advice - neuturing a nervous dog

timshel.

I have a 3 year old King Charles X and I am unsure about getting him neutured or not.
He is quite a nervous dog and I have heard that getting him neutured could make him less confident as you are taking away their testosterone.

The main reasons why I wanted to get him neutured are the main health risks involved with keeping a male entire but also because he can sometimes get aggressive with other entire male dogs (not a huge problem but can happen seldomly with other dogs) and also to make him less attractive to thieves (which ive become a bit paranoid about of late)

Anyway, im just wondering has neuturing ever had a negative effect on anyones dogs here?

just to add - there is no issues with him being in contact with females or wandering etc etc so if he were to remain as is, there will be no accidental litters of pups

toadfly

My mam's male dog would be very timid and nervous little thing and neutering didnt change him in that sense at all.

Is the only reason you are doing it to deter thieves?

Bullseye1

Personally if there is no risk of him creating an unwanted litter of pups I would leave him intact.

We were in the same situation. But in the end we bit the bullet and he is great.
He is actually getting on better then before and more confident.

Mo60

I have two male dogs that have been neutered and neither suffered any negative effects.

One of my dogs, who was a rescue, was also a bit aggressive with other male dogs but after he was neutered he became less aggressive.

timshel.

TillyGirl wrote: »

Is the only reason you are doing it to deter thieves?

its not the only reason but it is something that would swing me in favour of it - which is probably ridiculous but with all the dogs being stolen lately it is something that is on my mind.

probably the main argument for it is to help with the dog agression - but again, that isnt always an issue and its generally big dogs it happens with, so it might be that he just has an issue with large breeds.
and also the extra risk of prostate problems / risk of testicular cancer.

I have an appointment to discuss this with the nurse in my local vets but I am concerned that I am going to get a sales pitch more than anything else.

timshel.

i might just ad that i dont have a problem with neuturing in general. My last dog was neutured and it caused no problems (bar him getting a bit chubby for a while!)
Its just I want to be sure that its the right thing to do for my dog