Has anyone here ever used Tardac on their dog?  Obi has reached 12 months and is getting more and more testosterone fuelled, he is fine with all bitches and most neutered males but can seem to spot an entire male at 50 yards!  His recall is pretty good and I am constantly working at improving it, but this doesn't solve the problem of other males coming up to him and in the case of some of the younger ones, jumping on him, something that even the best tempered ACD will not put up with!  I wasn't planning on neutering Obi, partly due to showing (we are still waiting for permission to show after a ED op), but we cannot breed from him due to his ED so wonder if this may be better in the long run.  I have never had an unneutered male before so not sure if they all go through this.  I also have a neutered male and neutered female, both aged 6.  My older male is the top dog, Obi will not mess with him, but I worry that may change if I do not neuter.

Anyway, sorry to ramble, what I really want to know I suppose, is if you have given tardac to your dog and then neutered, was the effect the same, or were the effects totally different.

Hayley

I have used Tardac on my dog, and the effects it have on my dog were very good although if you have a dog with ED i cannot see the reason why he isnt neutered although in most cases if your dog has behavioural problems neutering can make the problem worse sometimes.
If he has no problems with his behaviour i would go for neutering, as you have already stated hes no good to breed from so whats the point in keeping him entire?

Personally I wouldn't have a dog neutered until he was fully mature. Obi is still young.

The point in keeping him entire is that I do not wish to mess with a dogs hormones unless I feel it absolutely necessary, also if we are able to show it is preferable to keep him entire.  He is not allowed to make a nuisance of himself, I do not have any entire bitches and should I get one they will be kept seperate at the appropriate times.  He does not have behavioural problems (as yet!), his behaviour is probably more breed specific , I was just asking for constructive advice on whether tardac produces the same results as neutering.......

Ice, at what age would you say a dog is mature? - I suppose it varies between breeds and individual dogs - I am not planning on rushing into anything, I just want to get the most info I can so I can make an informed decision.  At the moment he is just strutting and trying it on, which is alright until he meets another like himself.

I doubt I would consider castration under two years years of age :)

I also wouldn't castrate unless it was necessary either.

I experimented with Tardek to see if castration would be worthwhile for one of my dogs; it demonstrated that in his particular case it would modify his behaviour therefore I did and both he and I were happier post castration (so were a lot of other people I think) :D

As in all things all dogs and situations are individual.

HTH

Thanks Tohme, how old was the dog you used it on?

He was 3, in retrospect he should have been done sooner, however I did not know then what I know now.......... :D

what behaviours were you experiencing?

Oh the usual,   my dog was one big hormone, his inter male aggression was entirely sex based, he cocked his leg for England etc etc etc, in his particular case surgical castration improved him no end.

I'm going to be the prophet of doom as I have had both my Munster boys injected with Tardac - to calm them when the girls were in season (Addison many years ago & Curtis just in September) and it didn't make one bit of a difference, infact I'd say Curtis was slightly worse.  ACP had more effect on him.

mmmmmmmm i wonder if it would work on my husband!!!!!!!!!!

Just get pregnant Claudia, that does the trick in my house!!! :D

Thanks Tohme/Christine

I think I may have to do a lot more thinking about the Tardac/Neutering issue (What is ACP by the way?)  It may be useful in calming Obi's behaviour on walks when other entire males are around, but I don't think it will do much for his growling and snapping at agility, which I think is more down to his possessiveness of me and the food I am holding.
Tohme, do you know any good books/web articles that deal with these problems?

Thanks again, Hayley

Hayley,

ACP's are sedatives, it takes 2 of these when the girls are in season to dull down Curtis a little bit!

The best book on resource guarding is Mine! A practical guide to resource guarding in dogs by Jean Donaldson. It has excellent programmes in there for preventing and curing all sorts of resource guarding whether it is food, objects, location or owner etc.  Easily available from Crosskeys books, WTM publishing etc etc

Her book Fight! is also brilliant.

ACP can have undesired side effects, used to be used a lot in my youth when clipping racehorses; unfortunately it can have the opposite effects in some animals!  Just like Tardek et al can have NO effect on some dogs.  It would never be my drug of "choice"...........