Do owners of male dogs feel that, if they are particularly hormonal when adolescent, they will stay like this all their lives?

By "hormonal" I don't mean aggressive at all - but into running off to see any strange dog in the park/field/forest, sniffing the ground a lot, noses up bitches bums, etc.;)

A friend with a Beardie has been told to wait til 2 by her breeder and if he is still as bad, to consider castration then. My worry is that he may by this time have "learned" the behaviour so that the op. will have little or no behavioural effect. But then an op. for no good reason is just as bad :(

A different friend had her old boy castrated due to a lump in his balls, and he stayed the same sniffy dog til he died (3 years later) despite having his bits removed!!!

I have only had one male and he was not "sniffy" and never ran off, so would love to be able to maybe pass on the experiences of other male owners who have now got adult dogs who used to be like this :)

Lindsay

Yes male dogs do grow up but like humans take a bit longer than the female. Don't think sniffing the ground is anything to do with their lumpy bits, dogs sniff the ground because they are designed to do so, it's a bit like reading the paper to find out what has been going on. It's not a learned behaviour it is in born. Ja:)kie

I have a young Springer who became a nightmare at about 7 - 8 months for 'humping' (sorry could not think of a nicer word) strange dogs (including males) and visitors! I have had him done and this had definately improved. He still sniffs, but obviously all dogs do this anyway. he also rushes off to play with everybody but I have put this down to youthful exuberance and the fact he is a Springer.
Laura

Dogs do stop this experimental sexual behaviour anyway as they mature, whether or not they loose their lumpy bits, it's all part of the learning process much like the play fighting puppies do. Well most do grow out of it, you get the odd one who never learns to control himself, again a bit like humans. Ja:)kie

:D :D, I think we have all known one or two like that Jackie lol

A male I bred was castrated at 6 months for inappropriate mounting, and he is still doing this at nearly four years of age! His brother is entire and only shows interest in bitches that are or have recently been in season, and a spayed bitch who seems to be attractive to all males for some reason?

Hi Lindsay
I have a Dobermann boy who at times, I thought would be awfull forever - but I have to say that he is now nearly 2 and has grown into a real dream! :) He has become much more easy going and much easier to live with, so my only advice would be to say that , much like teenage boys, they do grow out of it!:D Bear with him and just keep reminding yourself that it will get better - before you know it - it will.
Oh - and he still has all his bits (by the skin of his teeth at times!!!) LOL :D

I've kept entire male dogs for over 20 years now and not yet had one that stayed hormonal or wandered. In fact I have found that they tend to lose interest in females anyway by about 4/5 years old, the old saying 'What you haven't had you don't miss' seems to apply. My 4 yo GSD doesn't have a clue when it comes to bitches, he had an in season one come up to him in the fields a while ago and just looked totally bemused as to why she kept backing into him !!!!! Ingrid

callum my gsd was horrible at the age of 18 months onwards, he challenged me which went wrong for him, i will not tolerate a dog showing me a lovely set of white nashers so we sorted out that little problem, but with the girlies if he could get his end away he would be there!!!!!! and he did go through a stage of challenging the boys but he only did it with the ones he thought he could beat up, big coward really, other than that not to bad he is 4 now and has settled down, i think that what ever they try on if it is not sorted out there and then, then perhaps it may be a behaviour thing that would stick with them if they knew that they could get away with it.

My boy takes about ten times longer to go for a walk than my old girl ever did because he has to sniff everything, then decide whether it's worth marking too. I have to keep his attention, or put him on the lead when I see another dog across a field/ in the wood, etc, because he just has to say hello! And he doesn't care what sex the dogs are who get a nose shoved into their bits. He was done at about 8 months. I would say the only thing that changed is he can't sire pups!
LynnT

Thanks very much everyone for sharing your experiences; quite a few different angles which is what i was expecting. I will pass on your views to my friend - miraculously her Beardie was a saint yesterday, and very "unsexy" LOL ;)

So thanks again :)

Best wishes
Lindsay

I think this must be fairly typical as my 16 month old Beardie boy is like this and I've heard of a couple of others recently. I also used to have male Boxers and a couple were like this and grew out of it or the training eventually clicked I'm not sure which. I am lucky in that he is totally non-aggressive just too interested in other dogs scents etc. I plan to plug away with training I have never had any of my dogs castrated but don't rule it out if necessary. By the way I'm a new bug Cava14Una

HI there,

Thanks, yes I do feel it is a very normal thing, having said that I know male dogs, including my own, who just displayed say,one chracteristic, but didn't become obssessed with licking or whatever ;) and stayed very easy to train.

My friend's Beardie is just 16 months too, so I guess he is at the optimum time for all this I think most of them do sort themselves out and become more socially adept and less OTT in a sexy way, but then we have all met the older dogs that are awful to take for a walk because all they do is sniff sniff sniff, and we have all met the OTT sexy Labs who just will not take no for an answer ;) bless 'em.

I've never had Boxers but they were mu mum's very favourite breed :)

Lindsay

The thing is Lindsay, castration may or may not cure, if your friend is determind to go ahead with castration try to get her to try the injection first to see what effect it will have if any. Jac:)kie

HI Jackie

The injection was something we did discuss :), but apparently with some dogs, the treatment can cause a general calming effect via the central nervous system, and so improvements in the behaviour are sometimes due to this rather than the change in hormone balance. So I guess we could say that, although it would serve as a guide, it wouldn't tell us for certain what was going to happen.

It does look as if he is becoming much more responsive and less sexy though, as yesterday we had himout for a WT's session, and in spite of loads of strange dogs in the Forest, he was really very good. Very little obssessed sniffing, no bum kissing :D We are all very hopeful he is sorting himself out .....fingers crossed!!!

Best wishes
Lindsay

Hi Lindsay Glad to hear he is coming on gives me hope. How is he in the house. Cava is the most laid back well behaved easy to live with dog at home very good on lead in fact very good most of the time. You can see a rampage come over him sometimes and if you are quick stop it but sometimes I'm not quick enough. I don't feel here is any point in getting angry as that would only scare him as he is actually very easily upset. Usually praise him for coming back and carry on. I did catch him out at training class on monday though he is very keen on one particular bitch and when we were doing stays he moved went up to next handler and was just going to his little friend when I got to him. This was the first time I had got to him rather than him coming back. So I took him by the collar said wrong(he understands this from clicker training) took him back without saying anything else or looking at him put him in the down said stay and walked away left him a minute and returned and praised him. I will get there I know I will just need to meet more dogs when we are out I don't know where people walk their dogs but we don't meet many. Any thoughts out there ? Anne

He sounds a lot like my friend's Beardie, Lloydie; :)

He is a sensitive soul too, bless <g>.

I reckon maybe Cava will sort himself out too, a lot of the time it is just dogs being normal and growing up, but it's just when they get really obssessed that it can get a bit worrying. His owner has been so fed up recently but has really bucked up since the "improvement" :)

Good luck with your fellow ;)

Lindsay