I was thinking of getting my dog neutered, but I don't want to castrate him. I'm already not wanting to do this because he's already an extremely mellow animal, so I was wondering, does getting a vasectomy yield the same results in terms of mood change? I mean, seeing as he's already so calm and loves people, and people think he's depressed already because he's so mellow, I don't want him to SEEM more depressed... fyi, my dog is not depressed. He is just a very easy going animal. He's very energetic with my husband and I. He is never alone, I am a constant, as my husband works 12 hours a day, so I just wanted to clear up that he isn't at all depressed. Thanks in advance for the advice.

Not sure if a vet will do a vasectomy or not? Never thought of it? The problem I see is that he would still have the urges when neutering removes the urges to mate.

It isn't commonly done. I have never heard of it, so anything I say will at best be an extrapolation from human practice. It would meet your obligation to avoid accidental breeding. As far as controlling such undesirable behaviors as marking, going berserk with a female in season upwind, aggression, mounting, leadership challenges, etc. I would be surprised it it accomplished anything at all. Of course, well bred males don't show those behaviors. I absolutely hate the people that come here and other sites looking for help with an ill behaved male, but can't neuter it because they are going to breed it. It also would leave the possibility of testicular and prostate cancer.

If your dog is a well bred one, and well behaved, I guess you could try it. If you later had problems, castration will still be an option. It may take some work to find a vet to do it.

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Originally Posted by labman

It isn't commonly done. I have never heard of it, so anything I say will at best be an extrapolation from human practice. It would meet your obligation to avoid accidental breeding. As far as controlling such undesirable behaviors as marking, going berserk with a female in season upwind, aggression, mounting, leadership challenges, etc., I would be surprised it it accomplished anything at all. Of course, well bred males don't show those behaviors. I absolutely hate the people that come here and other sites looking for help with an ill behaved male, but can't neuter it because they are going to breed it. It also would leave the possibility of testicular and prostate cancer.

If your dog is a well bred one, and well behaved, I guess you could try it. If you later had problems, castration will still be an option. It may take some work to find a vet to do it.

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Thanks. He doesn't have any kind of behavioral problems as you have mentioned, but he is dog selective... (there are certain dogs he will tolerate and there are some he won't depending on the vibe he gets from them). So I guess if I was going to neuter him, I might as well get it all out of the way so he doesn't have any mishaps or problems. But he is a very good dog. Thanks again for the input everyone.

Anon, have you spoken with your vet about this? It isn't a procedure that a lot of them will do. I remember you had a question about fish oil that your vet recommended you give your dog. Has your vet suggested the vasectomy over the neutering? If so, I would strongly advise you to find another vet. The problem with vasectomies on dogs is that the limited research that has been done on this procedure has shown that all the tendencies that are in an unneutered dog remains. So, as labman mentioned, they will continue to mark, mount, and do all the things unneutered dogs will do. The thing that should concern you the most is that not neutering your dog will leave him open to possibly developing testicular cancer later in life. Neutering a dog doesn't make them less energetic than they already are. I am not sure why you would think it would. If a person has an aggressive dog, neutering has been known to help with that problem. But, it isn't a cure all for aggression. Neutering is really the best way to keep your dog's hormone levels at an even keel. If he already seems to be a relatively mellow dog, then you probably won't notice any difference in him, except that he might just tolerate some of the dogs that he previously hasn't tolerated before, and you won't have to worry about him trying to get out and mate with any females in heat that are close by.