Hi

Sorry to ask a question about Castration again but I want some advice before I take dog *Chip* in for his booked op in just over a weeks time. (Which I can cancel)

He is now a very confident 18 mth old, and I am not really having any problems with him apart from his attitude with other male dogs if they have a go at him.
He is very friendly with all dogs and will still happily play with most including puppies of all shapes, sizes and ages, however he does approach adult males with quite a high tail carriage and a fairly up right stance, however he always wags his tail. His problem is if the other dog has a go at him, he then bristles and has a go back almost saying "go on bring it on mate " ---then if not stopped immediately a fight could escalate, in other words he won't back down. He won't start anything but he will quite happily retaliate.

My question is would castration help curb this behaviour or could it (as I have read)infact make it worse.

The other thing is we have another entire male in the house; he is quite a dominant small 6 year old crossbreed (big dog in a small package). Chip spends his entire time grovelling to him, sometimes weeing a little and even when Jake really tells him off Chip never goes back infact he continues to grovel more( we think he quite enjoys it) I'm also not sure whether castration of Chip will help this scenario either.

He's not particularly sexy or sniffy (no more than my other neutered dogs) and I don't want to make a situation worse.

Sorry for the long post.

Looking forward to your replies.

Rosie

Hi,

If he's approaching a dog in that manner it could be seen as confrontational by the other dog - a wagging tail doesn't neccesarily mean the dog is relaxed and happy.  My girls stumpy tail goes straight up and starts wagging when she starts getting uncomfortable with a stranger, this usually preceeds her barking at them.  However if this is the only situation in which you have any problems could you not just recall him when you start to see his body language change?  There would be no guarentee that castrating him would alter this.  Lots of dogs, if are had a go at would have a go back.  you could try teaching him some calming signals so that he changes his body language when approaching other dogs, such as turning his head to the side or dropping his nose to the ground - probably easier just to recall him though :-) Don't know if that's any help.

Karen

Hi Karen

Yes this is what I do already. If its a dog I know can be iffy I always call Chip back. Woody (one of my other dogs)is ultra friendly ,totally brainless and  runs up to every dog he sees like they are his bestest mates ! even though he is often been told off by other dogs he still goes back for more  He is my guide, because a dog only has to grumble and Woody submits,thats when I call Chip back and in the meantime no matter how much I call Woody he continues to try and convince the dog he's their best friend...NOT( as I said brain dead or just very thick)Woody is castrated ,but he was ultra ultra confident and had a wonderful nature anyway so it made no difference to him at all.

I had Disney ( yet another of my clan) castrated at 11 months old...for no reason other than I thought that I should. He was a lovely friendly dog before as well but not overly confident. Within a month of Castration he had been had by 2 dogs and he unfortunately then turned the other way--he now will not tolerate another dog(male or female) into his comfort Zone.  On walks he has to carry a tennis ball in his mouth as then all he does is grumble at another dog,without it I don't trust him not to have a pop at them. This is how I found out originally about the confidence building part of testosterone. I am sure I wouldn't have had these problems if Disney had not been castrated and still had the neccesary hormones circulating.

One will never know !!

This is why I am looking for advice before I do Chip.

Rosie

In timid dogs castration certainly can make things worse, lack of testosterone can completley take away a dogs only backbone and through fear it may become defensive and in effect more aggressive rather than less.

From what you are saying he is not acting aggressively or timidly, he reacts to male dogs appropriately when challenged and only when challanged.

Training and behaviour corrections will sort out his interactions with other males, he is a teenager now so a change in behaviour is extremely normal and as already stated at this age he needs to be recalled when meeting a strange dog immediately, all young males are untrustworthy with each other it is impossible to gage their reactions to one another.

However, he is showing signs at home that he is not the Alpha dog, (infact quite the opposite) and this would be my only reason for castration if there were to be any altercations between the two, I would have the least dominant castrated and treat the other dog as the Alpha.

Once a dog is castrated for the first few weeks/months you may also find more interest from other male dogs as his scent will be different, so expect a few sniffs from other males too.

It is your choice whether you castrate or not (different breeds mature at different rates 18 months may be fine for some but 2-3 years for other breeds) I personally would not castrate any dog until fully mature. I am sure you will gather many view points from here and other sources and make the decision that is best for you.

I can't advise on how castration would affect your dog's behaviour but I can say something about tail wagging. Dogs will wag their tail to spread their scent better; it's a good way to get eau de bumm into the air. So a wagging tail isn't always a happy, friendly gesture.

If you are able to get in and control him before any situations in the park escalate, then I wouldn't bother to have him done to be honest. At home he seems happy to be the underdog already, so no need to remove testosterone at this stage unless problems did develop later. My entire Cavalier is the same in the park, he will never start a fight, but if he feels threatened is quite happy to defend himself - bit worrying on the occasion when it was an Elkhound!! He now knows the 'nicely' command which I use if he's running towards another dog and the situation looks like they might start grumbling, and usually this command helps him to calm down and look to me for further instructions. :-)