Advised NOT to castrate dog

[Userl0]

Hello, I was just wondering if anybody could maybe give some advice on this.

We have a 12 month old poodle and at recent vet visit we have been advised not to castrate at all but consider chemical castration instead 'just incase because we can't stick them back on'.

I understand that it can alter their temperament sometimes and as he is quite reactive to other dogs (never shown aggression, but he's quite skittish when they come behind him which due to numerous of off lead encounters which is a whole separate issue! and it's created reactivity which we've made massive progress on already for the most part). That is the reason I mention. Will castration make this reactivate behaviour worse and why it's not advised or is there another reason.

The answer I got when I asked why not to castrate at all, was the 'just incase you change your mind we can't stick them back on'. I have absolutely no intention of breeding from him so I don't understand the logic.

If anybody can help that would be fab. He's our first young dog for years! And when our older dogs were at the age a castration it was done 6 months.

Thanks!

I would castrate him so he can’t get cancer in that area.

He's likely skittish because he is intact tbh.

Castration can have undesirable side-effects in terms of personality changes but it can also make some behaviours better - it's a bit of a gamble IME. So a chemical castration is a good idea if you're unsure and if he does have undesirable behaviour - it gives you an option to see if it makes it worse and if it does, it's easy to reverse.

That's probably what your vet meant.

Experts opinion have changed a lot in regards to neutering a dog.
when I was younger it was a given you’d have your dog neutered, usually around 6 months old (which we know now is way too young). Now you are best to wait until the dog is fully grown and matured. The hormones play a massive important part for a growing dog. and removing them too soon can make a male dog timid or reactive.

Are you having him neutered to try and correct a behaviour, or just because you don’t intend to breed from him?
My youngest male dog isn’t neutered, he’s nearly 5. He’s never done anything to make me think it needs doing. He isn’t bothered about other dogs, doesn’t try and hump anything and I just see no reason to do it.
I’ve had chats with my vet, plus the breeder of the dog about this and we all agree that there is no need. The vet suggested I could try the injection to see if I altered his behaviour at all.
It isn’t permanent, whereas neutering is, so it’s good to see if you like any personality changes that may occur, which is likely why your vet was recommending the chemical option.
Certainly a few years ago, you’d have had your dog neutered with little to no discussion as it was always accepted as the right thing to do, but it isn’t for every dog. The temporary option is worth looking at in my opinion

Your vet is right. If his reactivity is due to fear then castration could make it worse and by the time you know it’s too late. Chemical castration allows you to see if it would affect his behaviour and if it makes it worse it wears off after six months or so.

plus there’s a growing school of thought that male dogs shouldn’t be castrated unless it’s for behaviour issues. That there’s no health benefit unlike for bitches.

My cockapoo is 75% poodle. He's five and I was told not to neuter him. No issues whatsoever.
I did have my JRT done at seven months and he became snappy.

So I am not an expert but some reactive dogs ( especially if driven by anxiety) can be worse after castration. We chemically castrated our dog as wasn’t sure we wanted to do it . We are now going for physical as he is generally happier all round. I would trust your vet, too many suggest castration too easily

Thank you everyone for your replies! Really appreciated.
We were more thinking along the lines as we don't want to breed from him and thought it may calm him a little.
It is an anxiety and I think he feels the need to protect us from dogs. He used to be horrendous with bikes, joggers, even people walking past us on walks, but with a lot of training we've managed to actually get past all those factors for the most part but the dog reactivity isn't going away. He's great with his little dog mates when he goes with the dog walker and he does well with my sister's dog and doesn't react much at all on walks alongside him. So we weren't sure if castration would actually calm that behaviour or if it was just continuing with the training, if that makes sense? All in all he's actually a fabulous dog and great with the kids so I don't want to make the wrong decision and it be the wrong one.
Either way we were planning on waiting until he was fully develop (he's a standard poodle and on the large side so thinking around the 2 year mark). So maybe chemical castration may be a good option first to see.
Thank you all, much appreciated 😊

Castration can make anxiety based reactivity far worse. The testerone gives some dogs a calming influence.
The only problem is you won't know if the testerone is beneficial until you remove it.
So chemical castration, which is temporary, is a way of trialing it.
In my male dog with anxiety related reactivity, it made him so much worse, and I'm very glad we went for the 6 month option and not 12 months.

Studies are now showing that intact dogs have lesser rates of cancer, in fact it lowers every type of cancer except testicular and prostate for obvious reasons.

I have had all mine castrated. Some were older, 5 yrs+. They were all rescues that came to me needing rehab before they’d be well enough for the operation. Wide variety of breeds and mutts! I have never seen a deterioration in behaviour, quite the opposite, even in anxious dogs. I have seen less humping, more relaxed, better recall because they aren’t chasing the ladies. Plus, on the off chance they got out (one tri paw scaled a 6 foot fence!) there is no possibility of unwanted puppies. I wouldn’t castrate a large breed dog until at least 18 months but I would always do it.

If he is anxious I would be very very careful in castration as said above testosterone helps dogs. It is an old myth that it makes them aggressive just the opposite.

I have 6 male dogs and non of them are castrated. They live together meet and greet other dogs no issues what so ever. They do not chase or even get bothered by bitches.

It is a very individual decision but pretty old school thinking that it will "calm" a dog down.

The thing is other dogs come round them when they are entire - you said they were coming up from behind? To smell him?

Neutering doesn’t calm down a dog. Well not any of mine anyway or any I’ve taught. Age does that as well as enrichment and fulfilment.

My vets don’t advise neutering at all unless there is a medical need. They still advise females after at least one season, preferably two. My female was spayed after her second season last year. She’s still lively although has levelled out a bit (she had phantoms after each seasons).

Neutering drastically lowers testosterone and can lead to a whole lot of issues if you are not careful. The only aggression it would potentially help with is dog to dog if you were having that issue but it’s rare.

There are several studies that found that male dogs who were anxious became more anxious when castrated and it is thought that this is due to a loss of testosterone.
The evidence of cancer rates being lower in unneutered dogs is complex and appears to be breed specific.

Some reactive behaviour can be made worse with castration due to a drop in testosterone so you’re essentially taking away the last little bit of bravery.
Suprelorin would be a valid and sensible option in these circumstances as it mimics the effect of castration so if he is going to become more nervous or reactive then you only have to ride it out for 6 months before it wares off.

I used suprelorin in my neutered male and it made his behaviour better so in that respect it was a waste but I was happy to spend the extra money and be sure.

Cancer isn’t so black and white. There are some cancers that are argued to be more prevalent in neutered dogs.

I would go with the vets suggestion of chemical castration, then you'll know if castration would be beneficial, behaviour wise.
There certainly are health benefits, elimination of the risk of testicular cancer, reduction in the risk of prostate cance and testosterone fuelled cancers.

Plus of course the societal benefits. My friend had an entire off lead male try to mount her bitch on our walk today, her bitch is not old enough to be neutered yet. Owner took over 5 minutes to appear. It's in everyone's interests not to become a country where we have even more unwanted puppies than we already have and stray dogs roaming everywhere. That's really why we neuter, the greater good, because unfortunately there are a lot of irresponsible dog owners.

My vet advised me that there's evidence of increased chance of cancer from surgical castration. So I'm doing the chemical route.

Even for chemical castration, you should still be waiting until fully mature, as they need the hormones for proper growth and development. If you think they're too young for surgical castration they're also too young for chemical castration as the effects are pretty much the same.

It’s become more common to wait a bit longer and try chemical castration in the last few years. You could try the chemical way first and see if it changes his behaviour in any way and if not decide to physically castrate then

I agree with the comments about chemical castration. We have a 3.5 year old lab who has always been quite anxious (and mental!). Advice was not to castrate but he was hard work and then on top we started to have neutered males getting aggressive with him. We did a chemical castration and it was a game changer. He's so much calmer and he and we can enjoy his walks now. The humping and jizz everywhere have stopped and he no longer has other dogs being aggressive towards him on every walk. We will have him surgically fixed when the implant runs out.

Our dog started to become reactive when he reached about a year old. He's also quite an anxious dog. We thought it has started due to his hormones so we had him chemically castrated (the 12 month one) - it didn't help and in fact he became more and more reactive. Over the past few months it has started to wear off - We know this because his testicles have gone big again and he's spending ages sniffing when on walks. He has definitely become less reactive to other dogs since it wore off. So my feeling is that in an anxious dog, losing the testosterone can make them more aggressive due to fear. I will not be doing it again.

On the downside, he keeps trying to hump my arm all the time. And he's obsessed with bitches. Still better than the aggression towards other dogs though.

I have 2 bernese mountain dog boys. Aged 9 and 6, neither has been castrated. We had two dogs previous to these two, starting in 1997. It was pretty much taken for granted that they would be done, and they were. So I was surprised when our vet changed her tune with no 3.

In fact, in Scandinavia it is unusual to castrate, while in the US it is standard, so cultural issues are at play here.

Our dogs have never tried to mount a bitch. They don't fight with other dogs. They don't hump the furniture or visitors. There has never been much need for it.

It is illegal to castrate a dog in Scandinavia unless there is a medical reason

That's interesting. I knew they didn't do it but I didn't realise it was illegal.

I saw on YouTube (so take my advice with a huge pinch of salt) that some vets in Canada advise not to snip into 24 months, though this depends on size, age & breed. Something to do with an element of growth hormone being lost? Wait until they've mostly grown, they said. This idea might need more research.

I have no insight into chemical castration.