Hello! I have a 5 month old Border Terrier who I am thinking of getting castrated. Can anyone advise me of the positives and negatives please? Also, will he squat to wee when castrated as i've heard this is the case? Thank you!
It is hard to say if he will develop behavior problems if you don't. Doing so after he develops problems may be less effective if so. Gee, I notice Google has placed an ad for belly bands to this thread. They are one solution to intact dogs that mark. One neglected issue is intact males going beserk when a female upwind comes in season. He will only need to give you the slip once to get killed.
If he's not breeding quality or meant for breeding, I would neuter him... Here in Australia we neuter at 6 months... If you leave it till the dog is mature, it will have little effect on his behaviour.
I am in the opposite camp when it comes to this. If your are a good dog owner and dont let your dog run amuck i dont see the need. I am firmly of the if it aint broke dont fix it side!
Me too, firmly in the same camp. Nurtuering is something that we all have to make out own minds up on. But 5mths in my book is far to young, I know we (vets) are jumping more and more on the US bandwagon of neutering at very young ages..but if he wa my dog , i would leave him to mature, than if you want to have him done , then at least you have allowed him to physically grow up. Personally if you are having no problems with him now, why do it. The argument of "if intact , they will wonder" in something I dont by into.. a responsible owner is just that , and there are thousands of owners of intact dogs who dont allow them to wonder after bitches.
Just my opinion but I would wait til fully mature say about 2 years, I don't have a problem with neutering and I think generally neutering and speying is a very good idea, but don't agree with neutering so early like a lot of people seem to. If he already cocks before you have him neutered he shouldn't start squatting. Obviously rescues have a different take on it and I fully respect that.
I agree. I think neutering is a personal decision, and should be made on a case by case basis. If you do decide to have him done, I would wait until he is mature. Early neutering can cause more problems than it solves.
The health benefits aren't as great with boys as they are with girls so I would advise wait and see. I wouldn't castrate as a matter of routine and I certainly wouldn't castrate at 5 months unless there were major behavioural issues. Its best to at least wait until they are fully mature which varies from breed to breed
Might be the case with dogs you have known/owned etc, totally not the case with mine & I've had entire dogs from 1966 ! Never had one go berserk when one of our bitches was in season let alone someone else's bitch(es)& we had 3 stud dogs at one time. The only one we had that did want to mate any & all bitches was a castrated dog, who had to be castrated on medical grounds before he had gone through puberty!
