Hiya all,
We're going to make an appointment to get nelson's "strawberries" plucked off in a couple of weeks. I know the benefits of doing so is to reduce his risk of prostate cancer and because we are not going to breed him due to his hip dysplasia.
But I have a bit of a worry... my neighbour's Newfoundland (Angus) whos just around Nelson's age, was castrated about 2 months ago. Angus used to be completely docile and just the friendly and most aloof dog. But after he was fixed, he turned into the Newfie from hell. Angus started to fight their other dog who's an Australian Bulldog and who's older than Angus and who's been castrated long ago. Angus has grown up with the aussie bulldog, he's always seen him as the older dog and his dominant big bro.
After the castration, the next time Angus and Nelson played, (they used to play like puppies all the time before the castration) Angus started a fight with Nelson so we had to seperate them. The next time we saw them, nelson and i were doing the gardening in the front yard and the neighbours came home with angus in the back seat of the car and nelson went across the road wagging his tail at the car to play with angus and as soon as angus saw nelson outside the car, he went berzerk in the car barking and showing his teeth at nelson. so i had to take nelson inside so angus could get out of the car.
also, i feel for my neighbours because its now got so bad that they can't have both their dogs in the house at the same time. they have to have one inside and one outside at all times. and they even have to leave their curtains to the backyard closed because if angus catches a glimpse of the Aussie bulldog on the other side of the door he starts ramming it to get to the bulldog. my neighbour also mentioned one day that ever since she had angus, she has never ever been scared of him, but there was one day that she was very cautious as she wasn't sure if he would bite her. she's so upset angus has turned into another dog, a dog she doesn't know. Angus also now barks at people walking across the other side of the road and other dogs and he never used to. she does have a good trainer helping her but i don't know how well its going.
i guess my thing is i don't want nelson to become like this and wanted to ask you all if this is a common thing? i always thought that getting a dog fixed can stop them from being agressive, i didn't know it could go the other way. i just couldn't imagine what it would be like to be scared of nelson and i know that it will be so depressing and would not know what to do.
any advice would be really appreciated, thanks guys
We're going to make an appointment to get nelson's "strawberries" plucked off in a couple of weeks. I know the benefits of doing so is to reduce his risk of prostate cancer and because we are not going to breed him due to his hip dysplasia.
But I have a bit of a worry... my neighbour's Newfoundland (Angus) whos just around Nelson's age, was castrated about 2 months ago. Angus used to be completely docile and just the friendly and most aloof dog. But after he was fixed, he turned into the Newfie from hell. Angus started to fight their other dog who's an Australian Bulldog and who's older than Angus and who's been castrated long ago. Angus has grown up with the aussie bulldog, he's always seen him as the older dog and his dominant big bro.
After the castration, the next time Angus and Nelson played, (they used to play like puppies all the time before the castration) Angus started a fight with Nelson so we had to seperate them. The next time we saw them, nelson and i were doing the gardening in the front yard and the neighbours came home with angus in the back seat of the car and nelson went across the road wagging his tail at the car to play with angus and as soon as angus saw nelson outside the car, he went berzerk in the car barking and showing his teeth at nelson. so i had to take nelson inside so angus could get out of the car.
also, i feel for my neighbours because its now got so bad that they can't have both their dogs in the house at the same time. they have to have one inside and one outside at all times. and they even have to leave their curtains to the backyard closed because if angus catches a glimpse of the Aussie bulldog on the other side of the door he starts ramming it to get to the bulldog. my neighbour also mentioned one day that ever since she had angus, she has never ever been scared of him, but there was one day that she was very cautious as she wasn't sure if he would bite her. she's so upset angus has turned into another dog, a dog she doesn't know. Angus also now barks at people walking across the other side of the road and other dogs and he never used to. she does have a good trainer helping her but i don't know how well its going.
i guess my thing is i don't want nelson to become like this and wanted to ask you all if this is a common thing? i always thought that getting a dog fixed can stop them from being agressive, i didn't know it could go the other way. i just couldn't imagine what it would be like to be scared of nelson and i know that it will be so depressing and would not know what to do.
any advice would be really appreciated, thanks guys