The Dog Blog

Call me crazy, but I’m a trainer who doesn’t worry about or interrupt canine mounting in most cases. I don’t see it as a problem behavior that needs to be discouraged or modified. In fact, I find it to be a very positive social interaction that often leads to play behavior and the development of friendships between dogs.

I spend the majority of my life with groups of off-leash dogs who don’t live with each other. When I started doing this kind of work five years ago, I believed that mounting was inappropriate behavior that should be discouraged. I found very quickly that the prevention of mounting also prevented other things.

In many cases, mounting is a necessary part of the dance that leads to hanging out together, playing and feeling comfortable with another dog. What I found is that dogs who were not allowed to mount had a hard time moving toward friendly interactions.
Here are the purposes I have seen being served by mounting:

When President Bush moved into the White House, no one asked Barney if he wanted to come along.  Nobody asked him if he wanted to schmooze with world leaders or work in press relations…. but Barney did try to tell everyone how he felt about it on Friday!  If anyone had been paying attention to Barney’s body language, they would have known that he wasn’t interested in socializing with the press. 

Unfortunately, the language of dogs seems to be as indecipherable to the average American as any other foreign language they’ve never learned.  Despite their regular exposure to dog language, most people are still taken by surprise when a dog bites… especially their own dog, who they really should be able to understand! 

A dog biting someone on the finger isn’t normally newsworthy. But when that dog is Barney, the Scottish terrier who belongs to President Bush, the world is bound to hear about it. Apparently, Reuters television White House correspondent Jon Decker was bitten yesterday by Barney when he reached down to pet him.

Not long ago I encountered an unusual, yet very good, reason to teach your dog to come when called happily and as fast as lightening, no matter the distraction. As dog lovers, we already know that a rock-solid, really reliable recall is not only extremely convenient, but could also save your dog’s life. However, when I got a frantic call from my next door neighbor one day the importance of training for safety really sunk in for me on a whole new level.

It was 10:30 in the morning and my neighbor called to let me know that there was a mountain lion in her back yard and that her gardener had come across it and accidentally scared it into heading in my direction – possibly into my back yard – where my dogs were hanging out and lounging in the sun.