Anyone had their male springer neutered?

lorac3

Hi
I have a male age 8 and his mum who is 10. He is still all man !
They are a very bouncy full of energy breed ! he has calmed a little with age and even tho' he has recently been diagnoised with AIHA ( autoimmune hemolytic anaemia ) he is still full of beans, this is what makes springers so fab. Well worth getting a frisby and ball as they love retrieving and will play for hours.

foreign_correspondent

Penny_Watcher wrote: »

My Dad rescued a male already neutered Springer. He was a loveable nutcase (the dog that is, not my Dad).

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

hoooo that made me laugh!

pink_piggy17

in my experience neutering does help. of course it also curbs the dogs desire to try and escape to find a lady friend and of course prevents humping of various objects around the house usually including ones leg!! most importantly it would stop him getting a female pregnant if he ever escaped or met one out on walks or anything.

as for the hyperactivity, how much exersize does he get and what do you feed him? of course it's natural for a young working breed dog to be bouncy but excessive over activity can be caused by food additives and/or insufficient exersize.

obedience training will also make him easier to handle, you can work on the basics such as sit, lie down, stay, etc. at home.

Raksha

Remember too, it's not just physical excercise these dogs need, but mental stimulation as well - a dog who is mentally tired will sleep, but if he's physically fit it will take a lot more excercise to tire him out....

Jellicat

Springers are very pingy, as everyone else has mentioned. We have a springer with no balls to speak of (a !!!!!) and she never sits still even when she has been walked for hours on end. They are just hyper dogs by nature. Training and exercise will help, but a springer is called a springer for a reason

smileypigface

Well, I'm typing this squished onto a rather small sofa with my rather large springer (and his testicles!).

Definitely look at what you feed him - ours thrives on JWB complete food -supplemented by the occasional Bonio, a couple of raw chicken wings each week, homemade egg, garlic and seed crackers and homemade liver bread cut up small for training treats, oh and the occasional cherry tomato. We make a conscious effort to avoid feeding animal derivatives and additives and colourings.

Agree with other posters who have already said about wearing him out mentally as well as physically. We went on a gundog training weekend to learn more about what makes our Springer tick and what his instincts are telling him to do - by understanding him better we know what to do to give his natural instincts an outlet which I am convinced wears him out more.

Ours is 14 months and will happily snooze the evening away and settle nicely with the family. We have met his brother who was castrated at about 7 months and he is a total looney - chalk and cheese - but who can say whether the vast difference is down to nature or nurture.

There is a lot of advice to get dogs castrated because it will elimate the danger of cancer - but if you research the subject you will find that castration then makes them susceptable to other diseases - this fact isn't widely advertised as it is easier to encourage people to have their dogs castrated than convince them to be responsible dog owners in other ways to avoid unwanted pregnancies.

I don't deny that in the case of some mature dogs where agression becomes a problem that castration can be effective in postively affecting behaviour and I wouldn't rule it out if agression ever became a problem with our dog. But for now, he aint broke so he don't need fixing!

Good luck with your springer - they are just the best dogs in the world aren't they.

And have you looked on www.itsaspringthing.co.uk for lots and lots of useful springer advice and information?

Raksha

I'm a regular on SpringThing too - great place for advice on Springies

MRSCARNEY

And some great photos on there too :j