Entire male - castrate?

[NDornotND]

I currently have one DDog, a nine year old entire male lurcher. When we got him (as a pup), we had two female dogs who had both been spayed. I asked the vet about getting him castrated when he was about 6 months old, and was advised that most people waited until there was a behaviour issue. Well, Ddog appears to be asexual 😆 - he's never shown any interest in anything of that nature and has, therefore, remained intact...Now I am considering getting another dog - not immediately, maybe in a year...probably a female and wondering if he should finally be relieved of his cahones...I'd feel a bit mean after all this time and given the fact that he's never so much as attempted to mount another dog...WWYD?

I’m on the fence with neutering male dogs. I would spay a bitch due to pyometra risk, but have never owned a bitch so that’s probably irrelevant.

As it happens, I have a 5yo male who was neutered in a shelter at around 14 WEEKS 😵 (he was found at the side of the road as a tiny pup) and he is a bit of a perma-puppy, quite highly strung and anxious. Also very gangly and tall with skinny chicken legs as he never had a chance for his body to mature as nature intended. Given the choice, I wouldn’t have neutered him until he was at least two, if at all. He does still have a gorgeous, puppy-like face, though!

He’s more prone to injury than most other dogs I know, whether that’s because he’s simply clumsy and too fast for his own good, or because his muscles and joints are weaker is difficult to guess. Your boy is 9 though, so I’d ask your vet’s honest opinion on what is best for him.

I had mine neutered quite young (under a year). He was obsessive about bitches and if we had encountered a bitch in heat on a walk he would obsess on them and the sit at the door and howl for hours afterwards. He was never going to be able to do what he wanted to do and seemed quite distressed in his behaviour after these encounters and we lived in a busy dog walking area so it seemed sensible. After- he's still interested in bitches in heat but not so obsessive. He definitely lost some confidence and is more defensive around unneutered males, but he's fine with bitches and other neutered boys. As with others there are few boarders and kennels locally that will take intact males. I'd make the same decision again, knowing what I know, but it's not a no brainer- it's all a compromise. But it did help for me knowing how driven he was to try and mate, knowing he couldn't do that whether he kept his balls or not- it felt crueller to keep him in that frustration than to take it away.