Hi, I'm new here and would appreciate a bit of advice please. I have two 9 month old French Bulldogs, male and female, both un-related. I do not wish to breed and I've heard that it's best to spay the female after her 1st season. There's no sign so far, so should I get the male neutered now, or keep them apart and wait until he is more mature before having him done? Any advice, and the pro's and cons of whether to wait or not would be gratefully received. Thank you very much.

Well done for planning ahead. If you are going to have the female spayed there is no reason to get the male castrated as well. There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that dogs are healthier keeping their hormones. This has to be balanced  with the inconvenience of seasons in a bitch so most people will still want to spay a bitch but she will be healthier and less likely to suffer problems such as incontinence if she can have at least one season. 

Your male would most likely be better keeping his equipment for life  so if you can manage to keep them apart while she has a season that would be great. He will be less likely to put weight on or develop some forms of cancer. if he were a coated breed the coat changes that a lot of males have can be a nightmare but  in a Frenchy they will be minimal. And if you do decide to castrate your male  both behaviourally and physically it would be much better to wait until he is fully mature. At least 18 months old.

Keeping them apart for the duration of your girls season, 3 weeks or so will be hard but it is a relatively short time and will be worth it for the sake of your dog's health. And should the worst happen and he get to your bitch there is now a very good and safe anti pregnancy injection. Obviously  This should not be used as a replacement for separation but it is there as a safety net.

I agree with smithy sounds good advice to me. Perhaps you could board him for 3 weeks if it becomes a problem for you.

Hi, thank you so much for your help. I was hoping that it would be OK to have the male neutered now as he's incredibly boisterous and is constantly humping my poor 12 year old male mini schnauzer. If I give the female to my daughter when she has her season, it will leave him and the schnauzer together and without the female to play with I fear he will just be too much for my poor old dog.

You said it would be better both physically and for his behaviour if I waited until he was at least 18 months old, would it not calm him down now? What negative effects would I see if he was castrated before full maturity?

I'm really torn on this and just don't know what to do for the best.

The sex hormones trigger the closure of the long bones in the legs & removing them completely before the growth plates have closed, means the legs continue to grow & the dog grows overly tall. It can also affect the density of the bone. Pre maturity castrated males tend to be "slab-sided" & they frequently fail to develop adult behaviour, one of the reasons it is popular with some owners their dogs remain puppy like in behaviour throughout their life, which may be appealing in a toy dog, but not in a bigger breed. I've met many fully grown over tall male Labradors that cause havoc where ever they are, because they were pre maturity castrated.

The only thing that is guaranteed by castration of a dog is that eventually he will become sterile

> I was hoping that it would be OK to have the male neutered now as he's incredibly boisterous and is constantly humping my poor 12 year old male mini schnauzer.

> You said it would be better both physically and for his behaviour if I waited until he was at least 18 months old, would it not calm him down now? What negative effects would I see if he was castrated before full maturity?

Tommee has given you some good advice about the physical effects: the other thing to consider is that humping at this age is completely normal, is to be expected and, almost entirely unrelated to a sexual urge - it's just his age.  He will grow out of it.  Your breeder could, and should, have warned you that it will happen.  Boys go through this phase from as early as 6 months up until around 12 months, in some breeds it starts and finishes early whereas some might get it happening later.  No boy ever really misses this stage completely and humping is often just misdirected excitement - they simply have no other way to express it.  You see it in bitches too :)

Having two pups of the same age will not be helping and you need to quietly and calmly redirect his attention.  You could also try putting him to bed as it may well occur when he is overtired.

If you get him castrated now you simply halt his mental development and he may get stuck at this age forever.  Let him mature in his own time and he will grow out of most of his puppy behaviours - including this one.  If you get him castrated now you will also make him a target for your entire bitch who will probably start to hump him (if she isn't already).  Most good breeders will refuse to home two pups of the same age for a variety of good reasons, including this one: as decisions regarding castration or spaying tend to get made for the owners convenience NOT for the benefit of the dogs.

Really good advice from dogs a babe.

Another word of warning.  Before you go ahead and get your boy done now.  When you take him out to the park and other dogs smell him.  He is far more likely to be attacked by entire males.  He won't smell of testosterone, and you will make his life a misery.  For people who insist on castrating, it is much kinder to do so after the male is mature.  But best not done at all.  The bitch benefits from neutering, the males do not.

Thank you all so much. After all of your comments I now feel that it would not be right to have him castrated until he has reached maturity, or maybe not even at all.

I wish that it could be him going to my daughters while bitch is in season - it would be so much kinder to my older dog - but I don't trust him with my baby grandson, he's just too lively and boisterous, whereas the bitch is totally soft and gentle and I trust her completely.

We're taking the dogs away on holiday at the beginning of August, so I'm praying she doesn't have her season then as that really will be a nightmare!

As well as distracting your Frenchie boy,  perhaps it would be a good idea to offer your Mini Schnauzer a safe haven that he can retreat to for some peace away from your Frenchie, if he wants to.    That way, he will be able to relax, and your Frenchie will  learn  when to leave him alone ;-)