When is the right time to castrate?

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Our puppy is now 6 months old. We will be getting him neutered. A friend who has a great deal of experience with dogs has recommended we wait till he is at least a year before we do so. Do you agree?

We castrated early (5 months) and it was the right decision for us.

Our dog is very puppyish (which is what we wanted) and shows no signs of any of the undesirable behaviours entire dogs can display.

The risk though, is that the dog will not grow as he should, and might be unconfident amongst his peers.

What is your dog like? Confident? Well proportioned? I think these are more important considerations than age alone.

The vet told us that castration basically 'locks in' whatever characteristics your dog already has. That helped us to make our decision.

Thanks, that is very helpful cakemeiamyours. i think TBH I do not want the puppyish characteristics for ever.

I was told by my vet last week 'no earlier than 6 months but no later than 9 months' for the same reason CakeMeIAmYours has said about locking in characteristics

Now I am confused again. Why no later than 9 months??

My SIL has refused to get her Chihauhau castrated as she says she doesn't want to change him as he is so chilled already. I didnt think it would change him would it?

Probably change him from wanting to jump my arm constantly, it's so embarrassing he makes a beeline for me starts licking me and gets randy. I ignore him and don't even pat him now.

We're thinking of getting a dog and I would be totally mortified if my dog tried to jump visitors.

Our vet said that after about 6-7 months, the testosterone really kicks in.

I understand from him that the testosterone causes changes in the dog (positive and negative), that once done, cannot be undone by neutering later. i.e. the behaviours are caused by the changes in the dog that the testosterone causes, not by the testosterone itself.

I'm no vet, by the way - this is just what ours said to us.

Sorry, meant to say, I completely understand not wanting the puppyish characteristics forever - they just seem to suit our dog, and we love them so made a deliberate decision to keep things that way.

Tbh, even after a year, his running off with things etc is still sweet and funny to us, but I understand that it might not suit all households

My dog is almost 2 and has not and will not be neutured. I think each vet has their own idea of when its best to do it but most behaviours can be stopped with proper training.
I think we got lucky with my dog as I've rarely seen such a chilled out dog, especially a springer spaniel.

My lab wasn't neutered until he was a year. He's right now and whilst he can ramp up when things get exciting, most of the time he's a hearth rug. He was a loon as a puppy. Can't say I agree with this "locking in characteristics" business.

I agree that most behaviours can be stopped/prevented with proper training and without that training neutering will not alter behaviour in most cases anyway, especially once it is established/has become habit.

The main health reason to neuter male dogs is to prevent testicular cancer. Assuming your dog doesn't get that before he is neutered, then there are no health reasons to specifically neuter early as there are with bitches (seasons increase the risk of mammary tumours in bitches) but there are possible health implications to neutering too early.

You do though, need to discuss with your vet the pros and cons, not go by what your friend or anyone on the internet says, but do remember that vets' expertise is usually in areas other than dog behaviour.

Personally, if you are not going to use your dog for breeding - and you shouldn't unless it has been throughoughly checked for eye, hip, heart and any other problems that are specific to that breed and it is NOT a crossbreed!

I can see no reason for not castrating. Ideally around 6 - 12 months, a lot depends on the breed/size/maturity of the dog involved and that they have two fully descended testicles!!!

Castrating does not only work on behaviours, there are health benefits related to it too, along with the fact that an uncastrated dog can be a quite frustrated/stressed dog - even though all outwardly appears OK.

In natural circumstances, dogs would be roaming around, fighting/challenging other dogs, scent marking, mating regularly with females and generally fulfilling all their doggy instincts. Because we keep our dogs in our homes in what technically is 'unnatural' to a dogs instincts (although they have adapted extremely well), all those needs are going unfulfilled, hence the problems some people experience. Think male teenagers and what that encompasses and we wonder why our dogs are not totally content, hump cushions and act aggressively.

By castrating, the testosterone levels dropped, the frustrations of having these 'needs' unfulfilled will diminish and you end up (usually), with a relaxed, more contented dog.

However, there are no guarantees and if you are castrating purely because you have behaviour problems, do remember that if a behaviour is ingrained, it will take longer to stop and needs to be worked on along with some sort of behaviour plan in tandem with the castration.

Generally, it takes around 2/3 months before changes fully take effect and testosterone levels drop.

From a rescue point of view .EVERY dog should be spayed or castrated.

I am very happy ei my puppy's behaviour - pretty calm, always good natured, ni humping ir scent marking as yet. The neutering is just the responsible route IMO. My vet was very relaxed as to when I neutered him so just dont want to make a mistake and ruin a gorgeous dog!

Shocking spelling!!

I don't think there's a one size fits all for when to castrate, perhaps smaller dogs can be done earlier than large ones. The breeder of my lab advised me to wait until he was fully grown (18-24months) because there's an increased risk of hip and cruciate ligament problems if labs are castrated earlier. There's delayed closure of the growth plates and their legs grow longer than they should which puts a strain on ligaments and joints.
Now my dog is 20 months he's gone through the rebellious teenage phase and is calm and well behaved, he's completely non aggressive with other dogs, very playful but if they run up spoiling for a fight or try to hump him, he just puts his head down and walks away.
I'm veering towards not having him castrated. The only health benefit seems to be a reduced risk of testicular cancer, which is a fairly curable cancer, while castrated labradors (not sure about other breeds) have an increased risk of bone cancer which isn't curable.

Testicular cancer is rare. You don't need to lop off every part which could get cancer in 12 years time.
With big breeds you're supposed to wait until growth is complete.
Many vets won't castrate before 1 year old but others will neuter either sex at a few weeks old before they are sold.

If you really want to make an informed choice about when or if you should castrate then you should read this article.

www.naiaonline.org/pdfs/LongTermHealthEffectsOfSpayNeuterInDogs.pdf

Mine was a year old. He had being getting more and more randy by the day and got to the point where he was trying to dominate me and growling at me whilst trying to hump me!!

The vet had already told us he had hip /eye/ other collie related issues so breeding was out of the question.

It has made him quite lazy though. This may be a coincidence.

My rule of thumb is once they have been successfully cocking their leg for a month.... Old enough not to cause any problems with lack of hormones etc but still young enough to get over it quickly

I was all set to have our boy some at 6 months, end of July, very confused now lol

Stoney666, I am with you. I thought it was a given. Now I am not so sure. There seem to be three issues - one/ to reduce chance of unwanted puppies but this seems to be much more relevant to the bitches than the dogs two/ to reduce behavioural issues which my puppy are not showing and three/ for a health benefit which appears to be outweighed by the risks of neutering. Hmmmm.....TBH, the one thing still on my mind is the aesthetics (right spelling?) - I find dangly plums that bounce around when the dog is running a little offputting .

As for cocking a leg - our dog started at 3 months old! We had him castrated at a year old because he was untrainable and getting aggressive. He improved greatly but maybe because he was growing up.

My dog is 2 next month and he can cock his leg but often still squats!

The data and way of thinking with regard to castration of male dogs has changed dramatically recently. We always used to reccomend castration at 6 months but not now!
Only if the dog was displaying highly dominant behaviour or rare circumstance
would we do advise a young castrate now.

Personally I will not be getting my lovely little rescue crossbreed pup castrated the way things stand he is 9 months and a beautiful nature not overly sexed or expressing any unwanted behaviour - but this is a personal choice and based on my dog alone.

Females are a different story sadly by bitches were spayed back when the thinking was small breed = spay at 6 months - deinately wait till they are over 1 but I am fortunate not to have any problems, yet at least.

my previous vet recommended to neuter at 6 months and would recommend this at every single visit.

My current vet does not pressurise at all and leaves it to the owner to approach him about it which I prefer.

Ours was 7 to 8 months and had started showing quite a lot of male dominant behaviours; marking territory in the house , humping everything in sight, being more aggressive, refusing to do anything he was told.

The vet we had then was reluctant to castrate a male dog unless for behavioural reasons (really not sure why when there are so many unwanted dogs in the world). So we had to put him on some hormone tablets for a month and vet said if they made a marked difference to his behaviour, he would castrate. They did, so we had the op done.

The timing was good for him. His behaviour improved beyond all recognition. He would not have made a good or happy pet left entire. He is now 10 and very healthy and happy still.