Hi guys I'm going to be cheeky and ask a double question. First of all me and my wife have a beautiful male red lab named buddy who is just 9 months old. We have the intention of having him castrated but are looking for advice on what age to get it done as we have seen quite a bit of contradictory information. Secondly, we have been having some issues with his nails, when he was younger he was happy to let my wife clip his nails, now however he is not having any of it. He hasn't been hurt whilst doing it or anything so not sure why he is fighting it so much. We have taken him to the groomers that couldn't manage to get them cut. Any advice? Thanks guys
Hello, you will get lots of mixed views about castration. It’s such a personal issue. I have had 2 dogs, my Newfoundland was never castrated. He died at 13. My Malamute was castrated at 9 because we got a bitch and it became very sexually obsessed with her. My vet always advised unless you had problems with over sexualised behaviour, leave well alone. My current dog became a bit sensitive to having her nails clipped after being ok. We took it back to basics, stuffed a kong with treats gave it to her regularly building up touching nails, to one clip, to managing to do all of them in one go. It took some time, patience and a lot of kongs ! The other option is you can increase walking on pavements, that wears them down. My dog only ever walks on soft ground.
Neutering really is a surprisingly controversial topic these days If you do decide to neuter, waiting until he is at least a year old is a good idea. But the big question could be whether to do it at all. Having looked at the research, i'd never neuter a dog now unless there was a medical reason (or one like Edp's above) to do so. For me personally, the cons far outweigh the pros. I highly recommend having a read of this article, it gives a balanced view and some really useful information. You can find some advice on clipping nails on an unwilling dog here!
The pros of castration are simple things like not learning to wander. Once your dog gets into this habit it is almost impossible to stop. Ziggy will be castrated, but not for a while, he’s still growing rapidly.
