Staff, RR or both

[zoesophie]

Im posting this on behalf of my sister who has a Staff and a RR and both are 1yo. She is not quite sure what to do about geting them done

. She will be speaking to a behaviourist (once she can get hold of them!) but just thought what the opinion on here would be as I know there is a vast amount of knowledge and experience here.

Just to give you a brief explanation, Staff used to be more dominant in the house, but there seems to be a shift and the RR is taking over, out of the house the RR is deffo top dog and will look after the Staff is other dogs come round them.

What would be the best option do you think, get one or both done?

She did think about keeping one or other for stud as they both have good lines apparently but has decided not to.

Thanks in advance.

 

[sloulou]

that staff should be ok to be done now.. but the RR is a large breed - so ideally I would wait until they are around 18 months old before getting them done - just so they can finish growing...

I don't like the idea of neutering dogs while they still growing, if it is at all possible to wait.

It might be easier if she had one done now and one in 6 months time?

I personally wouldn't neuter mine unless there was a particular veterinary or behvioural reason to do it - but that's my personal choice and am not against neutering.

Hope that useful

 

[zoesophie]

O right ok thanks for the advice. The vets have told her they dont "have" to be done, I think she is weighing up her options TBH so leaving them both entire I presume is still an option for them. I think shes just a bit worried about them fighting more as they get older

She was told by her vet that anything over 1 year old would be fine to neuter but I can see what you are saying about his size. The Staff has matured much quicker than the RR and I think thats why now the RR is taking over in the domanants stakes...

 

[kibob]

Oh, difficult one,, I think she will find that if both are left entire there will come a time when they get aggressive with each other.

I would say to get the most dominant dog done, but Ridgies take a long time to mature, he has another year of maturing to do yet and will probably become more dominant as he grows up.

I personally, have no problem with dogs being left entire either, but if she is considering neutering one or the other then I would go for the Staffie now and see how things develop.

 

[zoesophie]

OK thanks for your advice too, Ill pass all your info on to her.

 

[WelshRareBit]

Im suprised the vet said they dont have to be done..I thought vets would be promoting neutering...

Get them both done unless they intend to breed from them.

 

[echodomino]

Sometimes you're better of doing it in reverse and castrating the more submissive of the two. If you castrate the RR the Staff may see it as his chance to assert his authority and that could cause more trouble.

Because there isn't a lot of age gap between them they're going to constantly "battle" to be top dog. We had the same problem with two of our boys several years ago, there wasn't a lot of age gap hence the fighting. We make sure now that our boys have at least a year between them if not more, that way the older doesn't seem to be bothered by any more males.

 

[zoesophie]

[ QUOTE ]
castrating the more submissive of the two

[/ QUOTE ]

thats interesting, a couple of people they have talked to already have suggested this too...

 

[Thistle]

We catrated the submissive one first, then the dominant one 6 weeks later, worked very well once the pecking order had been restablished.

 

[ElaineLightning]

i agree with castrating the more submissive one first for the reasons given esp as ones a staff they are known to get more aggressive with age and can just "turn" on the other dog

 

[KJJ]

Hi,

If she wants to breed one.. then she will need to have g'teed' homes for the pups and be prepared for any pups to be returned in furture if circumstances for buyrs change, she will need 'stud' dog hip scored, will need to learn alot about breeding and be prepared to spend ALOT of money!

Personally I would have both done... I have Just had Finner Winner done... his obsession with scent marking every 2 strides has stopped and he has stopped pulling quite so much AND has stopped getting quite so close and personal sniffing around the ladies!!!

As adorable as baby finners (RR) would have been...

he is a FAR better dog for being castrated, the bonus she will have by castrating both at the same time is they can recover together, they are only allowed walks on leads - no playing and keeping quite etc.. imagine trying to stop one from playing with the 'recovering' one if they haven't been done.. I had a mission with Cherry & Tinks hassling Finn!!