Castration - specific question

zebidee1

Would castration have any effect on a dog's strong urge to sniff and smell where other animals have been?

Please no general discussion about castration on this thread, this is for a specific question only.

jenhug

my boy used to sniff everything, dragging me from tree to bush to blade of grass, it has improved dramatically since he has been done, but now if he does sniff, he doesn't have to wee on it anymore. Just has one maybe two wee's per walk.

sometimes he sniffs something and you can almost see him thinking "I'm sure I was supposed to do something now" and then off we go.

If your dog is a breed that sniffs (like a scent houdy type!) then it may not cure it.

zebidee1

He's a lab. Sorry, I should have mentioned in my post.

jenhug

you may just find it is something he will do, due to his breed. were his parents working labs? My boy is a Mastiff amd as I said earlier, it improved dramatically after.

zebidee1

No, the parents were just pets, not working dogs.

ali-t

Would it depend on the age of the dog and how much of the sniffing is down to habit and how much is instinct. I have heard people say that the older the dog the less effect neutering has. I have no personal experience either way to back this up

foreign_correspondent

My dad's terrier is castrated, but he sniffs quite a lot - but then in my experience terriers do....looking for rats I think!

I think castration does reduce the need to scent mark tho.

cyberbob

Our boy a retriever used to constantly sniff everything. After he was castrated it decreased a very noticeable amount

Moominmamma

My lab was castrated and still sniffed EVERYTHING it used to take me forever to get fom A to B because he would literally want a good snuffle every few paces!!!

abtmay

Our 7 years old labrador was recently castrated. Before the castration, he pulled me everywhere to sniff and pee on every pole. After castration, he only pee once or twice on each walk and very noticable decrease in pulling. However he still sniff around on walks looking for food as he's greedy

Person_one

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

My dad's terrier is castrated, but he sniffs quite a lot - but then in my experience terriers do....looking for rats I think!

I think castration does reduce the need to scent mark tho.

My parents have a very sniffy (neutered) terrier too, I think its just due to a disproportionate nose-to-body ratio (its huge!), He does like to wee where he smells when out on a walk but not in their house or garden.