Sexual behaviors; is this normal?

[chelle]

Bailey is just shy of eight months old.

Is Bailey going thru doggy puberty or ? (I've never raised an intact male. I have two females, both spayed early, so I'm totally out of my element here.)

He has begun to show great interest in sniffing and licking female dogs - spayed or not - in the vaginal area. At the dogpark, when a female pees, he is somewhat intent on licking the spot and fixating until I force him to move away. He has begun to mark all over the place at the dog park, lifting his leg. He does not do this at home (peeing repeatedly in different places) and does not lift his leg at home. The licking and licking pee spots are only with females.

Is this normal? Should I be concerned? Why would he be interested in spayed females? Thanks for any info.

[msvette2u]

All he knows is they smell different /good. Yes its puberty. wait until he finds one in heat...

[jocoyn]

My male was!/is? that way (just neutered at 8 YO due to enlarged prostate)

I just would not let him mark and limited his sniffing - once the introduction was over we moved on. Never did the dog park thing. Yes, he licked pee. I assume it is to check for pheremones as tasting is how they sample for the vomeronasal organ that is sensitive to them. [SAR dogs often lick water tasting for odor]

You could tell when a female was in heat, too. His eyes would glaze over and he would drool profusely and his teeth would do a funny little chattering thing.

[Emoore]

Yup, it's normal boy puberty. Kopper does the same thing.

[chelle]

Thanks, everyone. Do they grow out of this nonsense??

[msvette2u]

I don't care for that but our pup hasn't started, thank God. If he did I'd nip it in the bud and if that didn't work, off they come.

[Draugr]

Originally Posted by chelle

Thanks, everyone. Do they grow out of this nonsense??

Mine seemed to with minimal training. He's just over two years old. I used a prong to misdirect him and keep his head elevated during walks, and after just a few times of doing that, he doesn't get so fixated on smells anymore.

I don't know if you can just expect them to grow out of it by doing nothing at all, though. Smells of any sort are something that seem to be more interesting to intact males (than neutered males), I've noticed.

However, Samson's primary interactions with other dogs have been with neutered males. He's had some contact with females, but until they become a "familiar" dog he doesn't seem to be interested in licking private parts (he did get truly obsessive about trying to lick one neutered male, and I probably should have taken that opportunity to train the behavior out, but I didn't). To date there is one spayed female that he considers "familiar" but he hasn't tried licking her privates, just where she has peed, and he doesn't get obsessive about it.

/shrug

Unless the other dog is unhappy or uncomfortable, I don't worry about it. No consequences (unlike, well, actual sex). Just dogs being dogs.

[jocoyn]

They are always going to be interested - goodness - it is a hardwired biological drive.

Control, yes. When Grim was intact I could (and did) work him write next to a female in heat on a real search. At one time I had to refocus him (pee spot) by saying "get back to work" and he snapped out of it and kept working and did a darned good job too.