Male dog behavior is very much controlled by the urges and instincts this animal hereditary and breed specific receives at birth. The popular and very American movement to castrate the male dog as soon as possible removes some of the traits, but also removes a lot of the dog’s personality. It is important to keep stray dogs at bay, but manufacturing spayed and neutered dogs because it is “easier” and “better” just signals a spoiled and selfish society, not a health and life benefit of your pet. Thinking with your own head is again an important factor. Just because the price is right guy recommends it, it does not mean it is the best solution for your dog. It may be a good solution for you, but the best solution for your dog in such a case is to not have a dog at all.
Let us review the whole male dog behavior myth from a distance. Sexual urges are normal. If the dog has their sexual glands and testis removed, is it still a male dog at all? The dog will get no testicular cancer. Less than a 1% of all cats and dogs carry that risk. Male dogs can prevent the birth of unwanted litters. If you would perform spaying on all the females, would that not have the same effect? The relative new method of SpayVac, a single injection which works as a birth control mechanism, but leaving everything else intact, including the going into heat part, is the most humane solution as of yet.
The question here is, do you love your dog enough, your male dog, or at least so much that you will leave him be happy and male for the rest of its life? Perhaps you will follow the advice of overly rich and spoiled Mr. Barker and increase the chance or your dog by four times to develop prostate cancer? Neutering your dog has other huge disadvantages. The cognitive impairment disease is much more pronounced and happens more often to neutered dogs. Many forms of cancer happen twice as much to neutered dogs than to the intact dogs, most of them related to the urinary tract.
Just because your dog has sexual urges, do you need to condemn it to an almost certain cancerous future? The behavior of male dogs can be curtailed through obedience training and behavior modification. The few times where the dog just has to “let go”, is this really so bad, that you would rather take away its personality and shorten its life span? Think about it.

Filed under: Dogs

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