Please talk to me about castrating reactive dogs

[ladyandthechocolate]

I would love to hear about your experiences regarding the decision to castrate (or not).
Ddog is 3 and has always had nervous traits. He loves the people he knows but doesn’t like being touched by anyone else. He tolerates and enjoys the company of some other dogs but is worried by bigger dogs that get right in his face. We have seen behaviourists and we understand him pretty well now.
We thought we had come to a decision about castrating him, we were advised to wait until he was fully mature to prevent the operation worsening his fear aggression. The vet now wants to do a chemical castration to assess the effect before we commit to permanent castration.
That in theory sounds sensible except there isn’t much online to read about chemical castration and it is a lot more expensive- an extra £400 on top of the standard castration fee.
The money isn’t an issue as much as I am suspicious of our vet right now because of the way they seem to upsell non-essential investigations. I am thinking of moving practices but that’s a different story...
I thought that once a dog was mature, castration has little effect on behaviour- this is why we have waited so long. I’m not expecting it to improve his reactivity but I just don’t want to make it worse.
Thanks

I agree with your vet.
I wouldn't neuter a nervous male before trialing the implant first.
And unless the male in question was aggressive to other entire males and/or a sex pest I probably wouldn’t neuter at all.

All the science and all the research has shown that the only positive behaviour that castration changes is scent marking.

However the increase of negative behaviours after castration is higher.

There is no decline in agression in dogs that have been castrated, no decrease in dogs running off after castration, no decrease in humping or over exhuberance etc etc.

However there is a marked increase in some unwanted behaviours after castration.

study here

I had my fear-aggressive male GSD castrated at 1 year old, on advice of vet and behaviourist. With no control situation, I can’t say whether he’s worse than he would have been otherwise, but he’s an absolute nightmare now.
The vet now can’t vaccinate him without knocking him out first, if he is allowed access to our front room he will try to break though the double glazing if a delivery man comes to the door. We can’t have visitors. I have to hire secure fields to exercise him. The whole family are trained in strict protocols with stairgates etc if anyone knocks at the door. He’s medicated with fluoxetine and gabapentin.
Like a previous posters dog, both behaviourists that we have seen say that he was just poorly bred/born this way. Not sure I’d castrate again without trialling chemical castration first though!! The money would have been a drop in the ocean compared to what it costs to ‘manage’ him now.
All that said, we love him dearly, he is such a character, and an important family member despite his issues.

@ladyandthechocolate
The only way to determine the impact of castration without actually castrating him is to follow your own vet's excellent advice rather than slander them on the internet for it.

Yes suprelorelin is expensive. But it is the recommended and only non-permanent way of assessing the impact of castration on reactivity and fear related behaviours.

@Veterinari wow. Rude.
I can’t see which part of my original post could be described as slander. It’s true- they do up sell non-essential investigations. Collection of blood samples and performing urine tests on a healthy dog showing no signs of illness is completely unnecessary and it is practice policy. I am in (human) healthcare and we never carry out unnecessary investigations for the sake of it.
The knock on effect is that it makes me a bit wary of their suggestions and I like to do my own research.
Anyway....I was actually interested in peoples real life experiences with their dogs. The implant might well be an excellent thing to do but part of the decision making process for me at least is talking to other people about it.
Thanks to the other posters for your helpful feedback.

[quote ladyandthechocolate]@Veterinari wow. Rude.
I can’t see which part of my original post could be described as slander. It’s true- they do up sell non-essential investigations. Collection of blood samples and performing urine tests on a healthy dog showing no signs of illness is completely unnecessary and it is practice policy. I am in (human) healthcare and we never carry out unnecessary investigations for the sake of it.
The knock on effect is that it makes me a bit wary of their suggestions and I like to do my own research.
Anyway....I was actually interested in peoples real life experiences with their dogs. The implant might well be an excellent thing to do but part of the decision making process for me at least is talking to other people about it.
Thanks to the other posters for your helpful feedback.[/quote]
@ladyandthechocolate
Where was I rude exactly?
You have literally slandered your vet on the internet.
How is it rude to point that out?

If you don't like/trust them then change your vet.

But they've given you good evidence based advice. I would have thought if you work in healthcare you'd value that.