Hello everyone! Firstly, please forgive me for the long posting! I'm still feeling like a very new and inexperienced dog owner so would be really grateful for some input. I'm really undecided as to whether to get Ziggy castrated or not. He's just over a year old and I want to hang on as long as we can to give him as much hormonal protection as possible but I'm really not sure whether I want him to get snipped at all! There are a few behaviours that I've had problems with although over all he's an absolute sweetie and I think perhaps the few undesirable behaviours are just due to his over exuberant adolescent personality! He barks at some people. Not all, but for some strange reason he just goes crazy mad when he see's certain people. There's no logic behind it - sometimes it can be a family friend - sometimes a total stranger! Mostly he absolutely loves everyone but just a few seem to set him off on a barking fest - it's embarrassing! He's regularly the victim of other dog's anger. In our local park he plays off lead and is great at coming back to us. He occasionally plays with other dogs but mostly just wants to play with us and his ball. But if there are other dogs around they quite regularly get very angry and snarly with Ziggy who mostly just wants to carry on playing with his ball and ignores them! He used to sometimes cower a little bit and put his tail between his legs but a few times recently he's started to growl and get a bit barky back at them. Part of my thinks 'good for you boy' but of course I don't want him to end up in a fight and get hurt, or hurt anyone else! So can I ask anyone who doesn't mind sharing this information: - have you had your male dog castrated? - why did you take the decision to do this? - If so, what, if any, personality and behavioural changes did you notice? - Are you happy with the decision you made? If you haven't had your dog castrated: - did the aggression from other dogs wear off after adolescence? - At what age did you feel that your dog had gotten over the crazy madness of youth? Thank you so much to anybody who managed to read through all my ramblings and reply!! Lorraine & Ziggy x
Hello, I have had 2 males. My first a gorgeous 70kg Newfie was not castrated. My vet said at the time unless there was any sexualised behaviour it would not be of any benefit. He died intact at 13 years. the only problems he ever had was very little dogs didn't like him..they were quite snappy with him. he just ignored them. My second male is another big chap is an Alaskan Malamute. He was intact with no problems at all (again same vet, same advice) until age 9 we got a bitch. The poor old boy went crazy, even when she had not come into season. He is now nearly 13 and now he's just old. Not sure that helps, best wishes with your decision making, its not easy
Hi Lorraine (and hi Ziggy!) My big boy Pongo is four and a half years old, and entire. My experience was very much like yours - no real behavioural problems (apart from bounciness and vast delight in sniffing and paying more attention to his nose than to me (!) - and once or twice running off to chase a female scent) and definitely the victim of aggression from others. Pongo never reacted, but I did try to keep him away from situations where it was a problem - for example, I stopped using the local doggy daycare centre. I found that the issue of aggression pretty much disappeared by the age of two years - I believe that by then his levels of testosterone go down and he smells less threatening to others as a result. He is still bouncy and nose-obsessed, but he calmed down a lot round about the age of three. That happened quite suddenly, in fact I wondered if there was something wrong with him! But it was just a process of maturing. Of course, he still takes great delight in embarrassing me in all sorts of situations...I have learned not to care, and how to say "sorry for my dog" in about 600 different ways. It is all just part of the joy of owning a Labrador.... I have never regretted keeping him entire. My vet is also very reluctant to neuter male dogs unless there is a good reason. I am sure you are right that Ziggy's exuberance is just the nature of his personality! There are lots of brilliant people on this forum who can give great advice on how you might help him with his barking issue....just ask.
I have had three males castrated, it hasn't changed their natures. I might have not had the last two castrated but they had a discharge from the penis which made a mess in the house. The first one was a rescued GSP who continued to cock his leg in the house, (he was 13 months when I got him and had never lived in a house) and the moment I had him castrated he never cocked his leg in the house again. I don't think castration alters youthful exuberance. I am happy with the decision I made. I think it 'could' make life easier for a dog to be castrated as he is denied normal sexual expression if entire and there is a bitch in season in the vicinity.
Hi there, Merlin is my fifth labrador, and fourth male. I have never had any of the males neutered (only the first, later in age, due to a health issue). There are dogs who benefit from castration (if they have an extremely high sex drive, for instance), but otherwise I see no reason at all to neuter.
I have an entire male, who is three and a half years old. As an adolescent, he was definitely a target for other male dogs and started doing what I called "getting his own back first", that has created ongoing problems with him being reactive to male dogs to this day. There is research that suggests that fears learned through negative experiences during developmental periods in animals can "stick" once the dog comes out of those periods and the brain loses what is known as its plasticity, so in hindsight I would have avoided the rehearsal of this by keeping him away from other entire male dogs during this bullying phase until he had grown through it. Easier said than done for some, I know. I also had the problem with barking and lunging towards certain people, in our case especially children, although not exclusively. This was nothing to do with his gender as my bitch (his litter mate) did the same. It was a fear response, so working on them being more comfortable around strange people and - very importantly - learning that these strangers wouldn't come up to them and handle them unbid, which they found very uncomfortable, was key. They will happily ignore strangers now, including children - in fact, towards the end of the ski season, Shadow chose to approach some children for attention, which blew my mind! As to why Ziggy reacts sometimes and not others, it might be that all these people have some physical attribute in common (wearing hats, the way they walk, the way they smell, tall and skinny, short and round...), or that they all startle him, or it could simply be a case of how he is feeling in that moment. Dogs can experience trigger stacking just like we can (the straw that breaks the camel's back) so if he's feeling a bit more sensitive than normal, he could react to something that he normally wouldn't. I am in a bit of an unusual position in that I have had Shadow chemically castrated - not through preferred choice, but circumstances happen. This is an implant that lasts six months during which time, to all intents and purposes, your dog is castrated, but it reverses after that time. I have seen no discernible change in temperament with the implant to without it. Sometimes it seemed that he was more chilled out with other dogs, but it was impossible to make a real judgement on that as we generally see so few dogs day to day. He is a nervous dog by nature and it doesn't seem to have either reduced or exacerbated that. For Shadow, his nervousness translates as being "on his toes" all the time, full of energy to work (but without necessarily thinking things through) and quick to startle, but equally quick to recover. This appears to be just the same whether affected by the implant or not. Shadow does not have a very high sex drive at all and showed little interest even when our neighbour's in season pointer was howling at our gates to get to him! I think that it's generally unnecessary to castrate most dogs, but there are individual situations where it is for the best. You will find with an entire dog that people are quick to blame that for issues that come down to a simple lack of training, or that are a normal part of the developmental process. Things like "entire boys are always marking on walks" - well, that's a training issue. Yes, it may be reduced by having a gonadectomy, but that seems a little OTT when you can just put a bit of effort in for the same result If my boy is on lead, he knows that he's not allowed to mark unless given the "go sniff" cue. My rescue bitch marks far more than my entire male does! If you are considering neutering purely on the basis of behaviour, then I think it's worthwhile using the Suprelorin implant to see what impact it has on those behaviours and see if you can train through them whilst on the implant so that the new good behaviours "stick" once the implant wears off.
Homer is our first dog apart from having childhood family dogs. He's six years old and still intact. I was very much wait and see and only think about it until he was over a year old. He's very human focussed and would rather play ball or swim than play with other dogs. He does from time to time go up to other dogs who come close to him and can do a lot of ear sniffing, if he persists after a few moments I take him away. He also has a tendency to growl at other dogs who come bounding up to him, he growls then walks away but most of the time he just minds his own business. Twice he's had a dog react aggressively towards him with vicious snarling and snapping but that could be for any reason and maybe more about the other dog than Homer. He will definitely follow a girl on heat but will happily follow me away from her if I put his lead on and continue in the opposite direction after a few minutes I can take the lead off and he'll continue to follow. He has developed severe reactions to noise and is very noise phobic so we asked if getting him neutered may help and were advised to keep him intact. I've had to stand my ground on our decision to keep him intact on many occasions. His dog walker would have preferred me to neuter him but I think she also gets pressure from other dog walkers. She's been walking him since he was a puppy and is still happy to take him (and our money) as he is.
My dog was castrated at about 13 months by the ManxSPCA where we got him from. I couldn't say if his personality changed, but I doubt it - he is still full of youthful exuberance, 3 years on, and can be a real handful. He has never attracted aggression from others, nor has he expressed any aggression to others. (There was one young German Shepherd at training who used to bark and lunge at him, I think it was more to do with the fact they were never introduced as this other dog always arrived later, for a following class - we always let the dogs meet & greet at the start).
Keir was castrated at 8 months old. Zaba is still entire at five years. I find that the differences are physical rather than behavioural. Zaba has a huge head which I haven’t seen on a castrated dog. Neither dog is mine so I didn’t have a choice in the matter either way. Tatze, my girl, humps - neither of the boys do
I don't know if this is relevant or helpful to you but Maisy is (obviously) female and has been spayed and she also does what you explained about barking to certain people. It is for no reason I can tell, it is just that particular person every time she sees them. So maybe that behaviour is nothing to do with being entire or male.
I think the decision to neuter a male dog is highly personal. It really just comes down to the individual dog and consideration not just of the dog, but the environment and how this can influence behaviours. We all want our dogs to be content, and as long as we use good, scientific and unbiased support that is out there it will be OK. Of course, the problems begin when you end up knee deep in all the conflicting and high emotion out there around the subject. No one knows your dog better than you at the end of the day.
I just wanted to add - Merlin is 15 months old, and can be a bit of a pest to female dogs, if I don't watch out. I do think this is sexual behavior, but I (and the female dogs involved!) are teaching him manners, slowly but surely. He is also the least aggressive male dog I have ever known, despite being intact...
The behaviours you mention are not sexually dimorphic. At his age being targetted by other dogs could well be due to the surge in testosterone male dogs experience at that age. See way down in the link at Puppy License to Misbehave. The whole link is good. https://www.dogstardaily.com/book/export/html/1198 WE never had much aggression from other dogs at this stage but we walk in areas where dogs have lots of room to avoid each other. What we do have, STILL, is aggression from neutered males, just a few. Some are good friends but a few are nasty. I guess it's because to them my boy still smells way more of testosterone than they do. This is actually worse for us because my boy will alert to another intact male. We have had scuffles with other intact males but since Oban alerts I can get ready and change direction. The neutered males are worse because my boy doesn't think they exist and they can sneak up on us. Our only serious fights have been from neutered males and they have brought blood, to my dog. WE have met three eejits walking in season bitches and once I had to drag my dog away. There was a breeding kennel of GR upwind of us and I never saw any attempt to escape and get to them by my dog. It's not the norm to leave mae dogs intact here but more and more Vets are urging that neuter be delayed to 18 oreven 24 mnths.
My friend in America was told by her vet that her 8 month old Cavalier MUST be castrated and she didn't want to do it but felt she must do as vet directed! I wrote and told her she didn't have to do what the vet said and that here in Britain the trend was towards not castration unless necessary, best for her to wait at least until he was older and then make a decision. She has decided not to castrate yet and then horrified me by saying that she had had two 8 week old Cavaliers who had been castrated before she had them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hello, My Lucius was castrated at 8 months old. We had contemplated on keeping him entire as we were going to stud him but as we were taking him to a dog daycare at the time we noticed behaviour differences in entire and castrated males. For example another Labrador at the daycare was, i believe, around 10 months and not castrated. The daycare policy at the time was no males over 12 months that were entire were to be allowed in. This 10 month old male picked a fight on numerous occasions with a castrated male. He became extremely aggressive and was banned from the daycare as a result. I had seen these fights and realised this was not what I wanted my dog to become. Lucius at the time was 8 months and showed no signs of aggression whatsoever. When he got castrated he definitely calmed down a lot. I'm glad we got him castrated, I would have been incredibly upset if he ever hurt another dog and - touch wood - 3 years later he still hasn't showed any aggression, even to our beagle puppy who likes to bother him all day.
In Australia we are encouraged to desex at 6 months unless you intend to breed. If you don't your registration is a lot higher. Also we are going away in September and if he wasn't neutered he would not be able to participate in the play time with other dogs at the place we are leaving him. We thought about and discussed it a lot and in the end went with our vets advice. We have not noticed any change in him at all.
1. Our pup is 8 months old, but we plan to get him fixed when he turns 1. We got our older one fixed when he turned one (like the week of his birthday, too, we're so mean lol). 2. It was a no-brainer. It's just the thing to do around here. We didn't want any accidental puppies! Also, the humping is crazy. 3. No personality changes with our older one, but he humped less. 4. Yes!
First male I had was castrated at about 9 months. He developed an auto immune disease around 5. I decided not to castrated my latest male unless it became a problem. He's still intact at 5. We don't have any humping I trained him not too and he doesn't roam or seem to want to. No unwanted pups as I'm careful with him and he has general good health. To be honest the only differences I've noticed is the uncastrated male has a better overall physique better muscled and not so tall. They are/were both very nice steady happy dogs who were/are fun to be around. On balance I wouldn't castrate, why fix what isn't broke. I am convinced and so is my vet that castration was one of the factors which contributed to Doug's auto immune problems.
