Sue McCabe

Some of you may have read my previous blogs on the challenges of owning an un-castrated teen dog.  After much frustration at the beginning of February, & following advice from two training friends who both own un-castrated males, I’ve been working with Border Collie Guinness & his urges for over a month now.  Nicked-named the ‘sex factor’ by one colleague, this is a great phrase to describe behaviours which often intensify during a testosterone surge, usually experienced by entire male dogs between the age of 7-15 months.  ‘It’s a bit like your 14 year old locking himself in his bedroom with a dirty magazine’, she explained.  The canine equivalent where Guinness was concerned included frantic leg cocking & urine marking, intensive sniffing, licking & salivating over other dog’s wee & leg humping.

I am a huge advocate of neutering.  It’s very difficult to find a dog person who comes from a rescue background as I do, who isn’t vehemently pro-neutering.  Indeed, I generally advise clients that with a few exceptions, neutering will result in a dog who is easier to live with and healthier in the long term.  So why did I make the choice to leave my current male dog intact for a year, when all my other dogs would have taken their trip to the vet for ‘the chop’ by now?

As a trainer who’s been around for quite a while, it’s easy to give the same old answers to the same old problems.  This is especially true if those problems are likely to be solved by castration (humping, scent marking, some aggression issues, recall challenges around other dogs).  Now what if the client in question is just as against castration as I am an advocate of it?

One of the most important lessons to pass on to your dog is the meaning of the word ‘No’.  Those of you who train positively, as I do, may be surprised at my focus on the negative.  However, things may make more sense if I explain that the less your dog hears this magic word, the more of an impression it will actually have on his behaviour & his response to you.  

The average pet dog owner often gets things quite muddled when teaching their dogs the basis of what they can & can’t do.  An 8 week old puppy comes in the home full of willingness to learn.  A veritable blank slate on which you, the owner must fill in the do’s & don’t of life.  If we try to see the world from the puppy’s point of view it’s clear that what they learn, & what their owner is desperately trying to teach them, are often two very different things. 

Never ask someone’s child to come up with a name for your dog. It’s a lose lose situation for all. The kid will declare confidently that ‘Frank’ is a good idea and you’ll have to find ways to let them down gently, that you disagree.  Poor puppy-no-name will stand by hopefully, yet again feeling like he will remain nameless for the foreseeable future.

I ask a lot of my dogs. They are first and foremost beloved family members and pets. They are walking companions, stress relievers and fun times candidates. But they also need to be work colleagues, attend puppy class and help the newbies learn good body language. They need to demo at agility days, obedience classes, clicker tricks.  Most importantly, they are usually trained up as stooges for dog aggression cases which I work with regularly. That’s a lot to expect from them.