Mounting Behaviour, Dominance? Maybe not.
Although thought by many dog owners to be a purely sexual behaviour,mounting serves a number of purposes. It can occur when the dog is excited or anxious as well as in play and in order to reproduce, its origins lie also in the ritualistic behaviour shown within packs to establish the social hierarchy. In most wild wolf packs, the only members of the pack that are allowed to mate are the alpha female and the alpha male and mating between subordinates is discouraged. So mounting is used to exert dominance onto another dog. A dog will only tolerate this mounting behaviour if he/she views that the dog doing the mounting is above him/her in rank. The dogs can be of either opposite or the same sex.
Because children are smaller and get down on the dog's level to play, dogs often consider them to be playmates. (1)
So in a dogs mind it is treating the child as it would another dog hence mounting behaviour may begin with the children in the household.
Women are often also targets for this behaviour, this is possibly dominance but also perhaps because females are generally at home more than men so spend more time with the dog and also tend to humanise dogs more than men do also women have higher pitched softer voices than men which may be ignored by a dog when it is told to stop unwanted behaviour.
Some studies have also indicated that dogs could have an instinctive predisposition to behave more dominantly with women.Over a one month period (February 21 to March 21, 2005), fifty seven dogs were observed at the Prairie Wolf Dog Exercise Area in the Lake County Forest Preserve. The sex of the observed dog, as well as the sex of each dog’s owner was recorded. The general appearance of each dog was also recorded to ensure that no dog was observed more than once. Then, each dog was observed individually for five minutes, starting from the time they were let off the leash. The latency to leaving the owner’s side (the length of time it took each dog to venture out of a five-metre radius from its owner), the total amount of time each dog spent out of this radius, and the total number of glances each dog directed at its owner during the five-minute period were recorded. All of these factors have been shown to be strongly linked to social structure arranged by dominant-subordinate relationships.
The results of this study support the hypothesis that the position achieved by an owner in the dominance hierarchy relating to a dogs social structure depends on the sex of both the owner and dog. Males of both species took on a more dominant status in the human-dog relationship overall in comparison to the more subordinate behavior of females. The results of this study indicate that the dominance hierarchy established between dog and owner is sex-dependent. More specifically, the data seems to indicate that dogs “perceive” male owners as more dominant than female owners. “Other studies have drawn similar conclusions for instance Koda and Shimoju (1999), while assessing human-dog interactions in a guide-dog training program, observed that all dogs, independent of sex, would initiate contact with women more frequently than with men.
The fact that alpha dogs are more “comfortable” approaching other pack members supports the researchers’ speculation that willingness to initiate contact was directly correlated with dominance. Therefore, this study also suggests that both male and female dogs act in a more confident and assured fashion when interacting with women,raising the question do dogs have an innate predisposition for asserting dominance over women, or are dogs merely responding to the fact that women are generally gentler and act less dominantly than men”? (2)
It is possible that some instances of mounting occurring with female family members could be sexual confusion on the part of the dog. Dogs are attracted to the groin area of humans as much as their own species, we both have the same apocrine sweat glands which give dogs detailed information about us.
The vomeronasal organ which is located in the roof of the dog’s mouth is suspected to be responsible for receiving pheromone information regarding the social status and reproductive status of conspecifics and other mammals (Lindsay, 2000). Therefore dogs can become especially interested when there is scent related to sexual contact or reproductive hormones.
Recent sexual behaviour, women during menstrual cycles and those recently giving birth may be of special interest to dogs. Dogs used in studies to predict ovulation in cows (Kiddy,1978) are considered more reliable than conventional methods. It has even been suggested that we could use dogs as a predictor for birth control, giving the family dog a new duty. (Coren 2004).
The ability to detect estrous especially in the adolescent dog may also occasionally cause it to direct confused and immature sexual advances towards ovulating or menstruating females in the family, which could be wrongly perceived as dominance.
References
(1) http://www.hsus.org/pets/pet_care/our_pets_for_life_program/dog_behavior_tip_sheets/Dominant-Dogs.html
(2) http://www.lakeforest.edu/images/userImages/vaidyt/Page_6060/wormserpa.pdf
Coren, Stanley, How Dogs Think: Understanding the Canine Mind.
New York: Free Press. 2004
Kiddy, C. A., D. S. Mitchell, D. J. Bolt, and H. W. Hawk. 1978. Detection of estrus-related odors in cows by trained dogs. Biol. Reprod. 19:389.
Because children are smaller and get down on the dog's level to play, dogs often consider them to be playmates. (1)
So in a dogs mind it is treating the child as it would another dog hence mounting behaviour may begin with the children in the household.
Women are often also targets for this behaviour, this is possibly dominance but also perhaps because females are generally at home more than men so spend more time with the dog and also tend to humanise dogs more than men do also women have higher pitched softer voices than men which may be ignored by a dog when it is told to stop unwanted behaviour.
Some studies have also indicated that dogs could have an instinctive predisposition to behave more dominantly with women.Over a one month period (February 21 to March 21, 2005), fifty seven dogs were observed at the Prairie Wolf Dog Exercise Area in the Lake County Forest Preserve. The sex of the observed dog, as well as the sex of each dog’s owner was recorded. The general appearance of each dog was also recorded to ensure that no dog was observed more than once. Then, each dog was observed individually for five minutes, starting from the time they were let off the leash. The latency to leaving the owner’s side (the length of time it took each dog to venture out of a five-metre radius from its owner), the total amount of time each dog spent out of this radius, and the total number of glances each dog directed at its owner during the five-minute period were recorded. All of these factors have been shown to be strongly linked to social structure arranged by dominant-subordinate relationships.
The results of this study support the hypothesis that the position achieved by an owner in the dominance hierarchy relating to a dogs social structure depends on the sex of both the owner and dog. Males of both species took on a more dominant status in the human-dog relationship overall in comparison to the more subordinate behavior of females. The results of this study indicate that the dominance hierarchy established between dog and owner is sex-dependent. More specifically, the data seems to indicate that dogs “perceive” male owners as more dominant than female owners. “Other studies have drawn similar conclusions for instance Koda and Shimoju (1999), while assessing human-dog interactions in a guide-dog training program, observed that all dogs, independent of sex, would initiate contact with women more frequently than with men.
The fact that alpha dogs are more “comfortable” approaching other pack members supports the researchers’ speculation that willingness to initiate contact was directly correlated with dominance. Therefore, this study also suggests that both male and female dogs act in a more confident and assured fashion when interacting with women,raising the question do dogs have an innate predisposition for asserting dominance over women, or are dogs merely responding to the fact that women are generally gentler and act less dominantly than men”? (2)
It is possible that some instances of mounting occurring with female family members could be sexual confusion on the part of the dog. Dogs are attracted to the groin area of humans as much as their own species, we both have the same apocrine sweat glands which give dogs detailed information about us.
The vomeronasal organ which is located in the roof of the dog’s mouth is suspected to be responsible for receiving pheromone information regarding the social status and reproductive status of conspecifics and other mammals (Lindsay, 2000). Therefore dogs can become especially interested when there is scent related to sexual contact or reproductive hormones.
Recent sexual behaviour, women during menstrual cycles and those recently giving birth may be of special interest to dogs. Dogs used in studies to predict ovulation in cows (Kiddy,1978) are considered more reliable than conventional methods. It has even been suggested that we could use dogs as a predictor for birth control, giving the family dog a new duty. (Coren 2004).
The ability to detect estrous especially in the adolescent dog may also occasionally cause it to direct confused and immature sexual advances towards ovulating or menstruating females in the family, which could be wrongly perceived as dominance.
References
(1) http://www.hsus.org/pets/pet_care/our_pets_for_life_program/dog_behavior_tip_sheets/Dominant-Dogs.html
(2) http://www.lakeforest.edu/images/userImages/vaidyt/Page_6060/wormserpa.pdf
Coren, Stanley, How Dogs Think: Understanding the Canine Mind.
New York: Free Press. 2004
Kiddy, C. A., D. S. Mitchell, D. J. Bolt, and H. W. Hawk. 1978. Detection of estrus-related odors in cows by trained dogs. Biol. Reprod. 19:389.
