By Bruce Ross, Executive Director bruceross@wi.rr.com

This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s August, 2021 Newsletter edition.

This is sort of embarrassing.

When the trainer of your dog starts a conversation with “Are you going to get your dog fixed?”, I suppose it can go in one of two directions.  My heart wanted to hear: “Your dog is so amazing! I want some of his genes in my breeding program.”  Or it could go in another direction… the direction my trainer led me after Tack had spent a month under her care. This is what my ears actually heard:

“Tack really likes other dogs… I mean, he REALLLY likes other dogs,” said Jessie Richards of Full Throttle Kennel.

Turns out, seven-month-old Tack is a humper. And he’s earning a bit of a reputation around the airing yard.

If you’ve had enough dogs, you’ve probably had a humper. Not uncommon, but certainly aggravating to the owner, and likely, even more aggravating to the humpee.

A little research yields that it’s generally just a form of play, sometimes a form of dominance, and less frequently sexual energy.  Male or females can be humpers. Neutering may not have any impact on the dog, but sometimes it helps. Sometimes, it can be trained out of the dog, but sometimes it’s there for the life (hopefully just the youthful life) of the dog.  Probably won’t get in the way of hunting effectiveness, but some dogs do not take kindly to this display of affection which could lead to a kerfuffle between the dogs. Something to work on, I suppose.

Otherwise, Tack is doing well.  Maybe a bit stubborn with the force fetch training he’s in now, but beyond that, progressing well.

Kind of brings a whole new meaning to “a Tack attack.” <Deep Sigh>