Challenging Times.

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?

My current puppy has given me a very easy ride.  He has been calm and reserved, polite and biddable, an all round lovely, sweet easy going lad.  Indeed, the perfect pet collie.  Because I’d like to compete in working trials, and there is some evidence that neutering reduces a dog’s working drive, I decided that I would leave him un-castrated for at least a year to maximise the testosterone influence and allow him to mature somewhat.  I also wanted to allow the positive health aspects of testerone (growth and joint factors) to have a chance to take effect. 

In the past month, Guinness has become increasingly focused on sniffing, tasting wee and cocking his leg to an almost frantic level.  He has begun to drop the ball on a retrieve to detour for a sniff and wee, and divert off course while training to do the same before continuing to find his ball.  Last week at the vets, he weed on another dog, a lady’s coat and the corner of the reception desk.  While it made everyone present sigh with relief that the trainer's dog had, quite literally 'cocked up', it made me wince with shame and embarassment. It’s quite clear from my dog's actions and indeed from his smell that we are in no doubt living with a ‘male’ dog.  And so the easy answer to all these issues would be castration. 

Following wise words from a good friend who works her entire males in gun dog trials to a very high level, she set me straight.  This is a challenge, a first with my little pint of Guinness and one which as a trainer, I should learn from.  This will allow me to work with clients who aren’t so keen to use neutering as the answer to their problems.  Self control is something which I’ve instilled from an early age.  Why not teach Guinness to control the urge to mark his scent, just like the others issues we’ve worked on.  Listening and focus under distraction is a training issue, whether that distraction is traffic, a group of people,  or the scent of a particularly lovely bitch or another male.  So our challenge begins, to get Guinness to listen to what’s between his ears, rather than what’s between his legs.  Wish me luck…..