Hi I am new to this forum, but need some advice, we have two springer spaniels, one is 2 years old the other just over a year.
The elder one is KC registered and has a 5 generation lineage, he had a year of gun dog work before we had him, but proved to be too excitable, the trouble is he is still an entire male and apart from humping the living daylights out of my leg whenever I move or sit still long enough, he has begun to show more and more aggression to the younger dog (who is also entire apart from the fact he only has one testicle), and has drawn blood a couple of times.....my questions are...
1) would it be fair to have him castrated so ending his branch of the line.
2) would it make him a bit more placid towards the other dog ( who for health reasons we will also have castrated)
The younger dog seems to be getting more stressed, although they do play well most of the time, the older one will suddenly have a go at the younger dog for no real reason.
My partner is now coming to the conclusion that we should re home the older dog, which I would rather not do if castration will help solve the problem.
Any help would be much appreciated.

Whether you castrate or not you most certainly would not want to breed from him.  He has proved neither useful in the field nor demonstrated a steady temperament and he has a serious fault in being monorchid.  I cannot imagine anyone would be interested in his line.

He's certainly not suitable for breeding from, so castration is the logical answer.

I agree with the others, to be bred from he should meet the breed standard and he doesn't.

If his breeder was keen to continue the line then they would have kept him or another with his lineage.

I read it that it was the other dog who only has the one teste.

Unfortunately castration isn't a cure all, the humping will be a learned behaviour and the fighting and agression may continue.

> I read it that it was the other dog who only has the one teste.
>

You are quite right. :)  Not particularly relevent anyway as the dog is completely unsuitable for breeding regardless.

I think some have misread your explanation...unless I have...I take it that your older dog , who is completely entire is the problem & it is your younger dog who is getting bullied & is monorchid.

The elder dog is just reaching his maturity & wants to make himself 'top dog' & doing this by mounting your leg & being aggresive with his younger kennel mate....both have to be stopped now. The most sensible idea is to castrate the elder male & as others have suggested, it may not solve the problems but it will not/is unlikely to add to them. Nobody wants to use a dog who is showing agression or at least they shouldn't...

As your older male has proven not to have the required traits of a good gun-dog then it would be of no advantage to add his genes to the gene pool, and castration may well be an option due to his sexual over excitement, but this may be more a displacement activity rather than sexual, and then neutering may not be helpful

I would opt for the Suplorin contraceptive implant, which will mimic the effects of castration and you will know if castration is likely to be of benefit, if it isn't the effects of the  implant will wear off after about 6 months..

First I'm sure they are both lovely dogs.
Second with dog control orders being hot topics, any dog showing aggression is not desirable and not suitable for breeding.
However responsible management of the problems are the best way forward.
20 dogs a day are destroyed so adding unnecessarily to the problem is not a good idea for most people.
Castrate the dogs and seek help with the management of the humping. Bitter Apple spray on your clothes, furniture (if applicable) or sprayed near (not at) the dog as he starts is usually enough to break the habit as long as you are diligent and consistent. Castrating takes a while for the affect of the hormones to make a difference which could take around 3 months.
Don't let anyone tell you it will change your dogs' personalities or they will get fat etc. Your dogs will be just as loveable and you can save money by not having to feed so much if they start to put weight on!

> Don't let anyone tell you it will change your dogs' personalities or they will get fat etc

I think that is the result the poster hopes for, LOL.  And a dog will get fat after neutering if it continues to be fed the same as before, it's food in nearly every case needs to be cut down, but the appetite is likely to remain so you have a dog who will be prone to scavenging more.

My oldest spayed bitch, who was spayed at 7 years after her last litter, cannot nwo be let off lead at all as she will go off scavenging in peoples gardens, and will not return until she has done.  She always was one for throwing a 'deaf un' on walks, but since being spayed she is impossible.  The fact that now Bristol council recycle food waste in brown bins with lockable handles that madam finds easy to unlock doesn't help matters ;)

Trouble is that it will change the dogs - some for the worse, some for the better.  I would focus more on training, often if you castrate at this critical time they just end up continuing the same habits and it's more difficult to solve than if you work it through whilst they're entire and then castrate when the problems have been sorted.  Castration at maturity will help ensure they don't change as much - early castration can certainly affect their temperament for the worse unfortunately.

Neither of these dogs should be bred from, so training and then trying the chemical castration to look at effects would seem to be the way forward.

Thank you so much to all who have replied, I really appreciate the feedback.
I am going to show my partner this post as I think rehoming the older dog considering his problems would be very unfair to any new owner so it is a case of getting them both castrated and getting some professional training.

Another question I should of asked, they both pull on the lead like express trains and I have bought a front clasp harness, originally for the younger dog but it is slightly too big to be safe so will use it on the older dog, my friends who have a border collie that pulls use a halti head piece, would that be better for the younger dog? considering they have slightly longer jowls than a border collie or should I get another front clasp harness, at present I am using a slip leash on the younger dog and a chain lead on the older as he is a tall version of the breed.
Thanks in advance.   

> they both pull on the lead like express trains

I suspect much of this is competitive - do you walk them together?

There are a lot of techniques for training your dog not to pull but you do need to do it 1:1.  *Have a search on here for 'tree method' - mastifflover covers this one fairly frequently so try searching for her posts too*   Take each dog out for separate training sessions.  Once you've got a handle on it then you can walk them together again.

I have one dog that is a bit inclined to 'lean' into the lead - partly because he takes such long strides he almost cannot help it.  As long as I have him in one hand he's ok but if I try and hold him with another dog in the same hand even my perfect heel walkers start to try and edge in front of him!!

There are a variety of different designs of head collars and some work better than others especially on more jowly dogs.

Of those most likely to be found in a pet store the Canac Gentle leader seems to work better than the Halti for most dogs we have found at my local training class.  It has an adjustable slide on the nose loop so can be adjusted for a good fit.

Over and above training they can help make walking them a pleasure rather than a chore.

I first started using headcollars on mien when I had two half sisters only 19 months apart who couldn't resist competing to be in front.  As I was walking 5-6 Springer size dogs this soon got to be a pain.  After getting the head collars for the two culprits and finding how much easier it made walking them, I got one for the others too, as I do have issues with take away left overs being snaffled up if I don't move quickly.  It's like having power steering.

As someone said mine mostly just lean into the lead rather than actively pull, but 100-120kg of combined dog weight does make some negative impact on your shoulder, and they are a godsend when we walk evenings and encounter the cheeky local foxes who won;'t move until your about 20 feet away from them, and the dogs can't help being interested.

Thanks for the info, I have now ordered two carnac head collars, I do not often have the need to put them on a leash as I live on a farm and walk them round several hundred acres of fields...well I walk, Dexter trots and Gunner gallops covering twice the distance, but I do like to give them some road walks to help keep their nails down, so with luck they will work a treat.

I use head collars when I am walking my dogs close, but when I am out for a long walk I have a harness for one of mine who likes to take off (has done twice for over 3 hours each time) I would not use a head collar on a long lead for loose walking as there is a risk of breaking the dogs neck. I would not use the harness on a walk round town due to the fact that you would think she was pulling a dead weight (ok, she is, me, lol) Like all training aids they need to be taught how to use them.

Just something else to think about.