Has anyone used this ? and were there any side effects if so

I used it on one of my dogs to evaluate if surgical castration would be an/the answer for my particular dog's behaviour. 

There were no effects other than what I wanted ie a reduction in sexually motivated behaviour.

I then went on to surgically castrate my dog and life improved for him, me and several others ;)

It is possible that Tardak can have some seriuos side effects.

It had HORRIBLE results on a friends bullmastiff, causing him to damn near kill a cairn terrier. I can find out what she knows about it (which is a lot as she has spoken to someone involved in its development).

I believe it left her dog very confused and depressed, and also very very irritable.

Em

Many thanks for your input on this both of you

Is there any other medication to reduce testosterone levels that you are aware of and out of interest how do they work ?

Have only had the experiance of good things from it...peaceful eveings being one of them!  It is given to our youngest male when the girls come in season.  it makes life so much easier and we don't have to watch the two males as closely as we normally do when we have bitches in season.

Rox

Do they have it every time the bitch is in season ? and at what age did you first start to give it ?

I know of the same person as theemx I believe, and it was definitely the Tardac and if it hadn't been for her patience and skill in training, her dog may not be around now.

As i understand it, he basically totally lost confidence around other dogs and dealt with it by aggression.

Lindsay
x

Yep, we do!

I believe she was told it supressed his ability to be happy, ill go find what she said and post it, i dont have her on msn but im more than certain she wont mind!

Em

crossposted from Pet Planet dog talk forum.

"I have just spent the weekend at the Scottish APDT workshop which this year was on aggression, fears and phobias.

One of the speakers was Robin Walker - he's a vastly experienced vet who specialises in behaviour problems. He's a member of the Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors.

His talks were on how brain chemistry can affect aggression and fears in dogs. So at the end of the weekend I asked him if he would have thought tardac could cause such an extreme aggressive response.

Robin told me he was involved in developing Tardac and he told me he wasn't at all surprised by Cal's reaction. He said that the way Tardac works on a dog's brain removes the dog's ability to feel any pleasure at all. That's why Cal was suddenly depressed. And he said that when a dog suddenly can't feel pleasure, they will show some kind of behavioural change because of it.

In Cal's case what came out was aggression - causing him to attack Ole (Louise and I have no doubt that if Cal hadn't stopped his attack as soon as I asked him to, Ole wouldn't have survived).

And yes, Tardac wears off, but the memory of what happened and how depressed he felt didn't wear off and poor Cal was left feeling like he really didn't want other dogs anywhere near him - he wouldn't have understood what was happening to him and he was badly frightened by his behaviour.

Of course, I was able to say that Cal's story had a happy ending - I found TTouch and Sarah Fisher and was able to get my dog back.

And it was lovely to have somebody of Robin Walkers stature in the dog world back up exactly what I thought about Tardac.

Oh and I seem to remember Ole becoming obsessed with food when he was on Tardac which could also be explained by him suddenly being unable to feel the pleasure he used to in food - he must have been trying to eat more and more to get the old pleasurable feeling back.

Tracey xx
"

For those who dont know Tracey or Louise, Tracey's dog is a Bullmastiff, Louise's is a Cairn terrier.

Em

I have used it on one of my boys with very good results, my vet said it can be used every 12 weeks though I suppose every vet works differently.

My boy was 11 months old at the time :)

I wouldn't waste my money on it, had 2 different males injected at differing times and it didn't make a blind bit of difference infact I'd say their interest in the in season bitch was even more intense.

hiya,

I think he has had it twice now on consecutive seasons.  He was 6 :)  We gave it ago and it worked, for him anyway.  two season on trot we ended up with punch up's, once it happend when my borther was home alone (15) while the rest of us were at work and he doesn't have the strengh to split them up.  (normally they are fine and later that day were cuddled together in the cage by their own choice!)

Since the tardak he has been fine :)  and alot quiter while shut away from the bitches!

Have used it several times on my boys and its been excellent, have never had any adverse reactions or temperament changes.
Dawn.

I have used it on my young male (16 months) as he has fear aggression with men and we were worried that castration would make him worse but it was also stressfull for him when our bitches were in season. I was really struggling with him as I use my dogs for work and when we go shooting its mostly men there. His training started off well but then he started to get naughty and I was pulling my hair out with him as he would just go off and do his own thing and not listen to me. So we thought we would give Tardak ago and boy am I glad I did, he has been fantastic with his training and for the first time he decided that he did know what the stop whistle meant!!! And we managed to take him for a walk round on the shoot and not growl at any men, he is still nervouse but he has got better and will now let a man touch him where as before they wouldn't get within 3ft of him.

However I have a male dog of 7 and he gets stressed when the girls are in season and we are never going to use him for breeding again due to him throwing mis marked pups so we gave him the Tardak to see if castration would affect him working. Well he has been so naughty, he has never chased birds but when he went shooting he chased one until he caught it (and it was a pheasant ) He has also started jumping up  people and even jumped up on my mums work surfaces. So for him we have decided that we won't have him castrated!!

It will have different effects on different dogs.

Thanks everyone for your replies-
Champdoggers have proved very informative again :)

used it on my male setter (same breed as Ice Queen) No effect - he was still trying to jump through glass and eat through walls. I have to send mine to boarding kennels when girls are in..

We tried it to see if castration would help the quarreling with my other dog, but I don't think it had much effect if any.