What are your experiences and advice? My husband can simply NOT do it, which means it shall be me...
Thanks, in advance.
Oooh, I really do not like this idea, and have never done it, though we have had dogs for over twenty years. YET, it has been recommended to us, for our Berner Sennenhund (7 months old)
You mean yourself?
Please, seek a professional.
I can not offer any advice, as I have not had my boy done.
I truly hope that your dog is not reading this ....
Oh, if only he knew...
Cards on the table - as my life is spent in rescue, doing what little I can to save a few lucky dogs from among the overwhelming numbers made homeless by the overpopulation problem, knowing that so many more are scheduled to die each and every day... I see neutering as a fundamentally responsible step for owners of pet companion animals. Every dog who crosses my threshold gets snipped.
And I know I have done the right thing. None of my dogs, as wonderful, beautiful, sweet, and loving they are, are fit candidates for breeding. Only dogs of sound physical and genetic health, of outstanding mental temperament, should be bred from.Breeding should only be done by experts, for the betterment of the breed.
Accidents are unforgiveable. And perfectly preventable.
That said....
You have a large breed dog, who will not reach physical maturity for quite some time yet. Please research the issue of not only whether castration is right for your dog, but also the issue of when to castrate.
Bearing in mind that I am not a vet... it is generally recommended that large breed males wait until physical maturity is reached, until growth is over, so that bones may fully develop - for many large breed dogs that is somewhere around 2 years old. Testosterone plays an important part in bone growth.
Please get in touch with your dog's breeder, with experts in the breed. Speak at length to veterinarians with knowledge of the breed... and do your own research. Understand the arguments on both sides, and make your decisions fully informed.
You must fully understand the pros and cons of the surgery, and be fully comfortable with your choice of when to do the surgery.
If you choose to delay neutering, though, you must take full responsibility for your dog's actions and behavior, and commit to ensuring that he never, ever has a chance to father an accidental litter. If you know of a female in estrus in the neighborhood, you must keep your dog under control at all times. And you must understand how his 'teenage' behavior will impact his relationships with other dogs, male and female. An entire male must be well socialized... and must, repeat must, have perfect recall.
Gotta run, but I'll be back tomorrow with some links on both sides of the argument.
(Tell your husband, though, that the one argument that doesn't apply is anthropomorphism. )
You will have a much more stable dog once he's neutered. A male that is not neutered will lift his leg to mark anything and everything. Will run away to meet female in heat or cry and bark all night to do so if there is one nearby. Once he gets a bit older he might get to be dominant as well, if you are a first time (large)dog owner that could be a problem. Neutering will prevent all that and unwanted litters, Go for it!
This can't be true for all dogs though, as mine is approaching two and a half and he displays none of these signs.
There are occasional times when he will try and hump a leg, it's not as if he is completely disinterested, but he doesn't/hasn't chased any females, mark, or be aggressive.
I think you have to make a judgement call based on the dog and also with the vet. A lot of vets will encourage it, but if honest enough do not say it is a necessity.
I get the whole over population thing and being responsible for that moment that could happen out of your control but for me I dont feel that is a significant issue for my situation.
Although I will add a lot of dog sitters and the like often request castration as a necessity if they are to look after them.
Poor little dog. He will never know how it is to be with a girl.
Something lots of our EF contributors will no doubt ever experience either .....
The title of the post was enough to make this human wince..
What actually surprises me most is that cutting a dog's tail off is prohibited in Switzerland but cutting the balls off is perfectly fine.
OK, I couldn't just let this lie...
First, one must understand that castration is not a 'magic bullet' to calm a dog down. It does indeed result in calming some dogs down, but one must understand why - and why not.
Castration removes the ability to produce testosterone, which impacts sexual behaviors. Castration can therefore impact behaviors that are driven by sexual impulses. But if a behavior is not driven by a sexual impact castration wouldn't necessarily have an impact.
Let's take that vague term I so dislike, dominance. There are many reasons why an animal might display a behavior that is interpreted (often wrongly) as dominant. Only some of those are linked to sexual instincts. If your dog's yobbish behavior is driven by food-guarding, for instance, it only stands to reason that castration is not going to change that. If your dog is attacking every other male he meets whenever a female in estrus is within scent distance, that is a sexually driven behavior that would be likely be affected by castration.
There are some behavior problems where castration is advised against - extreme fear or fear aggression in some cases - because the sudden drop in testosterone can make the animal less confident, more fearful. In such cases it is often recommended that the owner embark on a consisent rehab program first, and neuter later on.
And then there are behaviors driven by a mix of impulses, sexual and otherwise. It's not all black and white.
And certainly - castration can never be a substitute for training or socialization .
Just wanted to comment on that aspect. As said I am very much pro castration , for most dogs - but it is important that an owner understand what castration might and might not achieve.
For me, though, the overpopulation and owner responsibility argument is key.
Here is a good article from the Skepvet blog which sums up a rather wide swathe of research:
And since no responsible owner allows a dog to breed randomly, a counterargument:
Imagine a life where you are tormented by those sexual urges, but will never be allowed to act on them. Would it not be kinder to remove the urge?
But let's stop the anthropomorphism. It's irrelevant to discussing canines.
Are you implying that dogs merely seek to breed and do not enjoy the company of a female or the pleasures of sex?
Genuine question.
The norm is that a female will only allow a male to mount when she is in the fertile phase of her estrus, which is only about a week to ten days of her three week estrus. When she is not fertile she will often run the male off, snapping or baring her teeth.
Yes, there may be outliers. But in all my years of dog ownership and rescue work I have never seen a receptive female outside the fertile period of her estrus.
Non-estrus related mounting behavior - which happens among both sexes - is rarely sexual, it usually is an attempt at negotiating social hierarchy.
Again, we need to be careful of ascribing human feelings/behaviors to animals.
Oh yes I get that the females are often not receptive to impromptu male urges. I guess what I was getting at was dogs actually seeking pleasure, which would be human, form it.
But how would one explain a dog self pleasaing? And I do not mean doing the cleaning or general licking thing. I mean with his paws and elbow?
I totally agree with your earlier post meloncollie , since Susan hasn't own a dog for 20yrs. or let alone bring one to the vet for neutering...i think to neutered her pet is the best thing to do. If there is fear biting issues, the vet, the supposed professional(i have met few useless) should see the problem and suggest otherwise and more training.
Also i assume that the pet as received basic training, again any behavior issues would of been noticed.
Although ,I am also pro castration, i come from a show/breeder family , i have bred and showed dogs and owned a grooming business for 15yrs. So i had my share of beautiful, intelligent well behaved studs around me... and i have met lots of crazy neutered nut cases too LOL (usually goes well with the owner!)
I'm also a big fan of neutering dogs if you are not a breeder. My dog was neutered before we got her (rescue), and some breeders in the US require that you commit to neutering before they let you adopt.
My sister's husband has had a sucession of great danes. Always male. He never bred them, but his attitude was "if it isn't broke, don't fix it". Yes, i know. He'd had three before my sister met him, and two died of testicular cancer at around 7 or 8. My sister convinced him to neuter the one he had when they started dating, and this one lived 12.5 years and had an absolutely wonderful disposition. I'm pretty sure this guy was around 2. I don't know if this helped his disposition, but i thought that neutering helped decrease the risk of testicular cancer - but of course, it's a different breed. Truth is that the one they have now is neutered and not so well behaved.
Large dogs live short lives, and if this might help, then i would do it.
But mostly, i feel it's responsible so that we don't have more unwanted dogs.
That seems to be a popular belief actually. It doesn't make much sense to me though. I mean, in terms of whether not neutering increases the chances. Dogs are supposed to have their reproductive organs. If they all evolved to eventually get cancer and die then it wouldn't be a successful animal would it, there is a genetic issue somewhere if this is a probability rather than an exception.
Of course, a dog without testicles can't get testicular cancer, it stands to reason, but I do not see why keeping them intact significantly increases their chances. In fact, Meloncollies link, which I have no read in detail listed a few increased cancer probabilities in the case of neutering. So it is all a balancing act.
We got our female schnauzer spayed at 6 months. No worries, no problems and the vet was great. She just couldn't have activities for 10 days. Stitches out, no problem. We did it because schnauzers are a highly active breed, and it calms them. Also, females are more likely to get cancer the longer it goes on not to get spayed. Don't know about males.
And I don't think it is popular en suisse, because I could never understand when we met other dogs why the owners asked me if I have a male or female before they could greet each other. I think it is because they don't tend to get their dogs fixed. We had no problem and it didn't change her personality either.