Hi all, I have read a little about some injection which simulates castration and I wondered if someone could tell me more about it. I have 2 entire dogs, both 3 years old, and a 5 1/2 month old puppy bitch. 3 weeks ago my husband took one dog on holiday for 4 days while I stayed at home with the other two. We have split the two dogs up before with no problems, though not since we got the puppy, but on this occasion they have refused to live together now that they are reunited, and have actually been fighting, and are currently having to live in separate rooms and only be brought together under strict supervision. We are getting help from a dog pyschologist, but I wanted to find out about this injection, as castration would be an option for one dog (the less dominant of the two), but there's no point if it will only make things worse!

Hi Guest, I've never used it but I know It's called Tardac. I did a search here on Champdogs, to find out more for you. Theres loads of further information, so can I suggest you put Tardac into the search facility, and voi la.

Dawn R.

I am lead to beleve that  you have the dominate one castrated.

Regards

Denese 

No, Denese, you need to increase the difference in status between the dogs, so the less dominant one is castrated.
:)

That's true but it doesn't always work. I read a study (Sweden) which had been done about aggression in dogs, and it stated that male to male aggression can only be improved by castration in 50 % of the cases. I have a Golden dog myself who took a dislike to my oldest Cavalier dog when one of my bitches was in season for the first time.  We tried everything. We neutered the Cavalier (who never EVER tried to fight back or to take the top spot, but the Golden still attacked him -seriously as well) -we had private sessions with a behaviourist etc. It didn't work. It's been * 7 years * now and we've kept them apart all this time. (I couldn't bear to rehome either but was lucky enough to be ABLE to keep them separate -without either of them being kennelled as well, they have separate parts of the house and garden.) 3 years ago my step son allowed them to meet by accident, they had then been apart for 4 years -and the Golden immediately roared and picked the Cavalier up by his neck and shook him. Thankfully we got to him quickly and he was okay.  These days the Golden is 9 and seems to have mellowed, whenever he sees the Cavalier through the  wired fenced off area the Cavalier goes out into (they go out to the garden via separate back doors) he actually wags his tail and they sniff each other through the wire, but I'll never risk letting them together again.

We also did try Tardak on the Golden to see if he would calm down any if he was castrated too, but it made no difference so we've never neutered him. However, as I believe the original question was, I don't think the Tardak could atually CAUSE further problems between the dogs, so should be worth a try.

Marianne

http://www.gsdhelpline.com/castration.htm

As the others said it is worth a try.

Really though your problem is the fact that you ahve two males of the same age and similar status, one of the reasons why having smae age or littermates is a bad idea.  Many people say Oh mien are great together and when you query further you find that both are still immature. 

The fighting starts when they are fully mature and most likely when there is something worth fighting for, in this case a maturing bitch.

I wouldn't have expected any different as your bitch is approaching puberty and they want to sort6 out which is going to be her mate.

Many people have no trouble with males living together, as long as there are no Entire bitches to upset the staus quo.

Thanks everyone, I shall look into it further. We have seen some improvement over the last few days, I can now let them in the same room so long as I keep an eye out and make sure they don't look at each other too long, otherwise they start to stare. But I've had them all sitting on the back of the sofa looking out of the window without trouble, and even jumping off the sofa and landing on each other without problems, so hopefully things will gradually improve. I don't want to rehome them of course, but our garden's a bit too narrow and long to split effectively. It's just lucky I'd made some changes to the room layout in preparation for the bitch coming in season, so we can currently have them in separate areas of the house, with alternating access to the garden!

I know someone whose dog changed dramatically for the worse after she used Tardac. He actually became dog aggressive and it took her a long time to sort it out. He's a bullmastiff as well so she really wishes she had not had the Tardac done.
As i understand it, the injection does not take away any male hormone but adds progesterone (I think) which is a female hormone as we know. So it doesn't really tell theowner any exact info as regards what will be happening if the dog is castrated eventually as I understand it.

Lindsay
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