intact vs neutered

It depends on the dog. Most our males have been intact forever. Bernard is 4 and intact right now. He's so easy it's ridiculous.

Trey was neutered at 2. He was weird before and weird afterwards. He wasn't even a pain when he was intact and Nikki was in heat.

Beau was the one dog that neutering was really helpful. He was very high strung, constantly trying to mount other dogs. Constantly wanting to mark even indoors. Neutering helped a lot. Of course then it made him balloon up in size and his coat got awful from being neutered. But now that he's skinny again, he seems the same, just much much less humpy and his hair is horrible. lol

Summer marks and hikes her leg too.

Only two times I've seen Roman (5 year old intact GSD) hump. One was his love affair with a intact male Berner when he was a year old.

Those dogs would hump for hours.

I kid you not.

Hours.

The only other time I saw him get a hint of humpy about him is when he was in a serious fight with the other dog here. They were fighting, Roman had the other dog by the scruff, the other dog turned and was under him and for literally a split second Roman assumed hump position. Then the fight carried on. It was weird.

And for the record, the other dog, who was neutered at 4 months, is a total bully. Roman is extremely tolerant.

And re:tasting pee... YES ROMAN DOES THIS. GROSS. And he lovesss licking the other dog's genitals and putting his nose right in his butthole. GROSS. GROSS. GROSS. I don't know if he does this because he's intact but it would be almost worth lopping his jewels off if it would stop him from being so nasty lol.

I'm not sure I want to ask but...WHAT does he flag with??? He's sort of missing key parts there...????

Again I'm not even sure I want to know lol

I don't even know how to explain it, but his whole body language changes. He gets all still and then lifts his tail up and to the side and wags it a bit. A few times the little dog has gotten right up there and started humping and then it turns into play.

Or, sometimes we just skip that step, he pees on them, declares them his property and tries to stuff them into the car.

Moo was intact till 3. I saw no reason to neuter till then. He was easy going with most dogs, didn't roam, wasn't obsessive. We trialled and trained no issue. He started around 2.5 to pee in my house. We had come to jesus meetings, more crate time, 0 left alone time, leashed to me only.. reintroduce room by room slowly, and then suddenly after months pee on something.. followed by more and more of it elsewhere even when being cleaned with enzymatic cleaner.

While I knew neutering might not fix it.. I'd had enough. Neutering did fix his peeing indoors. Arson was intact till Friday. He has serious potty issues, is from a byb.. has matured enough at 14 months I was happy to snip him now.

I grew up with all intact animals - males and females, cats and dogs. Gavroche is my first neutered dog, and OH GOD THE PROBLEMS.

First, don't let ANYONE tell you neutered dogs don't have prostate issues. I just shelled out $210 for 8 weeks of Baytril for Gavroche (and that's WITH my discount, without it would be $400...Logan's dental/extraction with my discount was only $150) in an attempt to get his UTIs under control after finding they are likely caused by a small cyst in his prostate where the bacteria hide away while he's not on antibiotics. Then there's the hypothyroidism and the urinary incontinence (which may actually be a result of the chronic UTIs).

Logan does not just go after females. First, he's my service dog. He has to be able to concentrate on the task at hand, and he does, beautifully, even though he's intact. We have worked alongside females in heat with no problems. I come home with female in heat smell all over my scrubs all the time with no problem. He's a spectacularly healthy dog (when he's not breaking himself >.< ).

I don't intend to neuter any future dogs, and if I do, it will be WELL AFTER they're fully mature. My personal preference is after 3 years old. I used to say after 18 months, but seeing the way Logan has grown and matured, I've changed it to 3 years. That's why I prefer males. I don't want to put up with 3 years og heat cycles before I spay a female.

And for behavior issues, Gavroche is the problem dog. He's DR, has some anxiety (much better since he's been on thyroid meds), and is an overall jerk. Logan LOVES everybody and everyone and doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. The only problem Logan's had is marking, and that was fixed with diligence. A spray bottle cured his marking in the house in about 48 hours. Pet stores took a LOT longer, but we got there.

My dogs only hump when they play with each other, and Gavroche (neutered) does WAY more humping than Logan (intact). Gavroche has earned the nickname Captain Jack, while Logan is known as Ianto :rofl1:

My two boys who are intact or were neutered very late like to give themselves oral and I'm not just talking just a little lick. Thank god for solid crate walls. heh.

They also have this neat trick of looking like they are deep in thought while sniffing butt. It's the difference between saying Hi which they all do and asking for the license and registration for that ass.

Otherwise mine I think are pretty normal and like just about any other altered dog with bonus dangly bits.

Rocky, my Schnauzer, was intact until we moved to the United States. I am more fluent in English than my parents, and this specific time that Rocky went to the vet I was at school so my parents took him. When I got home, my parents told me the vet wouldn't see him or continue his shots schedule until he was neutered. At the time I didn't know better and I thought it was some kind of law (maybe it is?? I live in Florida). Needless to say I was furious when I got back from school and saw my dog was neutered. His behavior changed completely, he was very active and energetic Schnauzer, and after the neutering he became a 'boring' dog with not much character, and all his energy diminished and he turned into a couch potato dog.

Nog is intact. He does not hump (aside from an occasional go at the cat...but everyone wants to hump poor Abner), he's not overly sniffy, he's fine with dogs regardless of what parts they have. He very rarely marks things..I do have to keep Clive's bean bag chair up, though, as it must smell like something fun to pee on.

He'll likely be neutered soon, though, simply because I really dislike the smell of intact dog pee. No pee smells "good", but I don't smell the neutered boys' urine, with Nog, I have to frequently clean the outdoor area where he pees. He'll be three in March though, so is well matured.

And yes, neutered dogs can be horrible markers. Julian has been neutered since he was a wee guy and he's the worst marking dog ever.

ETA that I've not noticed any of my altered dogs having changes in activity though, you might want to run a thyroid check or something.

I had intended to have Gusto neutered at 12/14 months, but wound up doing him at 11 months.

He didn't have any issues with inappropriate marking (he still doesn't always lift his leg) and had and still has phenomenal dog skills. The big plus is that he no longer spends class time with his teeth chattering and drooling, hovering over a spot on the floor where a female once maybe was. I decided he was done with growing enough (he's a small dog) and that I was probably going to wind up throwing him through the glass door if he kept it up, and he got neutered. The distraction issues still had to be worked on - it isn't a magic solution - but the chattering and drooling and glazed eyes went away fairly quickly. Faster than I actually expected given how long it takes for hormones to completely leave the body.

Kaiden is 8 now. JRTs aren't known for their biddableness at the best of times. But Kaiden has always been a gentleman. Darien has handled him competatively in agility and JRT trials since Darien was 6. Kaiden will do out of sight sit stays beside girls in heat (pantied in heat girls were allowed at the obed club I used to train with.

I don't notice any lack of focus with intact boys in general unless there is an in heat girl in the immediate vicinity. Dash loses his brain when there is a girl in heat here. But take him outside (assuming the girl is inside) and he is back to normal.

In general the onlything I have noticed neutering changing is marking in the house. I have had a few markers that stopped on fixing.

Wilson (who is neutered) humps more than Sako (who is intact). Sako rarely tries to hump, and if he does, Wilson is the target.. only because he knows Piper would eat him if he tried.

He doesn't mark badly.. I make it a point to correct him if we're on a walk and he goes into "mark" mode. I don't want a dog pissing everywhere when I'm trying to walk him! He's never peed on anything he shouldn't pee on, either.

He is SO sniffy though.. obsessed with smelling every little thing. But I'm not sure if that's an intact thing vs. a Sako thing. He's tried to taste Piper's pee too..

Pretty much this.

Boone has tried to hump a few times during play with other dogs, but so have my girls. And he's easily corrected with just a simple command. He certainly doesn't go around trying to mount everything that moves. The only problem I had with him as far as humping goes was when we met stardogs' Aeri.... lol But hey, it's a learning experience!

He doesn't mark inside, but he does mark a lot outside. He is also a very sniffy dog. And if you let him, he will taste a female's pee and then walk around chattering his teeth and drooling. But he's got a solid "leave it" command, so I don't worry too much about that.

As far as aggression, he's pretty great about ignoring other dogs chesting up to him and whatnot. But if a dog jumps him, it's on like donkey kong, and I have to end it before he does. He has also charged in when one of my girls got attacked.

Not sure how much of this is just him and how much is because he's intact. But there's nothing that makes me feel like I have to hurry and schedule a vet appointment because, "OMG, leaving his balls on him made him an out-of-control monster!"

Cooper was neutered at two years. I haven't noticed a difference in him what so ever, other than that he now no longer pees in the house (hooray!). Blackie wasn't neutered until three, and I don't really remember it having an effect on him either.

I plan on keeping my next boy intact until at least two years and I'm not worried about it. The only people who think its a horrible idea are those that believe reproductive hormones = aggressive dog that will over populate the world.

Only thing I can say is true to the intact stereotypes in regards to my own dog (Ma'ii) is that he IS aggressive with other intact male dogs. However, I have a funny feeling the problem doesn't have much to do with him being intact. I've seen neutered males with the same kind of aggression towards intact males as well.

Other then that, he's perfectly fine.

Bimmer is intact. He's coming up on 14. He is none of those things and never has been He's my Good Dog, lol!

Strider didn't become SSA/intolerant until AFTER he was neutered. :dunno:

Then again, I neutered him because he started having epilepsy issues. I noticed some weird personality quirks/changes during that period which seemed to be associated with his clusters, so it's really hard to know how much is because of the seizures and how much is because of neutering.

Wow, thanks guys. I'm not super concerned about any of the issues the rest of my family seem to be. Aware of them, but not concerned. I guess my answer to their concerns should be "I plan on keeping him intact until he gives me a reason not to"

I waited to neuter Steve (he was a uni-baller) until he was 19 months. I work in a vet's office. You would not BELIEVE the drama from some people. (ok, maybe you would.)

Really the only difference I've noticed is that he does not mark in my house anymore (I was having pissing wars between Mushroom (neutered) and Steve and it sucked).