While out this morning walking in a group of five Labs and a retreiver, all good buddys, we met another walker with two dogs.  When we stopped for a chat two of the Lab bitches had a bit of a play fight,  Bagsey, my entire one year old decided this was a good opportunity to try his luck with one of the bitches.  They have all been spayed.  This other walker informed me quite loudly that my dog should have been neutered, and that I have left it far too late now that he already had his hormones!!   Basically implying that I had ruined him.
He's a very good boy, he doesn't try to hump my older bitch, he will sometimes try to hump other male dogs but when he gets to know them he is totally fine.  I felt a bit upset on Bagseys behalf.

From researching on this and other sites I'm pretty sure what this other person said is incorrect,  but next time I meet them I'd like to have a answer ready for them.  Can you help with a short factual reply so that I can shut them up! 

Thanks

One of my bitches (spayed after her first season) likes to mount both my spayed bitch and castrated male during play. Certainly for her i think its more a case of excitement and trying to assert her position than anything of a sexual nature. Even tiny puppies will do this during play out of excitement. I don't believe castration has any effect of mouting caused by excitement. I would imagine this is all it was in your case and personally i think the woman was totally out of order becuase she was talking complete rubbish!

My neutered male will hump owt if the occasion demands it (getting out of hand play, frustration etc).

*I* may know he has no balls, but its never stopped him!

Em

The woman is talking rubbish, but saying that it is manners not to let your dog hump other peoples whether it be entire, castrated or a female trying to do the humping to whatever sex.
I would not be happy with other peoples dogs coming up to mine and trying to hump them.

Bev

Oh I don't let him do it.  I pull him away quickly and tell him no.  He just gets a bit excited with all the play that is going on, after a couple of minutes he's forgotten all about the girls and is happy to run along side them.

I wonder how forcefully I should tell him off, whether or not to make a big deal of it, or just ignore the behaviour?

I wouldn't make too big a deal of it - just tell him "no, behave yourself, she's not that exciting!" as you remove him. As it's something even neutered animals (both dogs and bitches) do when they're excited that woman doesn't know what she's talking about. :) It's astonishing how unaware of the facts of dog behaviour some owners are. There's a woman I meet regularly who won't allow her (spayed) bitch to sniff other dogs because "They might sniff her bottom and mate and get her pregnant" :rolleyes:

Good grief!  I know one girl with a staff X who won't let the dog sniff other dogs at ll, especially - god forbid - if she should sniff their nether regions, the girl thinks it's disgusting.  Needless to say the dog doesn't have very good social skills, and never gets to play with other dogs now.

I have 1 intact male and 3 neutered.  My neutered Basset humps 100x more than my intact male.  My spayed female will hump on occassion when she gets too excited.  ;)

I don't know that you have to be forceful other than giving him an 'eh eh' and a tug on the lead to distract him.  I don't ignore the behavior, they stop when I tell them to, however I've not found it necessary to be forceful with them.