Many individuals have had the awkward sensation of having their host’s male dog suddenly grip its front feet around their leg and begin performing forceful pelvic thrusts.
Why do these dogs engage in such a hopeless endeavor?
The explanation is that while they are pups, dogs go through a specific socializing phase during which they form their identities. Any species that coexist with them during this crucial time in close and friendly proximity, which lasts from the age of four to twelve weeks, become their species.
During this critical period of development, dogs and humans are constantly present for most mammals as well as companion dogs. As a result, they develop strong attachments to both species and become “mental hybrids.” They continue to be at peace in both canine and human society for the remainder of their lives.
As an adoptive “pack,” the members of their human family work quite fine. Humans act with aplomb in the part of canine friends by sharing their food, sharing their den, going out to patrol the area together, playing together, engaging in a little social grooming, carrying out the necessary greeting rituals, and so on.
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Human civilization and canine civilization are compatible. The connection only deviates when sex is involved.
Thankfully, there are certain strong inborn reactions that play a role in canine sexual attraction, and these responses often keep canines headed in the correct path.
Humans often do not elicit arousal in the male canines that share their houses because they lack the canine’s distinctive sensual aroma. People are mere “members of their group who are never in sexual condition” in the eyes of the dogs.
Unfortunately for the majority of male dogs, interactions with females in heat are extraordinarily uncommon occurrences in their civilized existence, so everything should be OK. When sexual dissatisfaction reaches a certain point, even the household cat starts to appear alluring. Almost everything that will remain still for a long enough time, such as cats, other male dogs, pillows, and even human legs, will now be attempted to be mounted by a randy dog.
The ease with which human legs can be clasped makes them appealing. The decision to use a leg rather than another portion of the human body is merely a result of our peculiar, undoglike form. Because they are too huge and tall, the only easily accessible area for a last-ditch sexual prank is the leg.
What you should do?
Rather than becoming angry with a dog that is grabbing your leg, you should be kind. After all, we are the ones who have relegated these canines to an unusually celibate existence. All that is required is a courteous refusal of their approaches rather than the occasionally meted-out harsh punishment.
The remark about the dog being attracted to the household cat was not made in jest. Only when the animals in question grew up together as pups and kittens do some sexually unsatisfied dogs attempt to mate with cats. Being closely associated with kittens throughout the crucial period of a puppy’s growth only elevates felines to the status of “my species” in the dog’s perception.
During the four to twelve-week socialization phase, a puppy that has interacted with its littermates, the family kitty, and its human owners will form a threefold relationship that will last a lifetime.
This bonding mechanism also has a negative side. If a species is not present throughout the socializing phase of the puppy’s growth, it will immediately be something to avoid in the future. Even the real species of the puppy falls under this.
A young puppy that is hand-reared in isolation and taken from its mother before its eyes and ears have opened, such when it is only a week old will grow to be extremely connected to people but will always be wary of other dogs.
Therefore, it is a grave error to pull a puppy away from its family too soon. It is necessary to attempt to have other pups or dogs about the young one while it is being hand-reared if there is a calamity, such as a mother dying and only one youngster surviving, for example, so that it becomes acclimated to the company of its own kind during its crucial growing time.
A puppy will never learn to be tame and friendly among people if it is raised only in the company of its own canine family and kept away from humans until it is older than twelve weeks. Puppies raised on an experimental farm in a field without human interaction until they were fourteen weeks old were almost wild creatures.
Therefore, it is untrue to say that the domestic dog is in some manner a “genetically tame” animal. It’s also untrue to say that wolves are more savage and untamed than dogs. When captured at an early enough age, a wolf-cub develops into an incredibly amiable companion. In fact, most people would mistake one being led on a lead and collared for another large dog if they saw one being walked.
In fact, a tame adult wolf that was registered as an Alsatian was once silently transported from England to the United States on Queen Elizabeth. Every day, it was taken for a stroll about the deck and happily caressed by the passengers and crew, who would have been appalled had they known the truth.
