My dog, a four year old male intact lab x dalmation is very hostile to other dogs it meets on the street/out walking & I have to be very careful when/if I let him off. I am frightened he will hurt himself or the other dog.

I've had conflicting advice about whether to change his "intact" status & lose the plums so to speak.

Some say it's too late & he'll calm down when he's a bit older & others say get them off it will make him settle down.

What do you think?

I have a 3 yr old male Patterdale terrier and a female Staffie who've both had their respective ops, and most of the time they're aggressive to anything that moves that isn't human. They're lovely around people, but other dogs, horses, sheep, cows turn them in to monsters, so they have to be kept on the lead.

I don't think there's any guarantee that having the op would cure your dog's aggressive tendencies.

Like Theo said there are no guarantee's. But for your dogs own health and well being it is still worth getting him neutered. It can help prevent future health issues. Male dogs have a much simpler surgery process too. And you never know it might help. But don't rely soley on it. Maybe seek a behaviourist too.

honestly depends on the reason behind the aggression if it is dominance aggression it may help if its fear aggression it could make it worse.

A lot of dog are more aggressive on the lead as you are limiting their fight or flight instincts, also the owner can transmit their own fear to the dog too, your best bet is a proper canine behaviourist so you can find out the reason behind the aggression and work on it then make a neutering decision.

Yup agree, you've no guarantee at all that castration would work. I think you've an opportunity to change his behaviour with positive training methods. A good place to start is with your vet who could refer you to a qualified behaviourist. I also recommend Grisha Stewart's BAT book and her website www.functionalrewards.com.

Our dog was lead reactive - mostly over excited and wanted to meet all dogs but it came over as being very aggressive. We've worked with a behaviourist on very similar techniques to the ones in the BAT book and I am pleased to report that we are very much over the worst. Oh and yes, how you deal with it is critical, a professional can tell you how but I found out that I was tense when I saw another dog and this went down the lead as I held on waiting for an outburst. I had to relax a lot and sung songs quietly and used a clicker to reinforce positive, calm behaviour with high value treats.

Calmed our late Benny down, but because Duncan was fear aggressive made him much worse.

No guarantee what will happen IMO

If he meets other dogs while not on the lead, he does some posturing & puts his head up high but it's only really when I separate them when he starts with the growling. It is not nice & I can feel myself getting stressed.

What I do is have a bit of his lead in my other hand & smack him on the nose with it saying NO. It does distract his attention for a bit at least until the other dog has passed.

I'll happily cross roads to avoid other dogs. If he didn't do this then he would be a perfect pet but I just can't trust him.

Please please don't smack him with his lead or anything else.

By doing that all you are doing is giving him a negative association when he meets dogs on a lead. So he now knows he gets hurt when dogs approach him on a lead

By doing this you are kind of going in and backing him up in a fight you need to call him away and reward him for coming back and away from the situation not go in there which gives him more machismo to kick off

I will speak to his vet & see what happens. I don't hit him hard, just a tap on his nose, he doesn't yelp.

If he yelped I would be even crosser, please don't hit him at all.

Doesn't matter if it's hard not not. Do not hit your dog. End of.

it doesn't matter you are still giving him negative association when it comes to meeting other dogs - not that you should hit him anyway but in his mind you are hitting him cos of the other dogs

If you've no intention of breeding from him, get him neutered anyway. It may or may not calm him down, but either way there's no need to keep him entire.

If he is nervous aggressive it could make him worse there is every good not to have him neutered IMO

Have you had him from a pup?

I've never had any of my Alsations neutered but socialised them all.

I've never believed that neutering dogs change the behaviour.

You need to give us a bit more info on the dog.

I've never smacked any of my dogs, you encourage them by training.

You know that dogs have very sensitive noses. Treats work far better that abuse because that is what you are doing. Poor dog.

All dogs that are not used for breeding should be neutered. Leaving them intact is far more cruel than a tap with a lead. There is some good advice on here but honestly you people.

My Lola is aggressive if she's on the lead and another dog is on the lead, she's fine otherwise unless she comes across a puppy. It doesn't matter what breed the pup is, she'll go over and try to be the boss, we have to be so careful

Who told you that?!

Many people after we had Duncan neutered and he had become instantly worse (well actually about a week later hormones take time to settle as they did his aggression worsened). Look it up you will find many many people who have had the same problem and vets too who do not recommend nervous aggressive dogs being neutered.

So, your pet has a behavioural problem that you would rather keep as is by not neutering him rather than getting him neutered, eliminating possible future health problems and actually dealing with the original behavioural problem?

no what we are saying is he needs to find a trained behaviourist to see if his dog is dominant aggressive or fear aggressive as if he is fear aggressive the problems need to be dealt with before neutering as that can and does make the problem worse for a lot of dogs.

Health problems in males due to lack of neutering is not such a big issue compared to females, I would always recommend females be spayed neutering males is different again depending on breed and maturity

Also fear aggression is very hard to cure in some dogs it is just not possible to train it out of them, neutering can just make matters worse.