[Thegraystx]

Hello all, this is my first post here. The Mrs and I have 4 dogs, a 10 year old neutered English Bulldog, an 8 year old neutered pit bull (rescue), a three year old spayed female great dane/? stray the Mrs found in the middle of the road on her way to work, and the newest is a 1 1/2 year old pit bull. I rescued him in OKC when I saw his owners (severe drug addicts) walking to the hotel dumpster going to put him down and throw him away. I'm not going into any detail but the dog came with me. No aggression issues in any way, phenomenal with people and other dogs/animals, and he's been in our home a little over two weeks. Like I said, everything went good introducing them all, except the newest rescue, Rusty, hasn't been fixed and was trying to get romantic with the female even though shes fixed. Not all the time, and it decreased as time went by because she corrected him when play turned to him humping. We're getting him fixed soon and I know it will help but that's not the problem were having. In the last few days Rusty has taken an absolute obsession with licking our 8 year old male pit. Licks him anywhere he can, genitals, ears, back, doesn't matter. And we can't do anything to distract him, we try treats to get his attention and he ignores them, hes completely fixated on the 8 year old pitbull. We put him in time out, in the kitchen with a baby gate, so he's not being punished but to get the idea that when he starts the licking he goes time out in the kitchen. Sometimes he comes out in 20 minutes calm again and sometimes he goes straight for the 8 year old again.
All I know is he was kept in a kennel most of his life in a hotel bathroom, and his owners got into several fist fights a day. He's been to the vet and had a thorough exam and shots, and 80% of the time, this little guy is what dog owners strive for. He's calm, very confident (other dogs have snapped at him and he just backs away without running) and obeys really well. It's just when he starts licking the other dog, he will not stop. Any advice would be appreciated more than I can say. He's a permanent part of our family now, and we just want to get him settled in with our family. Thanks!!

 

[JoanneF]

Hello, welcome, and a big pat on the back for rescuing him.

Both the humping and the licking could well be signs of stress - and that is perfectly understandable, given that he has had a chaotic life which has been turned completely upside down. He doesn't know yet that he is safe and he is staying. Licking can be an appeasement signal, he sounds like he is trying to work out his place in the family, humping can be from over arousal (not sexual, more like OMG, OMG, I have a new family, I don't know what to do OMG, OMG - I'll do THIS !!!).

So, I'd say give him more time, he may need more than others to settle if his previous life was volatile. There's a good graphic that I'll attach.

If he starts pestering the others, I think a quiet time-out when he licks is fine as long as he sees it the way you do - chill time, not punishment. A stuffed Kong or similar would likely help - and that's fine, it's not like a reward, it's just a ”quiet now, this is settle time”. So keep doing what you are doing.

More pictures would be good (and, slightly tongue in cheek but I'd love to know more about the conversations you and your wife had when you each turned up at home with a new dog - I'm imagining ”hi honey, look what followed me home ...”)

 

[Curls]

I agree with everything above. The one other possibility I can think of is that the 8 year old might smell funny for some reason. One of my dogs becomes absolutely obsessed with licking the other dog when there has been any sort of minor infection or skin injury. I usually see it when an ear infection is starting.

 

[Thegraystx]

When we first brought Rusty home, he was obsessing over the 3 year old female for about 10 days or so, he still paid some attention to the other two but not a whole lot. This past Saturday he was all about our 10 year old English bulldog. Just like the 3 year old female they played with absolutely no problems. Then this Sunday all of a sudden his attention went to the 8 year old. Hasn't left him alone. The 8 year old is having some health issues. He has a tumor on his right front pad that the vet will try to remove once he loses a little weight, and about a week ago we noticed a small tumor not on his penis but on the sheath outside. When we looked closer at him, he has several more coming up. He's going to the vet again soon to get them looked at. We were painfully aware of the risks with a white pit bull with blue eyes (he's deaf too). It could be the smell of him promoting the licking as well. Sometimes we just put the older pit bull in the other half of the house since he's not real big on playing with other dogs anyway. Doesn't dislike other dogs, he's a very happy boy but just does his own thing. Rusty the new rescue is super outgoing and Ray Charles can see he wants to be everyone's friend. We were thinking maybe he was trying to make friends with them in the easiest order, if it was the smell of the 8 year old wouldn't he have been inclined to lick on him a whole lot from the beginning?
We are working on some other issues with Rusty, seperation anxiety is the other big problem but it's getting better. When one of us is home he's free to roam the whole house or backyard. We kennel him with a problem solving toy if we leave and will for a few months just to be safe until he's really settled in here. His kennel isn't used as any kind of punishment, he actually goes and naps in it sometimes on his own. I don't think the anxiety has anything to do with the licking but I wanted to add that. And we're being patient with him. He's not a foster or anything, he has a family here. I can only imagine what he's seen. We don't think he was abused or anything, just locked in a bathroom his whole life. We're starting to see the goofball come out of him more and more with us. Thanks a bunch for the help, just want to help him get over everything from his past.

 

[Thegraystx]

The 10 year old bulldog we got from a breeder, the 8 year old pit was from a friend of ours who got him to be a seeing eye dog but he went deaf during his training so they asked us to take him as he was another mouth to feed. His owners are friends and they hated to get rid of him but they were hurting pretty bad. The three year old, Mrs called and told me there was a dog wandering around looked like it had been dumped. We brought her home and tried to rehome her, good thing we couldn't find anywhere because she's been instrumental with helping Rusty in his new home. And Rusty, I called the Mrs and let her know what happened when those junkies were going to shoot him. That was on a wednesday, she just said bring him home Friday, she'll have a kennel and everything ready for him.