Giving him the chop

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Howitzer

Original Poster:

2,828 posts

215 months

Friday 27th March 2015
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Our Rottweiler Flash will be 1 in April and i'm starting to think about having him neutered.

His recall is good but he tried to mount his first dog recently, a Great Dane no less, and it was surprisingly hard to get his attention from the other dog.

He's becoming a big lad at 45 kilos and 11 months but I really don't want to do it too early. His character is very good and his recall has improved a lot in recent months but we certainly don't want to have any puppies and also don't want him on the lead all the time.

His raw diet is going well so he is healthy and slim.
His vet checks are all good, he recently had Salmonella and lost 5 kilos but put it back on and more within 2 weeks.
He isn't urinating in the house and doesn't mark his territory too much.
No aggressiveness at all, worked hard with his food and will not touch a drop till told and is not bothered if my son tries to get in the way when eating.

I'm a bloke so it seems wrong but do appreciate the practicalities of it.

The breeder mentioned 15 months or later from memory which seems fine as he should be at full height or thereabouts by now.

Any thoughts on leaving it later for health reasons?

All experiences welcome, both good and bad.

Dave!

bexVN

14,682 posts

210 months

Friday 27th March 2015
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Try and wait til he is 15 months so fully mature. (Some may say 18 months but 15 months is sufficient for his breed size)

However if his sexual behaviour starts to become apparent sooner would be better, something to watch for now he has discovered it smile.

PS. I love how you say his raw diet is going well then mention he had Salmonella! wink. Glad he is ok, can be quite serious.

Pics please I love Rottie's smile

The main health benefit of leaving later is for joints etc, if you decide not to do it and he doesn't chase females then neuter at 4 as after there are negatives to leaving entire testicular cancer, adenosarcoma, prostate issues)

Edited by bexVN on Friday 27th March 11:50


Edited by bexVN on Friday 27th March 11:54


Edited by bexVN on Friday 27th March 13:39

Autopilot

1,298 posts

183 months

Friday 27th March 2015
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Our male Dobermann used to mount a Great Dane fairly regularly. The strange thing was that the GD was male and he used to kind of try and shoulder hump it and mount it sideways so assume some kind of dominance thing or other weird things dogs do.

It's a difficult subject whether to neuter a dog or not. When we got our dog, the breeder gave the pro's and cons of each option and it kind of felt a bit like that you're damned if you do and damned if you don't, there didn't seem to be a 'better' option just a different list of potentials.

It's refreshing to see an informed question regarding neutering! I've seen many discussions in various places about neutering because the dog chased the cat or it barked at another dog etc etc. An acquaintance had her dog neutered due to what I saw as a lack of training, but she insisted it was a behavioural issue that required neutering to fix. It came as no surprise that a year later the same 'issues' are still there.




Howitzer

Original Poster:

2,828 posts

215 months

Friday 27th March 2015
quotequote all
bexVN said:
PS. I love how you say his raw diet is going well then mention he had Salmonella! wink. Glad he is ok, can be quite serious.

Pics please I love Rottie's smile


Edited by bexVN on Friday 27th March 11:50


Edited by bexVN on Friday 27th March 11:54


Edited by bexVN on Friday 27th March 13:39
When I wrote it I had to have a think as it did seem bad haha. We were really worried as he has a mixture from the local farm shop, so lots of blood, skirt and smelly things dog like in a mushy tube. We mix that with heart, a frozen tripe mix, liver, veg etc and some fish oil, whole eggs etc.

Luckily, not in a nasty way, our pet shop had come across a lot of dogs with explosive squits around the same time so we aren't too worried now. Fingers crossed we don't see it again as although he was incredible at holding it in, when it came out, it was like a firehose !!

This was around 6 months....



This was around 9/10 months....



This was at 7 weeks....



Dave!

bexVN

14,682 posts

210 months

Friday 27th March 2015
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He is well on the way to being a stunner smile.

Prof Prolapse

16,160 posts

189 months

Thursday 2nd April 2015
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Had my Rottsation cross castrated as soon as he was able to simply because he was having his dew claws removed at the same time. There was some discussion about bone sarcoma risk, but I reviewed the papers myself and told the Vet I did not think enough of them to delay treatment until a year or so she recommended.

I really don't see the argument against it. He is exactly the same dog, but he doesn't try and fk our guests and spunk over our furniture. He also doesn't try and rip down the fence whilst he looks for bhes to impregnate (one sympathises).

It doesn't change their character, it just removes some negative traits which especially in larger dogs can be embarrassing. difficult to control, or even dangerous. I also feel a life of sexual frustration is also far worse than not missing anything because you're a dog and can't experience loss in the same way a person could.

I've still never heard anything against it that was to be taken seriously.




SteBrown91

2,360 posts

128 months

Thursday 2nd April 2015
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The Mrs' Labrador is now 8 and had the snip at around 2 years old.

He still occasionally tries to hump some dogs, including a Newfoundland.

Though it did calm him down a great deal, there are now only occasional crazy times rather than every other walk!