My Labrador dog will be 2 years old in March. For the last year I have been wondering about having him Neutered, but with some people saying do and others saying don't, I'm really unsure what to do. What are your views on the pro's and con's. Also my main reasons for having him done, would be if it helps the following... When we go for a walk, he acts agressive to dogs he has never met (growls, heckles up etc) when we walk past until he can meet them (he has been attacked twice in the past), and also when he is off the lead, he hardly comes when called, especially if a person or other dog is near!

I would also love some info on this topic.

Hi

I think you need to ask yourself some questions as there is no definite answer to your question. He is already showing signs of possible aggression, this could be improved by neutering but it is not guaranteed.

Do you ever intend to breed from your dog? Is he ever likely to get near a bitch and sire unwanted pup's?

Is he acting in an oversexed way - mounting everything in sight etc?

If you answer no to the first and yes to the second two then neutering could be the answer. Neutering may change his personality but it may not. Some dogs become quieter - for some this is ideal but for others not so.

If you answer no to all the questions then neutering is really a personal choice with no obvious benefits for either of you.

If you answer yes to the first then of course getting him done would not be the best idea:D lol

Sorry there isn't an out right answer. Many will say that if you don;t want to breed he SHOULD be done, others say, and this is my view, that if there is no medical reason and you know that you can keep him away from bitches then why do it. It has to be your decision based on information.

Good luck

hth

Pam n the boys - both intact!!! just as well one is now a planned daddy :D

I was more interested in medical implications.

Me too please - Gina

Thank you for your advice. From what you have said, I do not think there is any reason to have him neutered. As the only reason would seem to be for his slight aggression. I do hope my dog does not turn aggressive. He is brilliant with people and children and babies, and he is also really good with other dogs (those he has met and goes on walks with). The problem arose when an owner of 2 German Pointers was walking by, and our dog was attacked by them, twice this has happened. Also another 4 or 5 dogs in my village have been attacked by these same dogs (some being severly attacked). And these other dogs are act wary and aggressive, so it is obvious that when one growls the other responds and then they start doing it without being provoked. luckily the 2 dangerous dogs have not attacked any dogs for a while, so do you think my Dog will forget and get better in time? Also when he does act aggressive towards other dogs (which I will point out only happens with 1 in 5 dogs we meet) what action do you recommend I take? Verbal or physical commands or both? Or just ignore it?

As far as neutering a dog goes, it will take anything up to six months for the hormones to get out of his system, so you would not notice an immediate effect anyway. As to his "aggression", once a dog has been attacked it does make them wary and they do not forget easily. My own dog was attacked badly by a GSP and he never forgot. He hated other dogs running up to his face. He was fine unless they came very quickly up to his face, then he would raise his hackles and growl a warning. Thankfully it never went any further with him.
I think I would find a really good club, ring the trainer before you attend, and talk over your problem with him/her. They should offer you sound advice and hopefully help your dog regain confidence. Failing that perhaps a behavourist might be the answer.
I have heard from other folk and heard "experts" say that diet can affect temperament. A friend had her gundog on a high protein complete food and had problems with him, she was advised by a behavourist to change his diet to a lower protein level or to fresh meat, which she did, and her dog calmed down, and has been no bother since.

Thank you for your advice. I say he is agressive but this is rare, he is a very calm and relaxed dog and is only aggresive, or should I say 'seems agressive' when meeting new dogs. I did wonder about contacting a club or behavourist, and now you have said, I think I will do that. Thanks!

Jenna

HI Jenna#

If your dog is nervous/defensive since being attacked, it may well have become "learned" and so having him neutered won't really help, as the aggression isn't to do with his sexuality but wiht his "feelings" for want of a better word.

If you get someone to help, make sure they have the priority of getting him to feel safe and happy with other dogs. I walk with a rehab group sometines, and the aggressive/bolshy dogs are muzzled and the owners are all supportive. It's good to see the dogs get more comfortable, but this may not be suitable for all dogs/situations. What area are you in?

Lindsay

Hi Lindsay - I am located near Norwich in Norfolk. There is a family that lives 2 doors away from me, their dog always seemed well behaved, but whenever we were on a walk and would pass this dog, my dog Buster would act aggressive and growl. Then one day we walked past their house and the dog came running across the road, growling and barking and was nipping my dog around his rear legs. The owner ran over and apologised and explained that his dog had also been attacked by the same two dogs as mine had. He did suggest that one day we could perhaps try to walk down the road together with our two dogs until they got used to one another. Would this be a good idea as the two dogs are both agressive to one another?

Jenna

HI Jenna

It's difficult ot answer that really, because so much depends on reading the dogs concerned, owner experience (not just yours!) and so on. I don't think it's a good idea if the other dog was already nipping your Lab; but you could try it with both dogs a long way from each other, and distract with titbits etc. Then see how you go.

I think Claire B's answer further down was pretty good :) IMHO so why not give that a go?

Lindsay

Hi Jenna

I live quite close to you and could put you in touch with someone who may be able to help with your dog, they are quite local to you and have a very good reputation. If you are interested please e-mail me privately and I will give you their tel. no.

Click on my name and it will give you my e-mail addy.

Regards

Daz

Jenna I had a similar problem with my weim bitch being aggressive towards other dogs after being attacked numerous times and we've made major progress. I will email you privately with what I did as it's a bit of a long read unless I get requests to post it here. I don't mind either way. May get round to doing it tonight once I get home and have been to ringcraft. :-)

Jenna, have sent you an e-mail as I don't know how to download a file on to this board. Hope it may help, it is, of course, only the experence of one person and one dog. Jackie H

Claire Please if you have time I'd be so interested if you
would post on the board how you are dealing with your
weim after these attacks. There seem to be so many dogs
whose owners let them run around like hooligans these days
I think most of us have experienced this problem.
My golden was attacked when she was 18mths and she
cannot stand other dogs running straight up to her now.
She is missing out on half the fun on her walks as strange
dogs are a big worry for her.
JAQ

Hi Claire B - Yes please do email me, I also noticed JAQ would like info, maybe you could put key features on the memo board.

Will try to keep it straigtht to the point.

Over the period of about a year my bitch was attacked by Border Collies, Black Labs and a Border Terrier prior to these attacks she never showed any kind of aggression as she was well socialised. I took advice from experienced people (well 2 in particular a friend and my breeder)and basically took control over my dogs whole life, i.e. giving her direction by literally telling her what to do no matter where we were. For example in the house if I knew she was going to follow me from one room to the other I would say "come on then" or if I knew she was going to get on the bed I would get there first and tell her to get on the bed. I felt like I was constantly telling her what to do but it didn't take long before she was constantly looking at me for direction, this also helped with my male pup although he picked up on it quicker probably because of his age.

Outside I would try to take her for walks where I knew there was little chance of running into other dogs, my aim was to stop her from having a bad experience with another dog for as long as possible in order for her memory of being attacked to fade. I managed to keep her away from other dogs for about 6 weeks, on the odd occassion we would meet one if she was on the lead I would walk in the other direction and say "this way" she would look back at the other dog wondering if it was going to attack but I just said "walk on" and she looked at me not the dog, therefore I had decided the dog was not going to attack not her. If she was off the lead I would call her to me and put her on the lead and walk in the other direction, once I was more confident that even off the lead she was still listening to me I would just whistle and/or shout "this way" and walk in the other direction with her following, her recall had always been good anyway. When she did what she was told I made sure to praise her. There was a situation where she was on the lead on a narrow path and a Border Collie (GULP) was walking towards us, I could have done 2 things, either get a treat out and keep her distracted whilst walking past the dog or make her walk behind me. I chose to make her walk behind me, keeping the lead short enough so that she couldn't lunge out or get past me, that way I was facing the dog (me being the leader) and not her so therefore if this dog was going to attack anyone it would be me and I would sort it out as I was topdog (not that I expected the dog to attack but this was hopefully how my dog would understand things), once past the dog I allowed her to walk by my side and praised her. I learned to stay calm, not make a big issue out of anything by doing everythng quietly but at the same time taking control of the situation.

Once I was happy that she was starting to relax on the occassions when we did meet other dogs, i.e. she wasn't getting her heckles up at the first sight of a dog and she was looking to me for direction rather than looking at the dog to see if would attack I decided she needed to meet other dogs face to face, particularly because friends of ours have dogs. I introduced her to another weim bitch by casually wandering around a car park with both dogs on the lead, both dogs keeping their attention on their owners and not each other by using treats and praise, after about 10 mins, we stood a few feet apart still keeping dogs distracted, after another 10 mins we stood a bit closer still keeping dogs distracted as well as talking to each other, after about 30 mins both dogs were standing reasonably close, still on the leads and my bitch was doing a full body wiggle, she was so happy to see this other dog. And that was the start of it really, now when she see's another dog if that dog is friendly and wagging it's tail she immediately is happy to see it, if the dog is not wagging it's tail then she still stands wagging her tail but not as excitedly.

We are still very wary of how she may react, how other dogs may react and we take nothing for granted because we don't want her meeting another unfriendly dog and having all our hard work undone, however we are much more comfortable when she meets other dogs but still stay on our guard and never let her sniff round other dogs. As far as we are concerned this is invading a dogs space without asking and not all dogs like their bottoms sniffed so if they turn round to bite I've only got myself to blame. All this progress didn't happen quickly, probably over the space of about 4 months and it's still ongoing. It's hard work but it's worth it in the end if it means my dog will once more become friendly towards other dogs although I don't think I can erase her memory and the attacks will always be in the back of her mind.

And I must say a big thank you to those kind and responsible dog owners who let their dogs attack mine because now I feel I have learned so much ! Hope this is of help, please feel free to ask me questions, comment on or challenge anything I have done and also offer any further help/advice because I am still no expert and would never pretend to be. This is just my experience of what happened to me and how I worked through it with help, I'm sure there are many other ways of dealing with this problem. Good Luck :-)

Claire Thanks for taking the time to post today.
Everyone on this board is so willing to share their
experiences and how they are dealing with the
consequences. You forget until someone points it
out how tense you can be walking your dog once
she/he has been attacked.
You have been very helpful and I will follow your
guidelines with Elfin and let you know how I have
progressed.
Thanks again JAQ

Fingers crossed it works for you too Jaq, although your problem may be different from mine :-)

One thing I forgot to mention is I also put her on Homeopathic Chamomile tablets from Boots to help relax her, she was on quite a large dose at first, 6 tablets per day for a week, then I slowly got it down to 3 tablets every other day just by watching her progress and deciding for myself how relaxed she seemed to be. Can't honestly say if the chamomile worked or if it was the training or if both complimented each other but after about 3 weeks I certainly noticed she was more at ease in the house which after a while transferred to outside as well. Good Luck :-)