here's a little castration story that may, or may not add anything useful to what is a regular debate but which may amuse some of you and possibly provide food for thought for anyone on the horns of the castration dilemma.

today, nips and i went off to walk in the nature reserve in lewes. it was warm and sunny and we'd only been walking for 5 minutes when we met the most delightful year old standard poodle (moby) whose owner was a jolly nice woman too! nips and moby were best mates on sight and moby's owner said how great it was for them to have a good play because he'd recently been castrated and she'd only just been able to let him offlead again. we then went on to discuss the pros and cons of castration because she'd done what i did which was waver backwards and forwards although, unlike me who has left nips entire, she'd had finally decided to have moby's nuts off and was now not so certain she'd done the right thing.

a great conversation was being had while the boys played together and then a dear little cav came along. at which point moby (the castrated one of the two, remember!) eagerly attempted a serious bothering. nips, meanwhile, (entire and with raised testosterone surging through his 9 month old loins) had followed along but watched this attempted humpfest with an expression i can only describe as "gobsmacked". indeed, he turned to me at one point and i swear he was saying "mum! have you seen what he's doing?!"

moby's owner was quick to remove him and put him back on lead and nips did one of his impressions of being a well trained dog by coming immediately back to my side on command. but the moral of the story is, never assume castration is going to cure certain behaviours and equally, never assume that an entire dog is a rampant humping machine who will embarass you at every opportunity!

Very true Roz, my castrated male is very nearly as likely to embarrass me as my entire male!! Mind you, the castrated one wasn't bothered by the in season terrier we met a few weeks ago, but he still tries to jump some not in season bitches!

A neutered Staffy was trying it on with my bitch last night...she is definitely not in season and saw him off with a low growl and a look that said 'not even if you were the last dog on earth, mate...'

Edited to say - I LOVE the title of this thread!

I think one of the problems is that many people think humping is a bona fide sexual problem. In some cases it is but it has many other meanings, causes and aims. It can also be a mindless habit they get into ;-)

I think negatively viewing castration because some castrated dogs still hump is not helpful to those who strongly believe that its not just being done to help cure any sexual excesses ;-)

Agree anyway - my two old rescues who are castrated hump dogs on occasion, but its always a dominance thing or has some other such root which varies from occasion to occasion, never sexual. The only time it IS sexual is when one of the girls is in full season and they sneek in with them and try and hump away whilst the girl screams for sex ;-) Its a very different approach to when they occasionally try and hump a dog out on a walk.

My entrire boys never hump other dogs - except the odd bitch brought to them for stud - huge grin. The only exception is after a mating, when I put them back in, the older stud will occasionally hump the younger stud in fustration that it wasn't 'his lady'! ;-)

Di

I have had 2 entire males (not used for stud) who never bother bitches thier entire ;) life!

I don't really have strong feelings either way on this topic, but have decided to get Earl 'done' when he's about a year old not to 'cure' any behaviour that may crop up over the coming months, but purely so that if there is any accidental getting together with an in season bitch there will not be any little surprises (I don't like calling them accidents) :-)

I don't plan on letting Earl run riot, and he will be going to classes so I can be sure he will return when called - but there's just no planning for every occassion.....

It may be that we HAVE to get him castrated anyway as so far there's no sign of testicle number two....