Will neutering calm things down?

[Tabitha]

Jody is an absolute crazy dog! He loves doing agility and it's coming along. But progress can be slow at times. He can learn much faster than he is, I know he can. But he will not stop jumping around and acting loopy long enough for me to show him what to do! F-kap gets annoyed with this, and sometimes they will have a very heated 'discussion'. I'm afraid one day it will escalate to something more than that. Will neutering Jody calm things down? Could him being a sexually capable male be what is getting F-kap so riled. F-kap has been neutered sence he was about 4 or 5 and he gets along grate with the girls, but not with Joe. I'm also wondering if after I neuter Joe will he be less likely to get the zoomies while training, or at least tone them down a bit. I really want to do agility with him and I also want my hothead boys to get along. I'm planing to get all my dogs fixed eventually, but I think I should be doing it sooner rather than later with Joe. What are your thoughts on this?

 

[Mignarda]

It didn't do anything for the palace eunuchs in ancient times. If anything, it made them more aggressive and their temperaments a bit nastier.

 

[ClantyreSheltie]

I have found that training older dogs is waaay easier. I just started with Evie last year, at the age of 3 1/2, and we worked much faster than had I started her as a puppy. So I think your training difficulties are age related, not hormone related. Hello teenager!

As to getting along, the fighting in my house has decreased by 99% by neutering my ***hole dog. I do not expect my solution to work in every situation, but it certainly helped in my house. I waited until he was three years old before I decided I had enough scars from separating dogs.

 

[Caro]

It may have a small impact on agility training. But you'll still be contending with an adolescent, albeit without the hormones. When Tully was in training and novice she'd usually always get 1st or 2nd because the Border Collies were absolutely nuts at the same age and would always be running off. Once they grew up and grew a brain it was a whole different story.

So you could persist and just put up with the zoomies until he grows up, or wait 6mths - as Rachael said, so much easier to train when they are older.

And would neutering help with the relationship b/w the boys. IMHO it probably would, from my experience neutered males seem to see intact males as a threat, esp adolescents (are the girls intact too)? Keep in mind tho, F-Kap may not be that keen until Jody gets out of adolescence. Btw - is Joe and Jody the same dog, got a bit confused there?

 

[Justicemom]

Neutering will likely have little effect on agility if the reason that he is not paying attention is because he is just not focused and having self control issues. Now if he is not focusing because he is sniffing and not paying attention to other dogs it might help.

It is hard to describe but when Birch was younger I had pretty good focus with him starting about 4 months even though he was quite crazy and active. I did tons of crate games, stays, tugging/stop/wait/tug games where I worked on impulse control and focus from the time I brought him home. Trust me he could go from 0 to 200 MPH back to 0 with little issue.

As he approached about 10 months, his attention started fuzzing out a bit, normal but he was still a very focused worker for the most part even though he was a goofy boy. Around 1yr, the hormones starting kicking in hard core. He was very interested in other dogs, sort of puffy and macho, sniffing everything and quite spacey. He and Justice started having some issues. Justice is not neutered so did not like the macho Birch one bit. Agility training and training in general started to be a bit more difficult as he was not as focused. Frankly it drove me crazy but I have trained intact males before and I understood and I could get him focused with some work.

At 15 months, I decided Birch was not going to drop back into size and I had had enough of the male/male tension in my house so I neutered Birch. Within 2 weeks, Justice decided Birch could live(they still aren't best friends but it is peaceful), within 3 weeks the spacey, sniffy, over the top interested in other dogs, PITA macho dog was gone(he is still quite confident don't get me wrong) and Birchs focus in me and what I was about really started grow though he was still a goofy puppy sometimes. He is now 20 months old and he is maturing every day and understanding his job.

So you will likely see some of the tension with the males decreases with neutering but that really varies with the male. OTOH you may see a small bit of increase focus in the agility area but it is likely mostly a training issue.

 

[Tabitha]

Thanks everyone for the advise.
Caro, yes Jody and Joe are the same dog (he comes by both, and Joe is easier to say quickly in training). Sorry for the confusion. And the girls are intact (for now). I know that will have a lot to do with the aggression between the boys as well.

If neutering Jody calms him down and makes him easier to train for agility that's just an added bonus. My main goal is for boys to get along. They don't have to love each other, heck they don't even have to LIKE each other, I just don't want to have to worry about them getting into a fight.