My boy is 6.5 years old and intact. I was pressured to neuter him - first at 6 months so that he could stay at doggy daycare, daycare owner said he was humping the other dogs. It seemed way too young for a growing dog to lose his hormones. We stopped daycare. The vet was adamant he must be neutered - it’s the norm in my area. I changed vets. I still did think we’d neuter him - at around 2 yo after he’d matured because it’s the norm. But at 1.5 yo he had his first epileptic seizure and I didn’t want to introduce any unnecessary stressors - like a general anaesthetic and losing his hormones. He was extremely boisterous and got very excited, but calmed down at 3 yo. As a youngster he was very mounty, and there was one time on the beach that he would not leave a little female miniature Schnauzer alone, and moaned and barked VERY LOUDLY when I managed to get him into his harness and drag him away - I wanted to remove his balls then and there! It was extremely embarrassing and very exhausting. But fast forward to now and I’m so pleased we left him intact. The adolescent years were challenging because he was mounty, but he’s also very confident, very friendly, and in great physical shape. Having testicles hasn’t made him a target for bullying, and equally so they’ve not made him aggressive. He might stiffen when he meets some dogs and will posture and kick up dirt, and there are a couple of specific dogs we meet that he doesn’t like and who don’t like him, and he’ll growl and bark at them while walking *away* from them. He’s certainly not picking fights with any dog or actively seeking out aggressive pursuits. People are amazed when they learn that this friendly, goofy boy - who incidentally is a favourite with tiny dogs!! - is intact. I think it’s because intact dogs are so far and few between and there’s this idea they’ll automatically be aggressive. I’m just happy that my boy had the opportunity to develop with all his hormones, and that I didn’t cave to popular demand. Look, I think I was lucky that I got a puppy with a personality predisposed to being friendly and confident judging by his mum’s temperament. Then there were the opportunities to socialize him from day 1 in every situation imaginable. And of course training, and meeting all sorts of dogs, and interacting with many friendly dogs that he could learn good habits from. I think all of this *plus testicles* has produced a wonderful dog. Best of luck in your decision. It’s difficult when there are so many points of view. But check out the latest research that shows that keeping the testicles (hormones) protects against many cancers as well as being important for normal physical growth and protecting joints, and contributing to confidence.
My brother was playing with Rory who was about 3,. They are having a lovely time Rory was being his usual cuddly self. My brother looks after a boisterous (untrained) intact male lab for a friend who is really terrible. We were talking about some of the things he could perhaps do when he said I keep trying to persuade them to get him castrated like Rory,. When I told him Rory has his clackers he was so shocked it was funny he even had to look to be sure. He assumed because of the good behaviour Rory was.
One of the unexpected problems I do have with an uncastrated male is Rory's stalker. A intellectually challenged local who wants Rory to give his bitch puppies. He stands outside my house appears on walks and is always saying we can make money you can have a pup etc. The last time he did it I lost my patience and he got a proper talking too. He won't even make eye contact with me now .
Your description of Ziggy could have been of Cooper. She acts much like that and she marks everything. She is more interested in playing ball than playing with other dogs, but she will play with other dogs. She is normally friendly and just gets along, but has gotten her back up a few times when she thought another dog was behaving inappropriately. She was spayed at 14 months, because we did not want to have to deal with unplanned pups, but it made little if any change in her personality. My last male dog, an Alaskan Malamute was never fixed and it was never a problem. FWIW Tilly, our older female also humps so it is not just a male thing.
I had my dog castrated when he was 1. We did it for daycare purposes, it was a really hard decision to make but in the end we decided that castration was likely to have less negative long term effects than him being alone for large parts of the day. It hasn’t changed his personality in any way, the only difference was he stopped humping other dogs and marking pretty much instantly. But to be honest, they weren’t huge concerns for me anyway and something I assumed with training he’d grow out of. I don’t regret getting it done, there’s no point now. But I’m not sure I’d get another one done.
Alfie is 8 months ,if we do neuter it won’t be until he’s fully mature ( do labs even ever mature ?! )
I know it's partly a cultural thing... but in my mind I keep thinking how awful human adolescent boys can be. We, as parents and schools, teach them good behavior, and encourage them to become polite and socially adept. We certainly don't chop their bits off, even though it might reduce some of their less endearing habits (not all, though!)... Obviously I'm saying this tongue in cheek, but there is something to be said for it. We castrate our dogs PURELY for our own convenience - and there is mounting evidence that this can be harmful to their development and health.
Hehe, and the fallout from having an adolescent human running off and procreating is far worse than that of having your dog doing the same - and at least you can keep your dog on a leash if you can't trust him
I have had lots of male dogs and never had one castrated. I have never had any problems with any of them. When I took my last male Fred to the vets, when he was young and the vet ask me when I would be doing. I said to her that I had never had my OH done, so why would I have my dog.
My male was castrated against my will. He has “mellowed out” in a sense that he’s not marking and pulling us over to get from tree to tree so he does walk nicer. He only ever bumped his bed when I was around but not problematic. He has increased in fear and anxiety. Shows signs of aggression now and warning barks at things he’s socialized too. I’d go back in a second and reverse the surgery if I could.
I had my dog castrated at age 11 years 10 months old because of a tumor which turned out to be a seminoma. He did show aggression towards unknown male dogs, which started at age 3 and a half years old. I haven't seen any personality or behavioural changes except from not going berserk when around females in heat. I wouldn't have castrated him if it was not a health issue. There are so many things you can do with your dog apart from going to dog parks (which includes a bunch of unknown dogs). He had a lot of male dogs that he was great friends with.
We had Nibbler’s operation at start of July - 16 mths -had put it off but decided that it was time after other dogs being aggressive towards him - he was fine but other dogs just went for him. It is early days but it has made a big difference -other dogs have already stopped snarling at him and when he meets other dogs off leash he gets on fine now - even with dogs that had previously snapped at him - he must smell different or something. I can go for walks with my sisters female dogwhich he kept bothering despite her being spayed and he can just generally have fun being a dog now. If anything he has become more lovely - comes over for hugs which he never did before - maybe just relief at coming home again from vets but he has become an even nicer dog - isn’t barking as much and seems to be listening a bit more
Hi - I know I'm late joining the party, but the issues on this thread are so similar to my current experience. I have two male intact Labs - one 13 months and one 11 months. They get on fine and have both been regularly to training classes. I walk them off lead and recall is excellent. I walk them with my friends and their dogs and bitches with no issues. The older of the dogs has never, ever shown any signs of aggression - in fact he is the soppiest dog ever and we have genuinely never even heard him growl. We had visitors with their older male dog and no issues. However, he goes out two days a week with a dog walker who told me yesterday that other older, castrated dogs got fed up with him trying to hump so became aggressive with him and he 'retaliated'. We have seen no sign of this with the male dogs we walk him with - other than one of them 'telling him off' and him just moving along as he realised his attention wasn't welcome - certainly no fisticuffs! What do I do? Dog walker seems keen for us to get him neutered, but we are not sure that the time is right. We wanted to wait another few months months. The younger dog is not having any issues at this time. We could re-arrange our schedule for those two days so that we don't need the dog walker although it would mean the dogs being home for a longer period during the day than we would like, but perhaps this is a reasonable price to pay. I am concerned (having read one of the posts above) that him being put into these situations is storing up trouble, especially as he is fine when out with me as, for a 13 month old, he is pretty well trained and obedient and I have not encountered these issues.
Your problem isn't neutering or not neutering or being intact or whatever - but the dog walker. Obviously the dog walker isn't going to say 'I - and the services I provide - are the problem' so he's going to blame it on something else. Not all dogs are suitable candidates for going out with a dog walker for multiple reasons. Getting a dog and planning on using a dog walker, isn't advisable for this reason. If things don't work out, people are stuck. (I know you said you don't have to use the walker, but just saying that in case anyone else reads this!) There is nothing 'natural' about a bunch of dogs which don't know each other and haven't worked out who each other are, being brought together into some kind of walking unit. Intact males need to be treated very very carefully during adolescence if you want them not to mature into male-aggressive adult dogs. They suddenly have adult levels of testosterone swilling around their still-immature brains. Look at human males: They do many stupid things during adolescence, for the same reason. We know that the human brain is not mature until 21-25 years. Yet 14 year old boys have adult levels of testosterone. We don't have research with dogs, but it's likely things are similar. If intact males get routinely attacked by other male dogs (whether intact or not, and even if they started it by being a pest), they will start to expect all male dogs are going to attack them - and they will decide to get in there first and neutralise the threat. Before you know it, you have a dog which is just aggressive to all other male dogs - like so many dogs out there, who were not protected adequately by their owners during adolescence. Dog walkers cannot retain adequate control over multiple dogs which they don't own and haven't trained individually. They have no training relationship with those dogs. They rely on a dog's general desire to stay relatively close to the group they are out with. This is not a reliable form of control. It will not enable them to recall the dog should it be about to eat something toxic, to recall the dog if it is headed off towards a dog which is on leash being walked by someone else, to recall a dog off a chase on a rabbit, to recall a dog heading towards a road or hazard. Dog walkers cannot see all faeces being produced by dogs they walk. It is not possible to have eyes in 6-8 places at once. No one does, and the majority of dogs will toilet in the first 5 minutes after leaving the van - all around the same time. So dog walkers will inevitably miss poops and give all dog owners a bad name. The only 'good' type of dog walker, is someone who is just going to walk only your own dogs - not other dogs. Ditch the dog walker. Protect your adolescent male dogs through adolescence. And don't neuter: https://www.avidog.com/research-on-the-effects-of-spaying-and-neutering/
Hi - thanks for the extensive response! You must have read my mind because we have pretty much come to the same conclusion. I’ve told the dog walker it’s either my two dogs on their own or with dogs that mine have already met and are fine with, or we will stop them going. If she does this then she’ll go into the woods near my house (we live in the middle of nowhere!) so I’m confident that they’d be ok, but I take your point about safety etc - something else which had been on my mind.
