Castration

[Carersallowance]

Can anyone tell me the benefits of getting my lab castrated? Does it help behaviors? He isnt aggresive but tries to mount every dog he see's, runs off as soon as he see's another dog and its hard to get him back. Would castration help this?

Depends, see what your vet says.
We had our dog castrated at 18 months and it was right for us as a family but it depends a lot on the dog

For the behaviours you describe it is unlikely that castration will make any difference.

The only evidence based behaviour that changes with castration is scent marking.

What age is your lab?

We had our pug castrated at 12 months old and the humping of his toys stopped very quickly, but he’d never tried to hump another dog. He marks less now which does make walking down the street a bit easier/ faster!

If you look up Oli Juste’s podcast ‘A Dog’s Best Friend’ there are 2 episodes about this which are very helpful including contributions from vets and certified behaviourists looking at the medical and behavioural pros and cons. Helped me to make an evidence based decision for our dog.

We didn’t have our male papillon castrated and he developed bilateral perineal hernias (a known risk of not having males castrated)

It took 3 major surgeries, a week in the specialist hospital and more than $17,000 to save his life. All this would have been avoided if he’s been castrated when he was younger.

We’re so lucky he survived but we nearly lost him.

I’ll never leave a male dog entire - it’s just not worth the risk or the heartache. We could have easily lost a healthy 7.5 year old dog (from a breed that can live to be 18) because we didn’t have him castrated when he was younger.

Yes, it will help with the running off behaviour. Entire males are more likely to be involved in road traffic accidents.
Health wise it eliminates the possibility of testicular cancer and reduces the chances of prostate cancer.

Our Lab currently has the hormone implant. This means he (should) have virtually no testosterone in his body. He is as much of a flight risk as he’s ever been!

It has helped with scent marking. But we’ve seen no other changes, better or worse. Now DPup has had her first season we won’t replace the implant, and we are glad we didn’t have him castrated. The implant is a good option if you want to test it.

I have a male Akita so a large breed like yours but different issues as he has never mounted. We didn't get him neutered as the vets advised us to wait and now there is no need. Just to reassure the Mumsnet crowd there is no intention to breed and he will not be bred.

The vets advised us to to wait until 2 years because of health issues such as growth and allowing him to fully mature. It also locks them in their bad mood/playing up if you do it in the teenage years. Covid hit as he turned 2 and the vets wouldn't do it so we waited and he now is so scared of vets and I wouldn't put him through it.

I think it depends on if he mounts for sexual reasons and neutering would cure this or he does it for fun and it wouldn't have any effect. You could train this out of him?

Our Ddog has always been quite nervous and so advice from our vet (and any vet we've seen!) has been to not castrate him.

I was a bit worried as I thought it was the 'done thing' but this article helped me get on board with the decision.

positivepettraining.co.uk/castrating-dogs/

my lab was 3 when he was castrated, as he was a bit anxious. He has had several health issues which are more prevalent after castration, most notably hypo-thyroidism, which has really flattened him at times.

we took the decision because we live in the suburbs and are surrounded by other dogs, and he was very interested in bitches on heat. He never mounted other dogs though, and nothing really changed after castration.

Thanks everyone for your input. This has helped me to decide to let him leave the world the way he entered in......intact

It only helps with scent marking and running off. If you want to see if it will have a negative or positive affect on his behaviour I would get the implant for 6 months to see how he is with it.

I've not heard of this before. Interesting.

Had mine done for two reasons, health later in life, and also that few (if any) dog walkers or kennels in my area would take him if he was not neutered.

It hasn't really changed him much at all (he was over 2 when done). Maybe marking is a little less, but it's marginal. He has only ever humped another dog once (he's a rescue so I don't know his full history) since being with me. This was post castration and I think due to over excitement as opposed to dominance.

As others have said, maybe the chemical castration to see, and decide after that?

We have a lively lab and are considering it. He’s currently nine months old. Both a trainer and vet suggested we should have him done because he’s a bit of a handful at times. Whether that’s his personality or our failure at training him I don’t know.

To be honest, I’m torn. ,if it calms him down, that’s good, but I don’t want to adversely affect him either. Plus I prefer him not to tamper with nature.

@Riverlee - I'd never neuter a lab until 18 months absolute minimum and you might have a totally different dog by then. 9 months is still a baby really.

I completely agree. Thank goodness our Lab’s adult personality is not his nine month old self. He was crazy!

He had the chemical castration at 2.5 to allow our bitch to have a season before spaying, but it has changed him very little. He is still a flight risk because he has a very unLabby prey drive. But his recall is much improved as we’ve really worked on that since her was a pup. The main things that helped his steadiness were agility classes and gundog training. Giving a dog a ‘job’ and nurturing their breed traits is a far more effective way of creating steadiness than (excuse the emotive language) lopping bits off.

Our pug was neutered at 8 months, he was humping people and marking everything including people. That stopped straight away. One thing for him is that he was a bit anxious anyway and it seemed to make him worse although obviously we can't prove that. If we could have waited we would.

Large breed malamute/czechoslovakian wolfdog cross we had done at just over 1 year, it has stopped him humping the cushions and people at home. It has calmed him down hugely. Again could be coincidence I guess due to age. He definitely seems happier after being neutered, beforehand he seemed quite agitated and stressed, i felt as if he looked at me at times and didn't know what to do with himself. He needed a huge amount of enrichment (fair enough) just to be calm enough for us to sit down for half hr in the evening, exercise made no difference but sniffy walks helped esplate at night. He has his moments now as still only 14 months but as long as he has had an hour of exercise in one form or another he's totally chilled.

There really isn't a huge amount of info on this thread to make that decision. Obviously don't neuter to early but there is a lot of information/research out there to look at. A couple of anecdotal experiences surely can't be enough for you to decide. There is so much evidence about why neutering is the best option but getting it at the right time for the specific dog or breed is so important.

9 months is an awful age for large breeds, ours was worse from about 8 months onwards, I think it's a case of just surviving and carrying on training as much as possible.

Please do your research about it though, not neutering at all is certainly not recommended. There are lots of benefits to it as long as its not too early.

I wish the vet had given us better advice re our little pug, we would have waited (even though his hormonal behaviours were a nightmare)

Try the implant and see if it makes a difference.

Everyone I know that has has gone on to have their dog neutered. I have a bitch and she will be neutered after her first season (which is is just finishing). I've run dog training classes for many years and find unless your dog is an amazing example of the breed and you are going to use them for studding then neutered dogs are so much nicer to be around and so much more focused. Bitches no real difference.

I meant this thread jas made me decide i was doing it for the wrong reasons 😊

Lol sorry I misunderstood. Yes I totally know that feeling, I was extremely stressed when our large breed was displaying very hormonal/difficult behaviour. It felt like the longest 4 months or so ever, I cried a lot! It definitely helped his behaviour at the right time and he seems so much happier but presumably if I had done it earlier it wouldn't have helped.