Hello guys,

Well, where do I start.  As most of you know, Kester, my male lab pup is 10 1/2 months old now, and I'm facing a bit of a dilemma.  I had not planned to have him castrated for at least another year (or possibly never) as the chap I bought him from advised me that dogs from Kesters particular line were a bit slower to 'grow up' physically than some. Not a problem. Kester is now beginning his 'Kevin' stage and I have found that being able to train at my club when there is no-one else around is a real advantage.  I want him to be able to work without being distracted, but I needed to teach him the correct way of doing things, before the distractions came into it.  I found that training Isla this way really helped.  Its not a way that I would always recommend for anyone else, but in my case, it has worked very well.
My question is this, Kester is not overly friendly to other dogs, or bitches of any age.  He's not really aggressive, maybe more of a 'I'll get in there first and hopefully everyone will leave me alone', but  I wouldn't trust him at the moment, there's just too many rampant hormones about. It is normal for him to be so 'pushy' with both sexes?  I can understand wanting to 'square up' to male dogs, but he's doing it to bitches as well!
I've done a fair amount of reading on the subject, especially about 'super-male' flagging etc, but is there a definitive article on this type of behaviour?- I've obviously missed it!
I wouldn't want anyone to think that I'm stopping him socialising with other dogs, he does do that, but I have stopped working him in training classes at the moment as he is just too distracted. He went from being able to do most the requirements for a WT CD/UD (not including the jumps because of his age), including some of the tracking, to being far more interested in barking at every other dog!

Sorry this is such a long post- I'm really after some re-assurance that all this training is not in vain!!!! and also that I'm doing the right thing in putting off thinking about having him castrated! I know that this is part and parcel of having a male dog, its just that overnight he's gone from a big puppy into a right bully!

Cheers chaps

Ali :)

How about asking your vet to see if he will try a hormone injection called Tardak. This simulates a castrate and you could see if it makes any difference. At least this way you can go on training with the knowledge that the drug may help, and ease your mind a bit. You may be getting anxious about things and passing on your worry to the dog.:)

Tried Tardac on my dog and it worked, takes a few days before the effects 'kick in' but worked fine, he had 3 injections all together (obviously not at the same time :-) )calmed him right down .. which he needed.  Now ive gone ahead with castration for him as it was the only ideal thing for long term.

Its not guarenteed to work but maybe worth trying.

Does anyone know if the Tardac jabs stop male development please?  I know that many think castration at a young age does.