Sunflower77
Forums Enthusiast
My dog was spayed two weeks ago when she was 13 months old.
Immediately we noticed her behavior changes, unfortunately all negative.
She used to let all sorts of strangers pet her, groomers, doggie boarding house workers, new neighbors, kids on the street, contractors coming to my home etc. Now, she growls and cowers when strangers come up to pet her. She has become more vocal, barks a lot more, and can be spooked for no obvious reason. She also urinated inside my house out of anxiety three times in the past two weeks. This had never happened in the past.
I started researching on dog behavior changes after neuter and spay. Initially I found a few websites all touting the positive changes that are supposed to happen, specifically regarding aggression - dogs are supposed to become less aggressive, including females, who will stop fighting over the attention of males. But I didn’t see any research data backing these claims. Then, I saw an article on Psychology Today, which reviewed evidence based research in the literature on dog behavior changes post neuter and spay. The results were shocking and consistent with what I observed on my dog. One of the studies was reported by Deborah Duffy and James Serpell, both at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. It was published in The Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Nonsurgical Contraceptive Methods for Pet Population Control*.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/...vior-changes-when-dogs-are-spayed-or-neutered
Between the two studies that collected reports on 15,984 dogs in total, research found that “spayed and neutered dogs actually show considerably more aggression. Depending upon the specific form of aggression (owner directed, stranger directed, etc.) the size of these effects is quite large, varying from a low of around a 20 percent increase to more than double the level of aggression in the neutered dogs as measured by the C-BARQ scoring scale.
A further surprise was that these effects were similar for both males and females. One slight difference between males and females is that for male dogs the age at which they are neutered makes no difference in the increase of aggression relative to intact dogs, however, for females early spaying (before the dog is one year of age) causes a considerably larger increase in aggression relative to later spaying.
A different worrisome finding is that there was a roughly 31 percent increase in fearfulness for both sexes. This is accompanied by a 33 percent increase in touch sensitivity. The spayed and neutered dogs also showed a roughly 8 percent increase in excitability. About the only positive effect on behavior that seems to result from spaying and neutering is the roughly 68 percent decrease in urine marking.”
Immediately we noticed her behavior changes, unfortunately all negative.
She used to let all sorts of strangers pet her, groomers, doggie boarding house workers, new neighbors, kids on the street, contractors coming to my home etc. Now, she growls and cowers when strangers come up to pet her. She has become more vocal, barks a lot more, and can be spooked for no obvious reason. She also urinated inside my house out of anxiety three times in the past two weeks. This had never happened in the past.
I started researching on dog behavior changes after neuter and spay. Initially I found a few websites all touting the positive changes that are supposed to happen, specifically regarding aggression - dogs are supposed to become less aggressive, including females, who will stop fighting over the attention of males. But I didn’t see any research data backing these claims. Then, I saw an article on Psychology Today, which reviewed evidence based research in the literature on dog behavior changes post neuter and spay. The results were shocking and consistent with what I observed on my dog. One of the studies was reported by Deborah Duffy and James Serpell, both at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. It was published in The Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Nonsurgical Contraceptive Methods for Pet Population Control*.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/...vior-changes-when-dogs-are-spayed-or-neutered
Between the two studies that collected reports on 15,984 dogs in total, research found that “spayed and neutered dogs actually show considerably more aggression. Depending upon the specific form of aggression (owner directed, stranger directed, etc.) the size of these effects is quite large, varying from a low of around a 20 percent increase to more than double the level of aggression in the neutered dogs as measured by the C-BARQ scoring scale.
A further surprise was that these effects were similar for both males and females. One slight difference between males and females is that for male dogs the age at which they are neutered makes no difference in the increase of aggression relative to intact dogs, however, for females early spaying (before the dog is one year of age) causes a considerably larger increase in aggression relative to later spaying.
A different worrisome finding is that there was a roughly 31 percent increase in fearfulness for both sexes. This is accompanied by a 33 percent increase in touch sensitivity. The spayed and neutered dogs also showed a roughly 8 percent increase in excitability. About the only positive effect on behavior that seems to result from spaying and neutering is the roughly 68 percent decrease in urine marking.”
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