Hi I don't believe in neutering animals but I am at my wits end and so are the neighbours! I have a senior dog who barks incessantly and loudly for 4 weeks everytime my female dog is in heat. Will neutering solve the problem or will he already know the scent of a female being in heat and still bark after? This is a last resort for me as he is 11 and I don't like the idea of putting old dogs to sleep past their prime in case they never wake up with any type of surgery. I also believe that neutering is inhumane. But I will have him taken away from me anyways if the neighbours get sick of me. I don't want to put him in kennels because he is too old and a month is a long time and have dog boarded in the past. But my female isn't producing puppies and it's getting expensive. So anyone with any experience in the area tell me if this works to cure my eardrums

I do not understand the phrase its getting expensive and female not producing puppies?
Is she supposed to be producing puppies?
Obvious answer is to spay the bitch.

Would it not  be better all round to have your female neutered if she is not having any puppies now ?
I know u say u belive neutering is inhumane but for a female it will remove any possibility of pyo and there will be no further heats. Therefore your male should in time not be bothered by her assuming it's her being in heat that is causing the problem

Sorry I should have mentioned I have a younger dog too but they didn't produce puppies this season after a year break. They have produced puppies before so I am hoping this is a one off and next time they may produce puppies again.

I would get your girl spayed. It would then solve all the problems and as you aren't having puppies then it will be easier and safer all round in getting her done.

What do you guys do when your male is senior and you still breed dogs? Someone must have been in this predicament before

If you are planning on another litter then can a friend or relative have your oldie until she is out of season?

You could try suprelorin implant, it mimics castration and its either 6 months or 12 months. I still wouldn't leave him with your girl when she is in season. This has helped one of my boys in the past, he wasn't noisy but a sex pest towards me and the hoover. It helped a lot

Do you breed your younger dogs every season or every year as a hobby or a business ?

Castrating your older dog will not turn him into a eunuch , castrated males can & do mate in-season bitches & it will probably not affect his behaviour whilst your bitch is in season. You would render him infertile, but as a mature male his brain would still react to your bitch's season.

My friends who have males & females that are used for breeding, ensure they have the facilities to totally separate in-season bitches from their other dogs, they do spay their retired  or non breeding bitches so usually only have 1 or 2 bitches that have seasons.

A lot of us who plan to breed choose to only keep bitches.

As a breeder owning a male would be of no use to my own breeding program, after keeping a daughter.

By keeping to bitches I can choose from the best males available here or abroad to be sires to future generations.

The only breeders I know in medium and large breeds, that keep both sexes have facilities to segregate, or family members to whom they can shuttle the dog or in season bitch.

Being neutered wont't stop anything other than producing puppies. Neutered dogs will still mate and tie if there is an in season bitch available. Same being on Suprelorin. Every neutered male I have ever had has always mated given half a chance so ended up having to be separated for the duration of the season. One Papillon, one Golden Retriever, one Cavalier, one crossbreed and two Malinois, they all did it.

I felt with my lad he had less of an urge on suprelorin, I still kept him away from the girl in the house when in season but he was calmer and much more chilled about it all.
Every dog will react differently to it but it should lessen the urges and not difficult to give it a go and see how it fairs, you will need to give it well before the season as they have hormone surges in the 1st month on it before it settles down into their system.

To add a lot of breeders do use this implant when they have dogs and bitches in the same home and it's more common place in mainland Europe for using it when people want to continue to show their males.

Your messages are not very clear - how many dogs do you have and what sexes?

If you can't have your bitch spayed (preferable for any number of reasons, the number one being the risk of mammary cancer - and having to confine her for each season), why not try a chemical castration and see if it helps.   However I would caution you that castration, chemical or otherwise, may not shut him down.    Castrated males can, and do, mount and tie with a bitch in standing heat.   We kept males and females, and when in season, our bitches were kept completely away from all of the others.   And they were spayed once retired.

Unlike many other posters here I can totally see why you don't want to neuter your younger female dog and affect her physically and psychologically for the rest of her life, just to benefit an 11 year old senior dog - who might not even be around much longer sadly. And by the way, the 'risk of mammary cancer' has been disproven and discredited in research now...

I agree you should try the Suprelorin implant on your male to start with and see if that helps. It's like a microchip, can be done in an office visit. It should reduce his desire and testosterone levels without surgery. It might not work if the barking has become a learned behaviour but you should for sure give it a go.

>Will neutering solve the problem

Not unless you chop his nose off at the same time. Not being flippant, but I wish I had a £ for every time that someone is told that neutering will stop a dog bitching. It 'may' calm things down a little (if you are lucky) but it's drastic action to take to find out that it doesn't work.

I read that you just want the barking to stop.  I would suggest the suprelorin implant.  It's harmless, painless and quick and depending on the size of your breed can last much longer than 6 or 12 months (whichever you decide to go for). It mimics surgical castration in every way by stopping all testosterone production.  I have used it and it took away all those kind of urges from my boy including howling for females.  Do beware though in the first 2 weeks following implant there is a surge in testosterone so get your timing right.

> using it when people want to continue to show their males

I'm just going to add my experiences with it here as a warning for anyone that does want to show, their testicles shrink so much that showing is affected. You can still tell they have two but as all breed standards say 'Male animals should have two apparently normal testicles fully descended into the scrotum' they're clearly not normal. In Europe particularly where neutered dogs are shown in separate classes it's a big deal.

For the original poster the implant should work, neither of my boys that had it bothered about bitches while it was active, and you know when it's active by the size of their testes.

You could try the suprelorin castration implant. One of mine had the six month one 18 months ago and is still not that concerned about our bitches when they were in season. I don't personally see anything inhumane about de-sexing dogs, I tend to think keeping an entire male around in heat bitches is not exactly kind! Funny how no one thinks twice about de-sexing male horses! I also think that older dogs cope fine with surgery when if they don't have any other health issues already. But if you are dead against de-sexing one of your dogs try the implant.

I showed my boy when he had the implant. Made no difference to the judge, they were there and that was that. Smaller yes but there and not all males have huge ones, they vary from dog to dog.

> I showed my boy when he had the implant. Made no difference to the judge

Really? Was he successful though while he had the implant?

It's probably easier to tell in europe as all competitors receive a critique and a grade (excellent, very good, good and untypical). My boy was placed only, no firsts and with comments in all critiques about his small testicles. He was still mostly graded exc, but one judge gave him a VG and said it was because of his testicles.  He done much better both before getting the implant and after it had worn off.

My boy did end up with puppy sized testicles, I did quickly explain when he was gone over by a judge but both family jewels were clearly there. I am a bit disappointed that the darned thing still seems to be working as it was an experiment done for medical reasons not for any castration purposes. Hasn't been any major changes to the dogs temp/behaviour beyond what one expect after hormones are out of the picture.

I got the 6 month one for my boy and it lasted ages, 2 years I think.

I had the 6 month implant for both my boys (at different times) and found it lasted nine months in each. With the first one, I was beginning to worry that he wouldn’t get back to normal.