Does anyone else's dog leave semen around the house 🤢

[Bloomingwild282]

Sorry for the gross topic but this is becoming a bit of an issue. Our dog is 18 months old and his penis constantly leaks semen. He leaves little puddles of it wherever he sits. It's mostly noticeable on the window sills. I dont really want to stop him sitting there as he loves lying in the sun watching the world go by but it's disgusting!

Will he grow out of it? He's not castrated due to having a nervous temperament.

degreesandmeltinghere 😄

EmRata95 thankyou, yes it's well recognised that castration is not recommended for nervous dogs.

Bargebill19 it's a very small price to pay to have a well balanced, confident dog rather than a shaking, nervous wreck. Any good dog owner would be happy to clear up a bit of mess I return for a happy dog who enjoys their walks.

Thanks for all the replies. I will take him for a vet check tomorrow.

Yes ours did it and we took him to the vet and it's called smegma- he gave us some antibiotics to try but said it didn't actually look infected. They didn't work and the vet said the only way to reduce was to neuter him.

He was 3 at that point so we did it and magically it's stopped! He said some dogs just produce more than others

You can get an injection that temporarily castrates them and then you can see if it suits temperament and if it would stop this.

Urgh yes. Tiny little drops of semen. Mine and all the males of a dog group I’m part of all have/had the same issue: so gross.

Mine is neutered now though (unrelated) and it stopped. But the vet did mention that sometimes it can still happen after neutering so if anyone’s thinking of doing it for that reason alone then just a warning.

We had this issue, it was a horrible shade of green as well, he had to wear a doughnut of shame as he was making his willy sore at night time 🤢

Blooming, you are receiving the correct advice. Our vet and behavioural therapist say never neuter an anxious or aggressive dog,as it generally worsens the problem. My vet doesn’t agree with neutering full stop, as the cancers occuring in neutered dogs ie testicular are far harder to treat than for example prostate cancer more commonly occurring in intact males.

@Bargebill19

Have always found that removing the testosterone makes them calmer as they get less wound up about things. Less flighty and nervy. Never heard of it as an excuse to leave them intact. Get him done.

This is outdated thinking.

The latest research (which has been around for a while actually) shows that is that in anxious/nervy dogs their fight/flight response increases after neutering.

(Basically, they don’t have enough testosterone to feel even a bit brave. So they feel like they have to either ‘get in there first’ to see everything off or cower/run away as they’re perceiving so many more things as threats.)

Too add as for the smegma etc, we had it up the walls until he hit two yrs old and then it disappeared. Thank god!

Yello, absolutely spot on.

Urgh! My dog leaves his Willy goo everywhere and it's vile. I have never had another dog have this and he has had this from a wee pup. My walls even get splattered with it when he shakes 🤢

It's not medically/psychologically necessary to neuter him so I won't but I've not seen this before and didn't think it was related to him having testicles... I just thought he was grim.

You don’t want a dog to ‘feel brave’. The dog wouldn’t be nervous if they have a pack leader - that’s you the human! You are supposed to be the alpha dog in a dog/human relationship.

An alpha dog is a dog which has the upper hand in everything and you the human is not in charge.

Op it is not a small price to pay. It’s like living with a teenage boy.

Ignore the posters saying to castrate - your vet is absolutely correct that neutering is not recommended for nervous or anxious dogs.

I would see if there's anything they can do about the semen though

@Bloomingwild282 My dog is nervous too and my vet, behaviourist, and DP (also a vet) advise that I should never have him neutered.

Bargebill19 I do live with teenage boys, they're ace!

Thanks everyone who's taken the time to reply with advice and reassurance.

Another one here with an entire male at 2 who is delaying neutering, on advice of vet & trainer (and ignoring old fashioned 'pack theory')
Thanking my lucky stars dog doesn't leave spunk around the place, the amount of time he spends licking his willy I should hope not anyway.

@Bargebill19

You don’t want a dog to ‘feel brave’. The dog wouldn’t be nervous if they have a pack leader - that’s you the human! You are supposed to be the alpha dog in a dog/human relationship.

An alpha dog is a dog which has the upper hand in everything and you the human is not in charge.

@Bargebill19 again, this thinking is outdated. Science has moved on. Research has shown it’s more complex than this.

By ignoring this you’re doing the equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and going “la la not listening”. You don’t have to continue learning if you’re not interested, that’s absolutely fine, but don’t push old, disproved and potentially damaging theories onto others’ under the guise of ‘advice’. It’s not advice if it’s not true (or helpful).

@Bargebill19 your thinking is outdated. There’s a lot of new research that overrules pack mentality theory.

To you my thinking might be outdated. But the advice clearly has and does work. Others on here are also saying exactly the same.
Just because there is a a ‘new way of thinking’ doesn’t make it right.
Suspect there will be a lot of dog owners with problems meeting intact bitches further down the line - and saying it isn’t their problem. Very much like is happening now with cat spaying, and a lot of us are saying that advice is and was wrong too.

To you my thinking might be outdated.

It’s not ‘to me/us’, it’s to science. You’re arguing with facts and data and studies @Bargebill19

It sounds like you’re pushing neutering so hard because you worry about unwanted puppies. I can see where you’re coming from. But try to remember that it is possible to be both a responsible dog owner and choose not to neuter (if that’s the right choice for the dog). They don’t cancel each other out.

No I’m not. I suggested the obvious solution to the op problem. The op asked for advice. There isn’t another solution to her problem, other than having the dog wear a nappy or spending her time cleaning dogs sperm up from furnishings. (It is a horrible job like cleaning off dried cement). Something she clearly didn’t want to have to do as she posted the problem on here. There are also other benefits to having dogs neutered. I’ve only just pointed out that one. The reason I said it is because there are a lot of people who choose not to neuter on the basis of modern advice from a small sector of vets and trainers - not all professionals agree. Those who choose not to neuter also often go on to have wandering dogs, because there is nothing so exciting to an intact dog than a bitch in heat. Hey presto puppies!
Intact male dogs are also often the more aggressive of dogs.
And yes, I’ve had 50 years of owning and training dogs before anyone decides I don’t like dogs.

I thought it was bad enough having my dog come in from the garden on a wet day shaking mud everywhere.

Thank goodness she's female.

The science on neutering is unclear imo and what seems to be happening is, as it filters down through into popular understanding, the nuances are being lost in favour of an overly simple 'neutering makes fearful dogs worse' message. I get why that would happen, but it having studied this for the last few years, I don't think there are enough (any) clear studies showing a causation link. Which is not to say it does not exist, just that it is a complex thing to prove and there is not yet enough research. Plus, every dog comes with it's own experiences and genetics - making it tricky to really know what the cause of any behaviour is for sure.

Testerone has been linked clearly to confidence levels in multiple mammals - suggesting a dog with less testosterone might be more fearful. However, it is also linked to the threshold for aggression, suggestion a netutered dog might be less likely to use aggression at a lower level of arousal than an intact one.

There have also been studies seeking to seperate out the different causes of aggression and suggesting neutering may reduce same-sex aggression but increase stranger and female-dog directed aggression. Again, those studies found a correlation, which is not necessarily a causation - but might be.

In the end, I suspect the answer is for each owner to work with their vet, their trainers and their own research which includes seeing the dog in front of them - and make the best decision they can for their dog.

Medical pros and cons are a bit clearer but do not come down in favour of one way or another. e.g. Bone cancers occur more in neutered dogs than unneutered. So it's also not so simple to say there are medical benefits without also saying there are medical consequences.

Either way, this is an 18 month old dog. His testosterone is naturally at its highest point right now. As he ages, it will decline naturally anyway and this might be enough to stop the the crusty spunk problem - eventually

FWIW I think some dogs do have this happen and it's normal - if very icky. In fact, I once had someone complain to me that their dog left it splattered up the stair walls as his willy kinda bounced from side to side when he ran and up and down the steps - thus flinging it onto the wall.

Perhaps washable mats where he likes to lie?

Surely confidence is a social construct? If it were all about testosterone then men would automatically be more confident than women.

Op I’ve had the same advice (re castration) as my boy is an anxious soul, however doesn’t leak everywhere that must be a bit stressful for you. My pup is 11 months we are in to see a vet behaviourist next month for extra support.
Both my sister (who is a dog trainer and behaviourist) and my vet have said the same thing to me but suggested the implant as it’s short acting to see how we get on, that’s not something I’ll consider for some time as he’s young and a large dog.

I think a misconception about anxious dogs is they haven’t been socialised enough or are aggressive. Most anxious dogs are very friendly and love people and other dogs. My boy had appropriate socialisation never flooding him or taking him past his threshold and the training we are doing is really helping him. Have you asked the vet if this is normal and what you could do to stop it?..