Dog Body Language: Humping During "Play"

Thank you Lars for sending such an awesome video!Show more

The original video length is 5:12. There's so much communication happening in that little bit of time that I slowed down some portions. You may want to slow the playback speed in settings.

Negative behaviors typically develop slowly overtime, even though they seem to come out of nowhere. Every interaction, inaction, and action with a dog is an act of classical conditioning. However, in some cases, behavior can drastically change due to hormonal changes. This is a factor in Balu's case, but the humping intensity could be diminished by Lars consistently associating humping with a negative consequence (such as ending play). This is called operant conditioning utilizing negative punishment. Or leading.

When observing canine behavior, I believe the tail position represents state of mind and the ear position represents intent. Actions confirm the meaning of the tail/ear positions and differ from dog to dog. Just like with human body language, there are individual variances that can only be distinguished overtime.

What do you see?