The Dog's Bits

Meet Lucas, our 14 month old Springer / Lab cross.

He’s a fantastic dog, well-socialized, friendly, affectionate, fantastic temperament, well behaved (mostly), good on recall, bags of energy outside but happy to chill in his basket at home.

BUT – he’s still intact and we are consequently getting asked all the time, even by strangers when we are going to “get him done”… and more to the point finding ourselves having to justify the fact that we haven’t yet.

I’m personally of the view that unless there are significant health or behavioural issues then “first do no harm” – both my wife and I have had intact dogs previously who have lived long, happy and full lives. We are obviously mindful of the birth control aspect and as responsible owners we don’t allow him to roam.

In short we can’t see any compelling reason to carry out such an invasive procedure on a healthy, happy, well behaved dog.

Basically we would only be doing it because everyone expects us to, which in my experience is not a good reason to do anything.

I’ve read up a fair bit on this over the last few months and there does seem to be a growing consensus that there are a number of downsides to neutering and that the perceived benefits are overstated or in some cases non existing – see below for one paper on this:

http://saova.org/articles/Early%20SN%20and%20Behavior.pdf

Unfortunately it seems we are in the minority and that these days getting male dogs castrated is a default position.

I know there are loads of dog owners on here so wondered what the STW hive mind’s thoughts are?

As long as you dont let it shag anything I can’t really see the problem.

Get it done, an exceptionally simple process. Saves hassles if he does run off

We are obviously mindful of the birth control aspect and as responsible owners we don’t allow him to roam.

Unless you keep him inside it will happen at some point…

SJ, we are of a similar view and experience to you – no intention of getting it done unless it becomes necessary medically or behaviourally. It does seem to be the convention up here in London but I’ve also met quite a few dog owners who’ve said ‘don’t get it done unless you have to’.
At 9mo old he’s a great dog with a lovely character so we don’t want that to change in any way. And yesterday he started weeing like a proper dog!

Just to add this is a conversation you should probably have with your local vet, they can explain the pro’s/cons to you and what the implications of choices will be.

At 9mo old he’s a great dog with a lovely character so we don’t want that to change in any way.

Like people they will change over time, nuts on nuts off may not be the reason

He may develop a strong desire to procreate as he gets older and hampered by your responsible ownership, may turn his attention to other things…the sofa, your leg, the cat (!) whatever.

14 months is young. He will change.

We had Louis done as he was attracting attention from some strange types. His having no plums was one less reason for someone to nick him.

Other good reasons to have your’s done are he’ll be lees likely to wander when he sniffs a bitch in season 3 miles away, and he won’t attract aggression from some other dogs.

Should be straight forward. Just do a forum search on here for “vasectomies”

As I said in my post, both me and my wife have experience with intact dogs – both lived to ripe old ages, 17 in the case of my collie, 15 in the case of my wife’s retriever without any any significant behaviour problems (and without impregnating other dogs!).

Of course we realise behaviour changes over time, and yes we have had the conversation with our vet who mainly pushed the birth control aspect and the reduced risk of some cancers – he was open about the fact that neutering increased the risk of other cancers, obesity, hip dysplasia and cruciate ligament issues.

I’m the same. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.

Lovely looking dog. Looks like he has a bit of character.

he was open about the fact that neutering increased the risk of other cancers, obesity, hip dysplasia and cruciate ligament issues.

No one told me that before I had my vasectomy 😯

My wife wouldn’t have her Lakeland terrier neutered; her objection appeared to be that he was a pedigree dog. But she insisted I had my Saluki done to prevent fighting as her dog was very dominant.

Upshot is they still fight and whenever a local bitch (all our neighbours have bitches) is in season the terrier runs around the house trying to get out, yapping and whining continually. If he manages to escape he will disappear across the fields until we find out where he is and have to go and retrieve him. He also continually ‘marks’ when out on walks.

I’m sure he would have been a nicer dog to have around.

If we were seeing issues with aggression or dominance then we would consider it, but even then if you look at some of the papers, the jury is out, even amongst vets, as to whether neutering actually improves things for all dogs.

Our chocolate Lab is nearly 5 and entire. He’s not aggressive and doesn’t roam (wimp!). We’ve taken to including a herbal supplement in his feed in spring and autumn which stops him going off his food when there are bitches around. Very glad we didn’t have him done. However our vet has said that if we have problems they can chemically castrate him for a period of time apparently there are minimal side effects.

We get the same with our dog OP. He’s just turned a year old and is a decent size and filling out. The breeder said not to and that it wasn’t the behavioural silver bullet it’s made out to be and to instead focus on training etc.
Ours has a lovely temperament and I don’t see a need to chop his nuts off at the mo.

Speaking to the vet, they are in favour as it prevents a number of diseases etc. My view on that is that of we don’t do it for humans, why do it to the dog? I’m not convinced so am watching this thread with interest.

Maybe as an owner of testicles I have too much empathy 😀

Never had a dog with its bits intact, as if you not going to breed them, they have no need of them. Our dog is always being hassled/dominated (humped) by unneutered dogs, with their owners telling us “he’s only having a bit of fun”.. No he’s not.
all the vets I’ve ever encountered have recommended it, try talking your vet

Our Border Terrier is 8 and we’ve not had him done – he’s fine and doesn’t shaft furniture or random peoples legs!

It’s never been a thing to do in our family.

Maybe as an owner of testicles I have too much empathy

I hear that!

In reading up about this I found out that in Norway, it’s illegal to neuter a dog without medical reason. In Sweden and Denmark, it’s legal but neutering rates are still really low (less than 7% for female dogs, and even less than that for males).

all the vets I’ve ever encountered have recommended it, try talking your vet

Funny that, it’s not like it’s an income stream for them or anything like that…

As above have spoken to our vet and to be fair he was pretty impartial.

Funny that, it’s not like it’s an income stream for them or anything like that…

Most will do it at cost, some at a loss to kerb lots of problems with dogs going missing etc. And getting it away with anything they find. I think some of the charities fund some of it at times. Not everything is cynical inside.

Funny that, it’s not like it’s an income stream for them or anything like that…

Then maybe you need a different vet, as all the ones I’ve dealt with have been nothing but caring compassionate ppl, whose ‘love’ of animals have kept them in an awful job (how many animal that they have known all their life will end up being put down by them too)

My last dog was intact and had a large, well what looked like a large spot grow on his rusty sheriffs badge. Had it removed and was told it was due to hormones and he should be detestacled to prevent it happening again.

I refused and some time later an even larger lump developed on his chocolate starfish. The vet was worried that this time she would have to remove so much of his balloon knot in the op he may lose control of his bowels.
Fortunately that did not turn out to be the case.

But at the same time this time we did have his knackers removed as not wanting to put him through the same again.
By this time though he was knocking on a bit and I did not notice any change in his manner or activity, the postman was still his nemesis and he still enjoyed life.

My current dog is four and still packing but the first sign of it being a health issue he will find himself travelling light.
Every now and again when I catch him licking his balls I think make the most of it.

@zippy – again, as I stated (twice now) our vet actually gave pretty impartial advice. The comment about income stream was flippant. I apologise.

Hhmm – is it fair having all the tools and equipment but never being allowed to use them!?!?

We had our black lab done a few months ago. This is of course entirely your decision. But I will add that its all keyhole surgery, our dog was in the vets for less than a day, and back up to full length walks within 48 hours.

As for the why – we have other dogs, young kids, rabbits, horses. It was the right thing to do for our circumstances.

My jack Russell is intact as have all my dogs, He comes when called and is generally well behaved. Does not yap all day, plays nice most of the time and gets plenty of off lead runs and exercise, next to some slow bloke on a BMX, I can’t see any benefit from getting him done.
Dogs that roam may simply be down to something else.
And yes I am a bloke, and had the snip, so I do see both sides.
I do not begrudge the little guy anything, but going to the vets for anything is credit card meltdown

Leave his bits alone!

The day after my GSD had his bits off he’s never been the same.

Used to be laid back, friendly to everyone and everything.

Now he’s wound up and anxious whenever we leave the house. 6 months of hard training and he’s getting back to his old ways.

If there’s nothing wrong health-wise, don’t bother imo.

OP – Is he still intact? What did you decide?

Has anyone had this done as a precursor to introducing a second dog?

Didn’t have ours done. Never been a problem.

My friend had their huge deer hound done because it kept trying to shag people. Mostly my wife. Five years later he still tries to shag my wife every time he sees her.

Our bitch… we had done. She was a total sluthound.

@CaptainSlow – Now 16 months and he’s still in proud possession of a full set of tackle,thanks for asking.

No major issues to report, so far – apart from the fact that a lot of home boarding places won’t take unneutered dogs which is a bit of a pain if we want to go away without him.

He did go through a phase of trying to mount other male dogs but seems to have got that out of his system now so I’d put that down to confused adolescence – as above I know at least 3 neutered adult dogs who do the same, and there is a fair bit of evidence to show that neutering has no impact on this.

Have spoken to our vet again, who basically agreed that we should leave well alone if no pressing need (medical or behavioural)… if anything changes then we’ll obviously review the situation.

Not that I need an excuse to post pics of him:

He looks like Yoda in that top pic.
Can someone with photoshop skills/nothing better to do make him green please…?

On a separate matter, what happens to all the castrated dog balls?

I knew it!