So his walnuts may stay

I totally agree with this statement though would always wait for the dog to be cocking his leg for at least a month before castration. If you do it before he cocks his leg, quite often he will squat for the remainder of his life.

 Also if castrate the male dog that is cocking he generallydoes not smell bitch like to other uncastrated dogs, but castrate them before they cock and they could be plagued by unwelcome attention for the rest of their lives.

Glad to hear the noise aversion works it normally does if it is set correctly.

Matter of interest I have started a new Association called PAACT stands for Professionalisation Association of Applied Canine Trainers. www.paact.co.uk Have a look see what you think it is intended to bring together both skills ie behaviourist and obedience trainer as I believe both are empirical to the overall treatment of a dog.

Stan

Dogtra - because (and this is just my veiw, I have no problem with you not neutering, Lassie   ) neutering is different to docking in several ways. One, it has benificial effects, namely that a neutered (or spayed) dog is much less likely to develop testicular or ovarian cancer, it can make male dogs less prone to wandering, in some cases of dominance related behavioural problems it can be a great help, they smell better    , spayed bitches don't get constantly bugged by dogs, it can make other dogs behave less competitively towards the dog and so on and so on. Obviously there's the benefit of reducing unwanted litters and therefore cutting down on abandonments and freeing up kennels in rescue centres. Of course Lassie has her reasons not to which are perfectly fine, I'm just telling Dogtra why many of us are for neutering and against docking/cropping.

In contrast, nowadays docking and cropping have no purpose other than to be aesthetically pleasing to the owner. Yes, in working gundogs etc there may be a reason for it ( less injuries etc) but the average dog is not benefitted in any way by having it's extremities stolen. There is no good reason to have it done, and it causes unnecessary trauma. Ever seen a Great Dane pup with it's ears all bound up above it's head? A puppy wants to run, play and not be hampered by a huge wad of bandages on it's bonce. And before you say it is still a good idea for working gaurd dogs to have croppings and dockings done I'd better tell you that I don't agree with the use of dogs as guards either - but that's another topic.

Rachel

I agree, Lassie. I like to neuter my dogs personally just because it makes things easier all round for us, but like you said, it's an individual preference and doesn't suit everyone. I was really just posting to explain things to Dogtra, on the docking subject.      Anyway - do you breed then?   I'm going to make a guess at... Rough collies?  

Aww, puppers! It's nice to see there's still some responsible breeders out there  

I know... I know at least one - she purposely breeds crosses. Well, I say purposely; she has 10 chihuawa's, a few chinese crested crosses and a borzoi which are all unneutered and allowed to breed constantly as and when (and with who) they like. She then sells them on. She brags about how she bred a Chi/rottie cross etc. According to friends who have been round to her house the place is filthy, cramped and the dogs are all underweight. She keeps the borzoi in one room and never lets it out to walk.    Her main breeding bitch suffers already with epilepsy and pretty much always has a litter.

I would ring the RSPCA, but as I made my opinions clear to her      I wouldn't be welcome round her house and so haven't seen it for myself. Although I don't think my friends are lying they are not animal people and don't seem keen to ring themselves.