Desexing your male dog could result in unwanted behaviour!
Dog owners: Do you have a male dog? Is your dog desexed (neutered) ? At what age was your dog neutered? And does your dog have any problem behaviours? Questions we may all be asking after reading the result of recent research.
We are all advised to desex (neuter/castrate) our dogs. It prevents unwanted litters of puppies, of course. It can also improve your dog’s health and behaviour. Or so we thought! Now, new research suggests that desexing your male dog could result in unwanted behaviours.
Why desex your dog?
Desexing, where a male dog’s testicles are surgically removed, is generally carried out to aid in population control. As some 43,000 dogs and puppies are estimated to be euthanised in Australia each year, there is a very good reason for advocating that all dogs be desexed.
Castration (gonadectomy) in male dogs may also prevent health conditions, such as testicular cancer and other androgen-dependent diseases (for example, perineal hernias & adenomas, prostatitis and benign prostatic hyperplasia). There are also potential negative health consequences such as an increased risk of prostrate cancer or an increase in the chances of developing mast cell tumours. In females, spaying may reduce the risk of mammary tumours.
Castration may also affect certain canine behaviours. Typically, the behaviours that are affected are those that are under the influence of sex hormones; in male dogs, behaviours such as roaming, mounting and urine marking. Some studies have also indicated a reduction in canine aggressive behaviours. And desexing certainly has its place in those dogs that exhibit aggression, which may have a genetic component, to prevent passing on this undesirable trait.
Desexing, until recently, has been typically carried out when dogs were reaching sexual maturity, around 6 months of age. These days, however, the procedure can be performed from as early as 8 weeks of age and at a minimum of 1kg body weight. Early desexing is a great bonus for those dogs being adopted out of shelters, to prevent any unwanted litters, perpetuating the cycle of unwanted dogs and rehoming.
Not all countries have as high a desexing rate as Australia. Around 41% of dogs in the UK and 43% in Germany are desexed, in comparison to around 77% of male dogs in Australia and 83% in the US.
So why should we change our dog desexing habits?
University of Sydney researchers (Paul McGreevy, Anne Fawcett and Melissa Starling) have been analysing dog data – lots of it! In fact, they have examined the owner-reported behaviour of 6,235 male dogs (from C-BARQ data) that were desexed for reasons other than behavioural management. It’s important to exclude those dogs that were desexed due to behavioural issues, as this may skew the results towards canine behavioural issues.
Each dog’s percentage of lifetime exposure to sex hormones was calculated, based on the reported age at which they were desexed and the age at which their behaviour was described.
How desexing influences dog behaviour
Entire dogs urine marking and howl
Male dogs who were desexed later in life display more indoor urine-marking (not unexpectedly perhaps) and howling when left alone at home than their earlier desexed counterparts. Urine marking is typical of entire dogs who mark their territory – even in your home! Howling is less easily explained but may be to do with communicating with the rest of the social group.
Early desexing results in many problem behaviours
Interestingly this study showed that, while 40 behaviours differed between entire and castrated dogs, at least 24 problem behaviours were more likely to be reported in dogs that were desexed earlier in life. Of these behaviours, 8 related to fearfulness and 7 to aggression.
Specific behaviours affected by desexing
Fear-related behaviour in response to:
- sudden or loud noises
- encountering unfamiliar objects near the sidewalk
- nail clipping by a household member
- when barked at, growled at or lunged at by an unfamiliar dog
- when examined/treated by a vet
- approached by an unfamiliar dog of similar or larger size
- when exposed to unfamiliar situations for the first time (e.g. car travel, vet clinic, elevator)
- when approached directly by an unfamiliar child while away from home
Aggressive behaviour in relation to:
- delivery workers approaching the home
- strangers walking past the home while the dog is outside
- when joggers, cyclists, roller-bladers or skateboarders pass home while the dog is outside
- when approached directly by an unfamiliar female dog while being exercised on leash
- when an unfamiliar person approaches owner or another family member at home
- toward cats, squirrels or other small animals entering the yard
- when unfamiliar persons visit the dog’s home
Other behaviours more likely to be reported by owners of early-desexed males dogs:
- eating own or others’ faeces
- rolling in faeces or other “smelly” substances
- barking persistently when alarmed or excited
- Indoor marking behaviour
- a reduction in mounting objects, furniture, or people
- a reduction in chasing animals
- a reduction in excitement when the doorbell rings
- a decrease in trainability of recall or fetch commands when off leash
Maturation affects behaviour
Immature dogs may display certain behaviours that change as the dogs matures and sex hormones have their effect. Desexing, in preventing maturation, allows these behaviours to persist. This may result in desirable pet dog traits such as affiliative (attention-seeking, smoochy!) behaviour but less desirable if dogs remain fearful as they age.
Differences in personality traits have been demonstrated previously when the trait of ‘boldness’ in entire and desexed dogs was compared. Entire dogs, of both sexes, are bolder than desexed dogs. Male dogs, overall, tend to be more bold than females. Males are also reputedly more aggressive, as bite statistics show.
Boldness has been suggested to predict less fearful behaviour and more sociable behaviour with humans and dogs, and so would be a desirable trait in companion dogs. Most of us would rather have a dog without fears, phobias and anxieties.
The researchers suggest that “Early-age castration may render male dogs more dependent on the company and social support of others. Perhaps fear, anxiety and aggression are manifestations of canine immaturity.“
Unwanted puppies versus Unwanted behaviours
We don’t want or need dogs to breed indiscriminately. An estimated 43,000 dogs are euthanased annually in Australian shelters and pounds. Behaviour problems, however, are also a major cause of dogs entering shelters. Many owners (65%) report a behavioural reason for surrendering their dog, with 48% reporting that at least one behaviour strongly influenced their decision to surrender.
So, we have a dilemma; a paradox. Desexing reduces the numbers of unwanted dogs but may also increase the likelihood of problem behaviours. These undesirable behaviours reduce the overall desirability of the dogs and increase their likelihood of being surrendered.
No doubt, as the authors of this study have concluded, this is a complex decision-making process that takes multiple factors into account.
My thoughts
There are no definitive recommendations on desexing from these findings. We cannot simply say stop desexing or delay the desexing of your male dog. There are obviously many advantages of desexing that cannot be ignored. We all should be concerned, however, that our early-desexing practices may, with all good intentions, actually be contributing to the large amounts of dogs in shelters and pounds due to behavioural issues.
Perhaps, however, dogs in the hands of responsible owners, those who are attuned to canine behaviour, could be monitored as they mature. Decisions should then be made on the best time to desex, based on the emergence of boldness or fearful traits. Those dogs that are fearful could be given more time to mature. Those dogs that display unwanted traits of aggression could be desexed earlier.
The questions are:
- Are people, even experts, able to determine the optimal time for desexing?
- Can we trust owners to follow through and desex their dog at the optimal time?
I suspect we have a long way to go before we can change our recommendations, especially of desexing puppies from shelters. But at least those of us who have an interest in dogs could, at least, start to consider that there may be an optimal desexing time for male dogs.