Am I doing right thing getting my dog neutered?

[meandmygirl1]

That's it really. He's booked in on Thursday and I am having a wobble. He cheerfully humps everything and the dog walker has said he won't take a telling and docile dogs are getting sick of his behaviour. He's a 14 month lab and I love him dearly. I don't want his daft personality to change.

There is no agreement on the right age to neuter, or even on whether to do it at all. You can't really expect to have hard evidence on whether a procedure is beneficial when a lot of those benefits are avoiding things that may or may not happen anyway. You also have to take a view on the benefits to the owner, the dog and dogs as a whole. Sometimes these conflict, for example if you have a large stray population then early neutering may be the only way to ensure that there are enough resources for every dog to have a halfway decent life.
There is agreement that it's not good for the dog to neuter before it's fully grown so I personally would wait till then. I don't know whether you can use an injection in the meantime, presumably this works by interfering with hormones so it may or may not interfere with growth, but your vet can advise.

Personally I think he's too young.

I made the assumption it’s better for dogs to be castrated, but my vet said only if it’s absolutely necessary and they now recommend keeping them intact.

I have had male dogs for forty-plus years. My current Lab, now three, was castrated in August. I had swithered about the decision for almost a year, which I hadn't done for the previous three. It hasn't changed his daft personality at all; he just pees on every fifth blade of grass rather than every one.

I know the arguments for and against are more balanced these days, but I would leave him till at least two (my original plan...) so he matures mentally as well as physically. But my previous Lab was done at fifteen months as he humped a friend's bitch non-stop; afterwards that behaviour stopped almost immediately. He had no ill-effects from that. My first Lab had an enlarged prostate and was done urgently at ten.

I considered chemical castration but you don't get a true idea of the effect the chop would have. The implant removes all testosterone, not just that produced in the testicles, whereas some comes from the adrenal cortex and that remains after the chop.

Get the implant first. My dog did not react well to being neutered and I so wish I could undo it.

Humping is most often caused by overstimulation and excitement - it's rarely a sexual behaviour and neutering is shown to have little to no impact on it.

What often happens is that dogs are neutered at an age where they start to calm down anyway, so people put two and two together and get five.

Anecdotally as a dog walker, the worst dog on my books for humping is a spayed female. The others are all neutered males with only one exception. The rest of the entire males never hump.

I'd also add that your dog shouldn't be out on group walks if he can't behave himself.

On the vets advice, we had our Lab done at 13? months. No issues, and stopped humping us. Happily interacts with majority of dogs in the area (countryside, and there are a LOT of other dogs) and is not worried about any females in heat, so I don't have to be constantly on guard for unwanted pups when he's off lead and running around the fields.

I know owners of intact dogs in our area do have issues with each others dogs, and can lead to issues as to who is top dog. And bigger issues when one of the females is in season.

This was 8 years ago, by the sounds if it some of the advice may have changed? But no regrets here on our decision at the time. Maybe it also depends on where you live / what you do with your dog?

Assuming you are a responsible owner, so taking the accidental litters option out of the equation.

There is increasing evidence to suggest neutering, and particularly early neutering of larger breeds (under 2 years old) can cause more health problems than it prevents. Hormones contribute a lot to growth and health, in particular things like bone and ligament formation - I don't have the link to it right now but I was recently reading a study that looked at cruciate ligament problems and there did some to be a fairly strong link to neutering.

Early neutered dogs can also (sometimes) get stuck a bit in terms of emotional maturity as well.

Neutering isn't really a cure for humping - that's more to do with adolescent excitement, good training and your dog naturally maturing are just as likely to help.

I personally haven't neutered either of my male dogs, one of whom is now officially senior, and looking at him compared to neutered examples of the same breed, I'd say he looks in much better physical condition.

Each to their own though, only you can make that call, good luck whatever you decide

It will probably help and it's not too young but you have a MUCH bigger problem.
Young male labradors are frequently socially obnoxious and yours certainly is. They tend to be oblivious to body language of other dogs and their owners are generally equally so.
Your dog cannot continue to be allowed to harass and potentially injure other animals.
He is not capable of walking with other dogs, as your dog walker has told you, and he urgently needs solo training.
They're one of the most trainable breeds and there's no excuse for this.

Veterinary article looking at research into age of spaying, risk of cancer, joint issues and urinary issues.

From the evidence, it recommends that male labs are not neutered before 6 months and females not before 11 months.

Frontiers | Assisting Decision-Making on Age of Neutering for 35 Breeds of Dogs: Associated Joint Disorders, Cancers, and Urinary Incontinence

As much as I adore dogs, I would find your current dog's behaviour really irritating to my own dogs.
Get him neutered. Probably best wait until he's 18 months old as this is the current advice.
You clearly never witnessed an intact male dog running off when catching the scent of a female dog on heat. You simply cannot stop them. At all. Or how unbelievably stressed they are even if they can't escape.
With all my dogs, humping stopped once neutered. No change in personality as such.
But larger dogs come into their true personality around 2 1/2 years of age. Which could be nice or not nice. It can go either way. I don't think it's related to being neutered or spayed.
A very long time ago we had labs and back then they'd neuter much earlier. They actually lived to 15 and 16 with a very good quality of life and good health. So in their case, earlier neutering didn't cause obvious health issues. The best thing you can do is make absolutely sure the dog is always on the lean side. Being overweight is much more damaging to a dog's health, irrespective of breed, than anything else, in my opinion.

I wouldn’t neuter so early. Got a 14 year old entire lab dog. Who has never been a problem. Yours sounds more like teenage dog behaviour and if he’s an only dog wants a buddy. Behaviour can change quite dramatically when they have a friend. But it needs to be one that won’t take the bad behaviour

We would agree with this. We've had 3 entire males, none of them ever humped, but we've had a bitch that did hump when she was in season, and one spayed bitch that humped obsessively.

We had ours done around a similar age. The humoing stopped, and he no longer needed to wee every almost. It made life easier. His personality has remained the same, albeit marginally calmer.

Be prepared that after the surgery, he may become a bit more clingy. Our lab cried if someone wasn’t in the room with him. He did improve after a couple of days or so. We also used a bodysuit rather than a cone, which worked hurt him.

We got our old Lab neutered at just over a year old.

He was just as daft afterwards and it didn't change his personality much apart from improving his recall. Which had been excellent until the hormones really kicked in and he started following all the bitches round the park.

I had my labradoodle done at a similar age, has only been positive.