Hello - I have posted a thread before about this and received useful advice. My boy, 2 1/2, has the gentlest nature, no aggression. For our daily walks, we usually go to the local recreation ground and from time to time, it is obvious the bitches on heat are around. He often displays very increased interest in all sorts at these times and is a minor nuisance i.e. he always used to respond to my command and move on. He has never (in my company anyway), mounted a dog, but he certainly licks away and positions himself for action. Out in the countryside, really never a problem - he simply has inexhaustible energy there and has enough to keep him occupied. He is really a well trained dog, full of life. Also recently, I have successfully weaned off the wretched throwing balls on walks, which my wife started as a puppy - but of course, I do wonder about resuming this to distract him from other hobbies. Reason for today's post is that he has recently returned from a week at our recommended kennels. I have always used them and they buddy up suitable dogs - this time he apparently was with a bitch who he "liked a lot". That was a week ago but since he has been at home, his sexual behaviour has been pretty awful - seems to be interested in every bitch of all age and is causing a nuisance -persistant licking etc. And for the first time, to my horror, he completely ignored my commands. To be honest, he has improved a bit the last few days. I did phone the kennels to get more info but not much to say. I would be interested to hear if anyone thinks this new habit can be reversed. If not, I am nearing the decision to neuter. Interestingly, or maybe coincidence, I have had several male dogs over my life and the only dogs I have had this issue with are this on, Archie, and our last who we very successfully neutered at similar age after great debate - both working black labs - not related - not sure if a trait with this breed?
Castration makes life easier for a male dog (I think, not everyone does!) if he is excited by bitches. If you don't want castration but you want to cure the problem which he seems to have acquired at kennels, you could chemically castrate him and train the behaviour away.
Hi - sorry to hear you are having problems. I can't offer any real advice (my 5-year-old boy is still entire but has never given any problems. But there are some people on this forum who might be able to offer much more experience and advice, including with chemical castration. @Beanwood ?
yes - I am aware chemical castration - I have heard some have side effects? I really have no problem with castration - am not going to rush into anything just yet - just trying to get opinions - - I live in Sussex and go to a vet who (unusually) advises against neutering( and also worming, fleaing, vaccinations!)- although that is the reason I go there - despite his own dog being castrated!! Of course, every other vet in the area strongly advise early castration - seems strong views on either side of the argument with not many taking a middle view
The thing I have found, now just my personal observations, is some dogs seem more highly sexed than others, just seems a fact. At certain times, sexually driven behaviours can become heightened, and tbh difficult to manage, despite hours and hours of training. You can get entire boys who are fairly laid back, we have fostered a couple here. Then there are those who are the polar opposite, especially when exposed to bitches in season. There does seem to be a lot of girls in season right now, and I guess kennels/popular recreational grounds are full of them! What I have found is when my entire dog got close to a bitch in season, it drove him nuts...(sorry, no pun intended..) not just for that day..for a fair few days after his behaviour was challenging. If the kennel had a bitch in season, they may not have known, it wouldn't have mattered if it was his kennel mate or the one in another block the effect would have been the same. Poor boy, coping with being in a kennel and THAT! If you make the decision to keep him entire, you may just want to reconsider where you walk him, unless you know all the local bitches. Consider also where you kennel, personally, I would avoid kennels and look at home-boarding or a house sitter. At least there you can have some influence over any dogs being boarded, and often they stick to dogs from single households. Of course, goes without saying, up his training, recall, walking on a loose lead, maybe a sport/hobby you both enjoy. With Benson we have used Suprelorin, it was very successful, with no side-effects, well only those you would see with surgical castration. The surgery we use does hundreds of them. I also see a fair number of dogs where I train with the implant. This is the link to the log, you might find it interesting if you recognise the behaviours from your dog, I am not advocating the implant, just that the "before" and "after" picture is useful. For example, some of the behaviours surprised me, pulling on the lead..running up to other dogs, in very popular dog areas this was intense, more linked to I think the competitive element of testosterone. All these disappeared when the of the implant flooded the receptors and in effect switched the testosterone circulating. https://thelabradorforum.com/threads/suprelorin-and-benson-a-log.10782/#post-163140
thank you so much for this comprehensive reply - I'll have a look at this link - yes I never mentioned pulling on lead!! Interesting
