Does your female puppy hump when it feels left out or that attention is not focused on it?

I’m told the behavior is an attempt to display authority. Your puppy may be trying to put you in your place.

Yes, it seems that way. I get the impression that it’s what your say and not sexual awareness.

My female Jack Russell does it all the time. It’s likely to be attention seeking or over arousal/excited more than anything else. My studies and work with dogs have lead me to believe that the dominance theory is, for the most part, a myth although there are plenty of trainers that still use “dominance” as an excuse for nearly every behaviour which is a cop out as far as I am concerned. This is quite a useful article.

I agree with @Leanne1986. When my dog was a puppy we would laugh when we saw him humping his stuff animal. He seemed to do it as we all sat in the living room watching tv. He would hump the animal across the room while looking at us and then go back across the opposite way. The more attention we paid him the more he did it. As we grew less interested, so did he.

I think he did it when he wanted attention or felt stressed. When we would have company who would ignore him, he would do it again until they cheered him on. Then he would keep going until either he got tired or they got bored. If the company paid him regular attention,like giving him hugs or petting him, then he was less likely to do it unless they got him really excited by getting him to chase a toy. Not in a sexual way but I think when he got overly stimulated, he needed to do something that would calm him down. It was a quick workout that would end in him taking a nap. He wasn’t always erect, he just did the motion till he was tired. Guess it is a dogs way of lifting weights. LOL

He never humped people though. If they hump people then I would guess it is dominance behavior.

The word “dominant” is misused and abused as much as people who try to portray a dominant roll and assume it’s about alpha rolls. Most “non dominant” dogs will show their bellies to humans without a problem. Dominance is a word used to describe an emotion. Having a dominant dog is not always a bad thing because sometimes that dominance can be utilized and make certain dogs strong leaders after all they are dogs and they do know pack theory that is why they are social creatures.

An Alaskan malamute knows pack theory and they can be “strong willed” which is a nice way of saying dominant.

Malamutes have to know pack theory and be strong willed otherwise they would not make a good team during sledding.

The air humping is just something dogs do, if you don’t like it you can just tell your dog to stop by setting your own rules and boundaries the dog has to go by. That is normal dog behavior and is taught to all puppies by the mother dog. And no you don’t have to alpha roll your dog. That’s my opinion just to be clear I am neither for or against dominance training.

As @Leanne1986 stated… it is almost always about over-excitement and/or attention seeking. It can also be for self-pleasure just as humans. The dominance theory is becoming less accepted with trainers. It may seem like dominance. However, the dominance isn’t the humping. It is the anxiety, which can cause a dog to display dominance behaviour… which, in turn, can cause a dog to hump as they try to alleviate that stress (as dominance behaviour is stressful). In short, the humping can be from the dog trying to ease its anxiety of dominant-related behaviour. So, it may seem like the humping is the dominance. But it is not. It is an attempt at relief from the dominance (anxiety). Hope that makes sense.