Have you welcomed a puppy into your home? This is a precious moment, but it should also be the stage in which, as the owner, you fully accept all your responsibilities for the benefit of providing your pet with everything it needs to be happy.
Is it a male or female dog? This is a completely individual decision, although regardless of the chosen sex, a controlled, responsible and desired reproduction by the owners will be essential for animal he alth, in that sense, the control of your pet's reproduction must be a matter that deserves all your attention. attention.
However, in this AnimalWised article, we do not analyze the issue of castration as part of responsible ownership, but rather as a means of improving canine behaviour. We will find out together if it is necessary to neuter male dogs for better behavior
Neutering in dogs
First of all, you should know that castration is not the same as a sterilization process, rather it is a more invasive surgery, but it can also have greater advantages. Castration consists of the extraction of the testicles, preserving the scrotal sac. This technique not only prevents the reproduction of the animal but also inhibits the sexual behavior of the dog, but what does this mean?
A male dog has a strong reproductive instinct and it is enough for him to perceive a female in heat near him for this to cause real chaos…. This happens by different mechanisms:
- Testosterone increases, this is directly related to increased aggressiveness and irritability.
- Is your dog suddenly peeing at home again? It is not simply a renal function in this case, but a marking of the territory due to the instinct of dominance of it.
- A dog that detects a female in heat nearby will do everything possible to escape, therefore our attention must be maximum.
- The dog suffers great anxiety if he cannot reach the female in heat, he cries, howls, stops eating and even, even if good dog training has been your priority, the level of anxiety reaches be so high that the dog enters a state of absolute disobedience.
With castration, this intense hormonal dance does not take place, which has a positive impact on the dog and also on its human home, however, this practice goes beyond and reduces the risk of the dog presenting certain pathologies of hormonal origin such as the following: prostate cysts, prostate hyperplasia, testicular tumors and tumors in the perianal area.
Neuter the dog to improve his behavior?
This is the question many homeowners ask, but it's not the right question because it's poorly worded. We must first clarify that a male does not exhibit sexual misconduct, he simply exhibits sexual and natural behavior that can be problematic.
Dogs that exhibit bad behavior do so because of repeated bad intervention by their owners, not because their sexual physiology is revealed. In any case, we should ask ourselves, is it appropriate to neuter the dog to reduce his dominance, aggressiveness and disobedience when he detects a female in heat?
The answer is yes, it is appropriate, although this does not imply that a male who exhibits sexual behavior is a male that cannot be controlled. We could then say that castration reduces the dog's anxiety caused by his strong reproductive instinct and the problems that owners must face.
Does this explanation not convince you? You may have some myths in mind, so let's debunk them real quick:
- A neutered dog does not gain weight automatically. Neutered dogs that gain weight do so because their diet and lifestyle are not adapted to your new nutritional and energy requirements.
- A neutered dog is still a male, although their sexual behavior is not observed, they retain a male anatomy, and if they do not lift their leg when urinating, it does not mean that they have been "feminized", this is simply due to decreased hormone levels.
- Is your male dog an excellent guard and defense dog? Castration will not affect his abilities, but he will also make a better guard dog, as the best trained dog can easily lose concentration with a female in heat nearby.
A completely individual decision
Not all dogs are the same and therefore I would love to share the experience I had with my first dog and certainly one of the most dear to me. Pucki was a Pekingese mix and he wanted to be with us for 19 years, thus becoming one more member of the family, loved and cared for as much as possible.
If he ever exhibited sexual behavior typical of a male dog…. This must have been insignificant, because we never observed in it all the signs that this entails. It is also fair that you know that at 15 years of age we had to operate on him for a perianal tumor, which, although not malignant, caused oppression in the anal area and was clearly hormone-dependent.
With this I want to tell you that there are dogs that are barely affected when a female dog in heat is nearby, therefore, you may not neuter your dog, but you should never confront sexual behavior either.
But that's not the only thing you should keep in mind… Perhaps you haven't decided to adopt a Pekingese but a Siberian husky, a robust, beautiful dog that is very close to a wolf.
In this case the problem is not only that the dog can cause greater chaos within the home by having a very robust structure, the problem is that castration can mean intervention on beauty for you wild of this animal.
Do you want to preserve all your pet's instincts, trying to respect its nature as much as possible, or on the contrary, do you decide that this is not an option for you? There is no better decision than the other but castration is not a generic issue, since it must be individualized according to each dog and each owner.
