just wondering what everyone's views are on this

we're finally having our boys nuts off at some point very soon, but how much difference is it likely to make to his behaviour now he is four?

he has recently started to mount bitches, which will be more of a dominance thing, as these bitches have all had the Op themselves
our vet said that it's likely due to our older dog going down hill lately, bless her.

he is an absolute pest for legs. if you have bare legs he'll lick and lick, claw and try to hump them

we thought we may as well have it done, just on the off chance it does calm him down a bit where entire bitches are concerned (and hopefully our legs!)

but if not, it doesn't matter anyway as we're not likely to breed from him. lovely as he is.

Mine was 2 when he was neutered. It helped his temperament, he was a little aggressive when we got him, but it made no difference to his humping - other boy dogs and cushions are his favourites!

At that age it depends on the dog as there may be a considerable learnt element to the behaviour but neutering him so you are not fighting his hormones in relation to sexual interest or trying to be impolite and pushy with other other dogs can make retraining him not to do it easier.
However from what you say, you might need to look at his relationship with your other dog, and how he sees himself within the household, to resolve this behaviour.

basically what our vet said, is because miss is old (14) and going down hill, he's probably seeing the situation as if she's no longer around
even though she still is

and he's trying to assert himself with the mounting of rufie, the dog we walk and look after and this whole thing with legs

none of these things are especially problematic, rufie is spayed and wouldn't turn aggressive towards him, she just walks away, hasn't a clue what he's doing
but another reason we want to get him done is that there is a park over the road, and a fair few un-doctored bitches in the area,

it doesn't happen often at all, but if one gets away from her owner, they tend to come to him, rather than the other way around
but once he's within sniffing distance and they've engaged his interest, you've no chance of really calling him back, he'll just join her in their little dances (and he's reclaimed before getting chance to climb aboard)

if he can't do the job, this obviously takes away the unwanted pups aspect of it anyway
even if his behaviour doesn't change.

his relationship with missey has always been pretty calm to be honest, he learnt when he was a pup that she didn't want much to do with him, even though he would have loved curling up in her bed with her, she just wouldn't stand for it, just did her "grump" growl as we called it, and moved away

so he learnt to respect her places, doesn;t use her beds at all
and she is one dog he has never, ever tried to mount

we knew his behaviour would likely alter when miss passed, but it just seems he's getting in there early.

Murphy was 4 when he was snipped - all testosterone based unwanted behaviours stopped (no more humping everything & anything) and he was far more responsive to training - learn 'heel' in a day when he never got in in the previous 4 years.

Hansel was about 18 months, he still humps but not so bad, has some minor interest in in-season bitches bu the is also far more responsive to training.

So age is not a factor as much as the individual dog - some are all testicle testosterone, some it's more the gland in the brain (!!Can't recall which one!!!) but all should show some difference in behaviour, especially responsiveness.

a bit more responsiveness would be ideal

thanks for the responses

One of my dogs was neutered last summer at the age of 7. His behaviour was fine although he could be a bit of a nightmare for not coming back when called. We had him done really for health reasons. I wish I'd had him neutered years ago, Within 2 weeks, he was offlead completely uninterested in other dogs (when previously he would run the length of the park to sniff another dog), he was more responsive and a little more cuddly too.

Negatives - his weight is now an issue and he has got quite lazy. He was always quite a chilled dog, but now he is so chilled, it's like he is stoned all the time.

I know that for a lot of dogs there is very little in the way of change but for us it was instant, very noticeable and a definite improvement. No chance of unwanted puppies or testicular cancer either

true true

the weight is one of our main worries - he's never been a big eater but since miss has been unwell, she's been on tidbits to try and tempt her to eat

she's been leaving them though and jake's just been going round finishing them up, so he's a bit plumper than he should be

he'll play for hours though so there's some long walks and ball throwing sessions coming up for him to shift some of it, he's already limited to just his own food too

it makes a change though as they've swapped body images, miss was always the plump one and jake was just a bit more than a skeleton
now its the other way around :/

xdow, we had our bitch spayed at 7 years - and I think the recovery time was just a little slower than it would have been for a younger dog - but that was all. I'd guess spaying is a more major op than a boy dog being neutered, though.

4 is no age though. I doubt it will affect the recovery time in your lads' case.

I only left it so long as she is vet phobic, (after two long complicated eye operations when she was 4), but because her eye condition is genetic, I knew she could never be bred from again.

The spaying gave her a whole new lease of life - she became much more relaxed and livelier too (calmer and happier than before but at the same time - wanted to walk further, etc which was great for us as that was what we wanted!)

They are so much happier without the hormones floating around, i reckon.

Dunno if it will make your boys less keen on sexy time though. My late staffie had the snip at the earliest possible opportunity and he was still a goer.