By Ed Frawley

If you ask just about any Vet they are going to tell you to neuter your dog. In my opinion their motives are more profit motivated than health or temperament related.

They will tell you that neutering controls dominance and eliminate unwanted puppies. Under very specific circumstances these can be valid considerations. What they don't like to tell you is that neutering will only have an effect on dominance and aggression if its done between 6 and 9 months of age.

Many new puppy owners have small puppies that have strong prey drive. This is the drive to play, to chase, and to tug on family members. Prey drive is not dominance aggression and neutering is not going to diminish prey drive.

Neutering an adult dog will hardly ever effect dog aggression or handler aggression. In fact studies have shown that neutering adult females often makes them more dog aggressive rather than less dog aggressive.

While I can count over twenty different areas or types of dog aggression, handler aggression and people aggression are the most common types of aggression that lead people to ask about neutering their dogs. These two forms of aggression are generally pack/rank issues or lack there of. This means that a dog that is aggressive to owners and/or family members lacks leadership. Neutering is not going to change this - no matter what your Vet says.

Dog owners with these kinds of problems need to run their dogs through a pack structure program (like the one I outline in my pack structure DVD) This needs to be followed up with a solid obedience program (like I teach in my Basic Dog Obedience program) and then finished with remote collar training (like I teach in my dvd on Remote Collar Training For the Pet Owner)

The fact is dogs with good solid pack structure look towards their leader for direction. They learn through a pack structure training that their leader is a consistently fair but firm. They learn that the leader has rules that they are expected to live their lives by and when they follow those rules good things happen. They also learn that every instance of unwarranted aggression results in serious consequences.

Through correct training dog owners can learn how to become pack leaders. This is not a skill that every person is born with, but it is a skill that every person can learn if they are willing to make the effort.

The biggest mistake that I see dog owners make is to assume they are a leader (these people like to call themselves the ALPHA) when in fact they are clueless about pack structure, motivational obedience training and the principles of correction in dog training. If you want to learn a little bit more about exactly what I am talking about go to the linked pages

Dealing with the Dominant Dog eBook

WHAT DOG’S SHOULD BE NEUTERED ?

1- I believe that people who purchase or acquire a rescue dog should neuter their pets.

2- Many older male dogs develop prostrate problems. Neutering is going to help these dogs. It often adds years to their life. So there is nothing wrong with neutering an older dog. I think they should be neutered.

3- People who purchase Rottweiler's, Pit Bulls, chows or Akita's for pets should consider neutering at 6 months.

4- Working dogs that are born with one testicle should be neutered but not until after they are 2 years old. If these dogs are not neutered they run the risk of developing testicular cancer around 5 years of age.

Neutering to early (before 2 years old) is going to effect the dogs working. Neutering after 2 years is not going to effect the dogs working ability.

5- Every pet with a retained testicle (a monorchid) should be neutered at a young age.

DOGS THAT SHOULD NOT BE NEUTERED:

I do not believe than any dog that is being used for personal protection, police service work, S&R, Schutzhund or the other Ring Sports should be neutered (unless they are a monorchid).

In my opinion I don’t think any working dog should be neutered without a medical reason.

I have found references to studies that have been done that show that males who are neutered have a 65% higher chance of developing bone cancer (females have a 35% higher rate of cancer) I have to be honest I do not know how accurate these studies are. This particular study related to 745 Rots - 15% of un-neutered males got bone cancer. Those Rots that were neutered had a 65% higher cancer rate.

It is very difficult to purchase a puppy with the hope of developing a stud dog. I can’t pick them and I have bred over 350 litters of working bloodline GSDs in my breeding career.

I hate it when people tell me they are going to neuter the puppies they buy from me. I do not try and control what customers do with their pups, but I have seen pups from my kennel that have been neutered that I wish had not been. They could have helped promote the breed.

This is the reason I do not agree with Vets that say that everyone should neuter their dogs because of the risk of unwanted puppies. I can honestly say that in 40 years of owning dogs I have only had one accidental breeding.