To neuter or not to neuter a dog?

knip · 20 May 2011 at 18:51

Hi, we have a 5 and a half year old Jack Russell who we love very much. He's never been neutered because when he was young my Mum had a conversation with a vet who said that neutering them would stop them having such a personality and there are no massive benefits.

For the most part he is delightful, however he can be aggressive over his possessions (or if hedgehogs/frogs dare to visit the garden) and over food (he goes to bite people if they try and take it off him) and also if he's tired he gets really grumpy.

He also pees in the house, on the tv units, beds carpets etc, not all the time but at least a few times a week, even if the door is open and he can go out.

So Mums down there cleaning the tv unit now, and complaining it smells, and I said (as I have said many many times) that we need to get him neutered because it would stop him marking his territory and peeing in the house, and also it would lessen his agression (although I am aware that some of this is now learned behaviour) and Mum grumbles and then says yes maybe we should.

Can someone help out with whether getting him done at this age in his life would be of any benefit, or if he is now stuck in his ways with the growling and peeing, and therefore putting him through an operation would be pointless.

I'd really appreciate peoples experiences and opinions

Greenlizard0 · 20 May 2011 at 18:53

I don't have a dog, nor have I ever owned one but for me a big reason would be him urinating everywhere. If you can 'guarantee' this will stop once you remove the awesome glands then I (reluctantly, you understand) say you should do it.

Dunks · 20 May 2011 at 18:54

Euch, there's no way in hell I could live with a dog that pee'd on everything several times a week.

Get him neutered, it'll make no difference in personality at all. We had our dog neutered due to health problems (testicular cancer), had no affect on his personality at all.

Biohazard · 20 May 2011 at 18:55

Dog nappies tbh

knip · 20 May 2011 at 18:57

Greenlizard0 said:
If you can 'guarantee' this will stop once you remove the awesome glands then I (reluctantly, you understand) say you should do it.

Thats what im trying to find out, whether it actually will make a difference?

TheCrow · 20 May 2011 at 18:58

Get him neutered, should help, though would have been better when younger.

joemo13 · 20 May 2011 at 19:00

We had our dog neutered when we got him, it was a waste of money as it hasn't made any difference at all! But he never peed in the house anyway, it sounds more like a training problem.

Deadbeat · 20 May 2011 at 19:03

Essentially, you have two choices: neuter him, or beat him. The actions you describe aren't the place of a lower-ranked pack member - getting aggressive over food, marking territory and so on shows that, in his mind, most of the family are his equals if not his lessers. Showing him that everybody in the house absolutely dominates him, that he is the lowest ranked member in the pack, will stop him marking your territory as his and he also won't be more than token aggressive if you take things away from him, be it food or a toy of his. You'd have to engineer situations, such as giving him food and taking it away a few moments later, or catching him peeing, and subdue him - cuff him, pin him on his back and stare straight into his eyes until he submits. Two things spring to mind:

1) He's a bit old for this sort of reshuffling, and the habits he's picked up may well stick even though he's lost pack status.

2) It's retardedly cruel and unnecessary when neutering him is an option.

Greenlizard0 · 20 May 2011 at 19:05

knip said:
Thats what im trying to find out, whether it actually will make a difference?

Again not the answer you want, but apparently he's at greater risk in getting several types of cancer if you neuter him.

Brookert · 20 May 2011 at 19:06

Would definitly help. Although if he's five years old, old habits die hard. Urinating everywhere is him marking his territory, which may cease with less male hormones from his two veg.

The food thing is down to training tbh. A dog has to know his place i.e your the master. Your dog believes he is the alpha, so will not relinquish possesions or food.

Before I feed my dog, I make him sit and wait, and he can only eat when I signal to give me his paw for a pawshake

I could take away his food, or his favourite toy and he wouldnt become aggresive. I can get him to leave a treat on the end of his nose, and he will only eat it when I say so.

BDEE · 20 May 2011 at 19:07

Sounds like a badly trained dog to me.

semi-pro waster · 20 May 2011 at 19:08

In the situation neutering is the preferable option, unless you want to breed from the dog there's no real reason not to have them neutered. For what it is worth I've not noticed any negative difference from the dogs that my family has had and been neutered - they may slightly less boisterous but it's pretty minimal the difference.

Brookert · 20 May 2011 at 19:11

BDEE said:
Sounds like a badly trained dog to me.

Girlfriends dog is feral, not trained at all. Stole a bag of crisps off me, and I wasn't going to let that B****** win. I chased him to his corner and yanked it out of his mouth, then he bit me bloody hard. I did a mock swing to slap him and he flinched and ran.

just that incident has led him to stop stealing food, and now I can take things off him he shouldnt have.

knip · 20 May 2011 at 19:12

Yeah we do all the eating after us stuff (he has to wait, and when we give it to him he has to sit there and say he can start eating) and we go in through doors before him, and if he tries to barge past us on the stairs he gets told to stop. I also managed to teach him not to run away off his lead which he used to do, and also if the gate is open he will run out (am sure thats just a terrier characteristic though - wanting to be off having an adventure)

He seems to sneak off and do the weeing thing, its not like he blatantly just stands there and does it, more of a "im not getting any attention so im gonna go somewhere and pee, and then you will notice and shout at me" or just we find that he's peed somewhere at some later point, even if like I said the door is wide open like it is now because the weather is warmer.

Then he's the cutest thing in the world when he wants to be, is curled up like a cat next to me now.

He went from this

To this

Brian8bit · 20 May 2011 at 19:14

Whacking his balls off isn't going to stop him ****ing over everything. That's just poor house training.

knip · 20 May 2011 at 19:15

Brian8bit said:
Whacking his balls off isn't going to stop him ****ing over everything. That's just poor house training.

It is if hes peeing to mark his territory surely? He does get a proper telling off if we find some pee.

Brian8bit · 20 May 2011 at 19:16

knip said:
It is if hes peeing to mark his territory surely? He does get a proper telling off if we find some pee.

No. He'll continue to mark his territory balls or not. And a "telling off" doesn't appear to get the message across. A swift boot up the hole when he cocks his leg against anything indoors will teach him quick enough.

semi-pro waster · 20 May 2011 at 19:18

knip said:
It is if hes peeing to mark his territory surely? He does get a proper telling off if we find some pee.

I'm sure you already know this but if you're not telling him off during the act and instead are telling him off much later then he's unlikely to associate the reprimand with the peeing.

knip · 20 May 2011 at 19:18

Brian8bit said:
No. He'll continue to mark his territory balls or not. And a "telling off" doesn't appear to get the message across. A swift boot up the hole when he cocks his leg against anything indoors will teach him quick enough.

We dont always catch him doing it, like I said he seems to sneak off, and sorry but there is no way I am going to start physically abusing my dog.

Violence breeds violence, but thats not the point of this thread.

knip · 20 May 2011 at 19:19

semi-pro waster said:
I'm sure you already know this but if you're not telling him off during the act and instead are telling him off much later then he's unlikely to associate the reprimand with the peeing.

Yeah but like the other night he peed in the bathroom, I happened to go in there (as you do) and saw he had peed, and that it was fairly recent, hence I called him in, and shouted at him. He knew he'd done something wrong because he does this whole tail between his legs cowering thing and looks very sorry for himself.