Since we got Otis, we planned on neutering him. In the US it's pretty standard and I never really thought twice about it. Now that he's getting older our vet is already bringing it up. He does go to daycare once a week and typically they do want them neutered by a certain age (although my daycare hasn't said anything yet). We already have some pretty concerning behavioral issues that were working on with him.... mainly his fear of strangers. I've begun doing research about neutering and I'm getting nervous that his behavior will be negatively impacted and destroy the teeny (and I mean really teeny) bits of progress that we've made. I was wondering if others who have had their males neutered could speak to whether or not they saw any behavior changes. Or, if anyone has any good research to share on the topic.
Hello there, I live in the UK, where typically about 50% of male dogs are neutered. My own male dog is entire and nearly 3, and I have no intention of neutering him. I see no reason to do so. He is generally a confident dog, but can be nervous around a high volume of other dogs - in London all dogs are off lead freely, and he meets 80-100 strange dogs a week. He copes well with this on the whole, but my concern is to boost his confidence, and not do anything to reduce it. In the circumstances you describe, I would say asking for anecdotes about other people's dogs may not be all that helpful. I know of no links between fear of humans (or not) and neutering. In my view, castration has a negative effect on a male dog's interactions with entire male dogs. In that neutered male dogs do become more reactive to entire male dogs, and perhaps more reactive in general. This is the only effect I have observed myself. There is some evidence that neutering dogs causes them to become more reactive generally. Here is an article on this: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/shoul...test-evidence/ All of that said, I would say that if you have a young dog that already has a fear of human strangers then this is an issue you have to work on and I wouldn't say neutering would have much of an impact either way. If you have only had what you say is a 'teeny' bit of progress, then the overwhelming concern is your dog's reaction to strangers, and not whether or not you have him neutered. Best of luck with your decision making.
I have two desexed male labs. I believe you have to desex unless you're a registered breeder here in Australia, although many people don't anyway. My dogs were five years old when we had them desexed and I didn't notice any negative behavioural changes. In fact, Nugget could be quite aggresive towards Buddy at times and he isn't any longer. I don't know if that is due to desexing or just time though.
I have 3 labs 2 males one neutered. I really regret having my oldest dog neutered at 8 months as I feel it impacted on his health issues. I don't think (vet too) he would have developed his auto immune disease if he had been left intact. I think he would have been fine as a entire dog too. I didn't know as much as I do now and was trying to do what i thought and been told was right. i wish i had never done it will always been one of the things I regret. I don't think it changed his personality, He was a lovely dog before and a lovely dog afterwards 14 years later things in the uk have really changed and there is a lot more information out there and I think I have made a better desition leaving my young male entire. He's just over 2 and a really sweet boy, my vet and I felt it was better as he can be a little fearful to leave well alone. He has benefited from being entire for this reason.My vets words were "thoughts about neutering males are changing and if its not broken why try to fix it leave him be." He is a very settled calm 2 year old most of the time and i have had to manage him differently by not letting get too excited and avoiding some neutered male dogs who don't like him If I felt a dog of mine needed to be neutered i would but I would wait until they were physically and emotionally mature before doing it. My breeder advised this. I myself was determined this time to not neuter unless I felt there was no alternative and have not regretted it. We are told horror stories about neurtering, my close friend a vet nurse told me I must neuter when I had my first dog as he would hump anything and be a real problem. The funny thing is her dog who was neutered early is the worst humper of anything cat dogs furture legs etc and mine have never ever done it. There are things like chemical castration that some friends have tried with their dogs to see if neutering would work for behavioural issues. My neutered male is the boss too he runs a tight but fair ship. I have tried to look at this from every angle and have made a descion which is right for me and my boys but its does not mean its right for you. You know your boy and you will make the right descion for him, just take your time and don't feel pressured.
Feel free to laugh at me over this because it may sound silly. I should explain in our household our labs and my 16 year old son are the only males. Alax (my son) and our dogs have always been best mates and Alax is very responsible and all round terrific with them. I never associated the two things but shortly after the dogs were desexed Buddy started to grumble, not growl but grumble like a grumpy old man whenever Alax would go near him. He doesn't snap or growl and he will still spend time with Alax but almost overnight he just sort of went off Alax and continues to grumble at him 2 years later. For so long i've been baffled by this but now i'm starting to wonder. As I said feel free to laugh
Well, not laughing, but I've never heard a similar thing before in terms of neutering alone having an impact on a specific dog/human relationship - but who knows? Testosterone, or the absence of it, is a funny old thing I reckon! Although, I was watching a video by Ian Dunbar the other day where he was saying dogs prefer women, and that's that! (Before all male dog owners object, the solution is simply to give much better treats than your wife does to retain your dog's preferences for you ).
Along the same lines, when dogs are scared of men, I imagine a large part of it has to do with their smell rather than their appearance in terms of making the distinction between a man and a woman, since men come in all shapes and sizes. So, if they're picking up on the human testosterone in that context, there's no reason why it wouldn't influence elsewhere. Of course, I am just guessing. Ian Dunbar is a wise man Shadow will more than happily cuddle J when I'm not around, but, even if he does settle on him when I'm home, he'll keep looking over at me and will eventually move to be next to me. Maybe because I'm squidgier and more comfortable, though
I think your probably right but we all had a chuckle about it. I'm really at a loss as to why Buddy suddenly changed toward my son though. One day they were like thick as thieves and the next Buddy's grumbling. Maybe Alax intimidates him somehow, his posture or height I don't know.
The Serpell, Duffy study offers a lot of behavioural information. Most often when we read articles on the pros and cons of neuter it's about health. This study used C-BARQ data and found a lot of surprising behavioural differnences between neutered and intact dogs. http://www.cdoca.org/downloads/files...20Behavior.pdf Non-reproductive Effects of Spaying and Neutering on Behavior in Dogs Deborah L. Duffy, Ph.D., and James A. Serpell, Ph.D., Center for the Interaction of Animals and Society, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania And yes, I have definitely noticed that some neutered male dogs have a pronounced antipathy towards my intact male. Not all, not the majority. I have to wonder if the age the other dog was neutered at plays a role? Before puberty so the dog never got a chance to develop and thus smell his own stronger odour of testosterone? I never thought to ask, we meet a neighbour who walks his own big Lab and the litter mate brother belonging to his son. The brother is pushy with Oban, the man's own dog is fine. I never thought to ask him when each was neutered.
I always thought that men tend to have more 'assertive' body language than women and some dogs might find this a bit intimidating. I'm forever telling my OH off for getting Charlie to do stuff by using body gestures - it's just a natural thing for my OH to do, but I think it's a form of intimidation. So OH will say, for example, 'on your mat' but also step towards Charlie with a sort of arm shooing action, and so on.
Oh darn. I responded to this earlier today and it never posted! Anyway, thank you everyone for your input. I certainly have things to think about. And I do find it interesting that he is much more sensitive with males, although some females also bother him. He's very reactive overall. Of course it's something we are constantly working on.
Just a thought, have you checked how you are feeling when other dogs are around? If you are getting tense or feel concerned, can your dog be reacting to that?
@newbielabowner, he's very good with other dogs... probably because he goes to daycare 1-2 days a week. Hes had a few instances of getting nervous with new dogs but he warms up very easily. He's only very reactive with people. With that being said, if people have a dog with them, he's much more accepting and usually doesn't react at all. It's people without dogs that he really has a problem with. Anyway, I really try to control my nerves when I see people approaching. I do my best to be super friendly and natural, but of course I'm super aware of the situation so it's impossible to figure out what he's picking up.
I find that my youngest dog reacts differently to people without dogs, i do too am very careful around them as they can often cause problems. Rory picks up on my nerves but also I find that all my dogs are less accepting of people without dogs. I find they react badly to dogs and that it can cause problems. my most recent was a jogger who nearly Knocked us both over frightened us both then started to scream and flap her arms and legs at Rory. He though maybe she wanted to play and got stressed and jumped around. She did not say sorry for nearly knocking us over and screamed that IT had touched her twice, she had no self control at all and I was left thinking she was mentally ill.She was very rude and clearly a very stupid person. I can't say what I said to her here but it definately took her mind off shouting at my dog. i am not a rude person normally but enough is enough I went and found one of my jogging friend has a dog and she fussed 'Rory and we sort of practiced her jogging passed and keeping him calm for a while. I tend to avoid people like this if I can, they have no respect for othe park users and cause problems because they completely lack and though for anything in their enviroment. They just don't seem aware of their own behaviour and the problems it can cause. I am careful and try my best to not impact on others but am really tired of this sort of thing. I have with my dogs nearly been knocked over by speeding bikes and rude inconsiderate joggers many times. Everytime I get ok with this and Rory is happy because I'm not stressed some person will do something. Physically it can be hard for me to get out of the way sometimes and last time i got speeding cyclist coming at me down a track they are not surposed to be on I and my old dog had to jump out of the way.
Newlabpup, just realised reading back through your original post, I got it totally round the wrong way , oops. Note to self, remember what your reading, lol.
