sex, but it is important to keep a dog controlled to avoid overpopulation.