Hi, my bullmastiff is now eighteen months old, he is a lovely temperament and mixes well with other dogs, though he does have one boxer friend (neutered male) who every time he meets him if the boxers get too much dexter will grumble and straight away the boxer drops on his back and dexter stands over him, nothing else ever happens but this can last a couple of mins. At the moment I just call dex away as not sure if I physically went over to pull him away it would make things worse? After they've done this they are fine. At eighteen months is he likely to become more 'dominant' (if that's the right word) or is this pretty much how he will stay? The other thing is now he has become randy at home with (out of all of them) our 16yr old Min Pin! We live in a small village and I have asked if a bitch in season is about, but there doesn't appear to be one. He has done this in the past but perhaps only for one evening say, then will forget all about it. The other one he will pester is our neutered male collie x ! (the Min Pin has been spayed) the only two he doesn't bother with is out neutered greyhound and spayed female mastiff who he knows if he tried it she would flatten him! My question after this long essay is shall I get him castrated? I am a veterinary care asst so obviously at work they are saying do it but I keep putting it off as I don't want to change temperament! We are not going to breed from him and I don't want him to be frustrated or injure my min pin, though she soons tells him off! Any advice would be appreciated. Sorry for long post!
Catherine

It sounds like a dominance thing rather than anything sexual,he is trying to get a higher ranking in the pack and that won't change if he is neutered, but his over all temperament may,vets always advocate them being neutered as it is income for them and in most cases it will not stop the behaviour the castration was done for. My girls as well as the boys hump each other, quite funny when they have a threesome unless you have visitors that don't understand dog behaviour.

We have had several males through childhood and now well into adulthood and never found the need to castrate any of them, they have all died of old age between 13-16yrs old.

I have a mixture now of 2 males and 3 females all intact and will get the females spayed when they retire from breeding but the males will stay intact.

Provided no one is getting hurt then leave them to sort it amongst themselves, if wary then distract him or do time out till he calms down.

I agree  - from my personal experience I would NEVER castrate a dog for the reasons you suggest. I was talked into castrating my first male dog many, many years ago by the vet for very similar reasons that you outline above. As I didn't know any better and trusted the vet I did it and it made matters no better - indeed I think it may have made them worse. He was a dominant, feisty lad before and remained so after.

The only things that changed were the vet got a little richer and my dog was, as far as I am concerned, unnecessarily mutilated.

This is, of course, my opinion but I think there are a host of less aggressive ways of managing his behaviour.

:)

If he has a lovely temperament now and isn't a problem I'd leave well alone - at least for another year - as he's a big lad and needs those hormones to mentally mature.  Early neutering can have an adverse affect on temperament.  It may be worth asking at what age the boxer was neutered as those done early can attract more 'dominance' from unneutered.  I'd just keep working on his manners and leave him be.  Neutering at this stage will not improve things and more likely will make them worse.

Someone summed it up a while ago with a similar question. 'Why would you take away the very thing that makes them male' - perhaps the wording was better.

Would never neuter again unless for medical reasons having a beautiful male who is charged & humped by many dogs. Only yesterday I was walking him & trying to keep some JRT way, with the owner shouting at me that I shouldn't be walking a bitch in heat!  Know it's rare but would never take that chance.

Thank you everyone for your help and advice, dexter can hang onto his man hood! He is such a gentle soul anyway, I didn't really want to change anything. Just some people can make you feel like a bad owner if you don't have your dog neutered! You have all made me feel alot happier.

Also as mentioned in your message PennyGC the boxer was neutered early, that's an interesting point.

I, too, have a humpy bullie although mine is only 9/10 months.  He also does it to the most innappropriate member of the pack!! but he does it through excitment.  If I distract him, he stops with no fuss.  I also thought neutering would keep his lovely temprement  but after getting advice on here, I realised it's OK for him to behave this way.  It's natural.  And the hormones are the reason he is such a well-balanced dog.  All the neutered dogs I've met are always the ones with the issues!!  My vet is also part of the non-neuter brigade and told me to wait till he was at least 18 months.  I probably will get him neutered at some point as my 3 girls are entire and I have 4 kids too so there is just too much room for accidents to happen but it won't be any time soon and if I cope with the seasons without killing either me or him, then he'll stay entire!!lol.

I agree if the dog has a good temperament etc then no need to castrate, we always recommend this at our training classes as too many people rush off at 6 months and get it done.  I did however go against my own advice and got a male dog of mine castrated this year (he was 4 1/2 yrs at the time) and it has turned out it has done him and us the world of good.  He had an unusal situation where because of injury and cruciate ops he was not able to socialise properly from 13 months until over 3 years of age....he seemed to lose all ability to play nicely and even became rough with the girls....then having a bitch come into season at home really played havoc with him.  I finally after over 18 months decided to get him done and he's changed for the better....much more socialable, back to being the big softy with visitors and just all round nicer.  I was lucky as it worked in my favour but he was fuly mature as an adult at over 4 years old and he unfortunately had factors in his life that I could not change.

It sounds to me as though your boy is lovely and should stay the way he is :)

Thank you everyone for the great advice. He has a wonderful temperament so certainly do not want to change him. Whilst I'm typing this him and collie x playing 'humping' games! Lol!