# Neutering



## Gigolo's Mom (Sep 3, 2004)

I made an appointment to have Gigolo neutered next week. He is now 6 mos old. I want to do this for several reasons: overall health, marking etc. A friend of mine suggested that if I get him neutered before he starts lifting his leg, he will never lift his leg??!!?? I do know that if I wait until his adrenal glands as well as his testosterone to kick in the more likely he will start marking, humping etc. I didn't neuter my previous maltese until he was 2 yrs old because I thought that I would be breeding him and yes of course he lifted his leg (not to mention marking and humping)by that time so I don't have any other experience to guide me. Any advice on this....by the way, I really don't care if he lifts his leg or not but my "significant other" would prefer it!
Thanks!
Gigolo's Mom (and always Geronimo's Mom too!)


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## LexiAndNikkisMom (Apr 13, 2004)

Sorry, I can't help you with this. I have never had a male dog. 

Just wanted to say welcome and that I would love to see some pictures of your dogs.


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## Toby's Mom (May 7, 2004)




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## doctorcathy (May 17, 2004)

i've never had a male maltese, but i do have a male gruffi!







(the black dog in my pic)

we got gruffi neutered at 5 months. 

**lifting of the leg is a learned behavior! so as long as he never ever sees a man or a male dog lift his leg :lol: then your little boy will never lift his leg. BUT, i think gruffi might've started doing it because he was peeing on his chest.









**humping can be a dominance issue. i never let gruffi hump anything! he tried with ellie and he got a really bad lecture from me and a correction. he never tried since

definitely get him neutered because of health reasons (like you said) and also because you dont want him to hump for sexual reasons.

i hope this helps. cathy


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## Gigolo's Mom (Sep 3, 2004)

> _Originally posted by Lexi's Mom_@Sep 7 2004, 01:38 PM
> *Sorry, I can't help you with this.  I have never had a male dog.
> 
> Just wanted to say welcome and that I would love to see some pictures of your dogs.
> <div align="right">index.php?act=findpost&pid=8505*


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I posted 3 pics but only see one on my post..also checked the photo albums and it isn't there..Not sure waht I did incorrectly (if anything!?)
Gigolo's Mom


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## Gigolo's Mom (Sep 3, 2004)

> _Originally posted by Nichole_@Sep 7 2004, 02:09 PM
> *I have a neutered, male Beagle, who is 2 yrs old and he does not lift his leg.  My brother has my beagle's litter mate and he does not lift his leg either.  They were both neutered at 6 months.  I am pretty sure, in general, that if you have them neutered before they start lifting that they won't ever lift.  I kinda like that fact that they don't lift their leg--it looks so unclassy!
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Thanks for the advice.....Well aware of the "humping' as I previously had a male maltese, Geronimo, who shall we say had many "girlfriends"..all of them stuffed animals and gave them equal time...which was fine with me as he never went after any humans. I know that Gigolo's testicals, tiny as they may be, have both descended!!


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## mee (Jul 17, 2004)

sorry, this isnt related to this topic but , hehe
ive always had female dogs since i was young, except having a male pug for about a year

anywayz i loved and love rubbing my female doggies tummy and im so used to just rubbing the entire belly
but when i went to my bf's house and started rubbing the male yorkie i just started rubbing the whole belly without thinking and found out that i was touching his penis!
h34r: 

there wasnt much "tummy space" around the legs that i could rub..
i can rub jong-ee's tummy way until the end since she doesnt have any "obstacles"

sorry i just wanted to tell you guys.. :wacko:


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## Mystify79 (Apr 6, 2004)

I got Tuffy neutered between 5 & 6 months old and prior to that he never lifted his leg or marked. He would hump his toys or a pillow every once in a while but it wasn't a huge problem. Well, color me confused, but when we were recently staying at my grandmother's house Tuffy decided to make his way around the house marking everything and anything he could.







I was soooo shocked. He had NEVER marked before that day, even out on walks and when we had stayed at my grandmother's house previously. It was so bizarre for him to do it this time. All of the sudden I was like, did they get everything down there?







What I don't get is that besides when he was living at the breeders when he was a puppy, he's never been around other male dogs to learn the marking behavior. So in my case, Tuffy's male behavior actually got worse after he got neutered.. which is just messed up :wacko:


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## Toby's Mom (May 7, 2004)




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## Gigolo's Mom (Sep 3, 2004)

> _Originally posted by Mystify79_@Sep 7 2004, 03:43 PM
> *I got Tuffy neutered between 5 & 6 months old and prior to that he never lifted his leg or marked.  He would hump his toys or a pillow every once in a while but it wasn't a huge problem.  Well, color me confused, but when we were recently staying at my grandmother's house Tuffy decided to make his way around the house marking everything and anything he could.
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Just to give you some perspective on males (human as well as animals). It isn't just the testicles that secrete male hormones. The adrenal glands in the brain do this as well!!. Therefore, even though you do neuter a male dog, that doesn't mean that they won't exhibit "marking or humping", especially if they secrete more hormones than normal. 

My first Maltese, Geronimo, was examined by a behaviorist who advised me that the only way he would be less territorial would be do neuter him but that the dog was "raging with hormones" and it would only curb his desire, not totally inhibit them. At the same time that I was going through this, my Dad had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, way before the advances that they have today. At that time, I took him to Canada as the treatments were not approved by the FDA (subsequently they were). I learned that male hormones feed prostate cancer and therefore to hopefully stop the progression of the disease they had to inhibit the production of the hormones in both areas of the body. My Dad was on various therapies to inhibit the production of both testosterone and the secretion of the adrenal gland hormones. It worked, as he lived 8 years after being diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer that had already speread to the bones! 

So as far as our little 4 legged babies are concerned, neutering only addresses part of the problem and I don't think that we're going to do any brain surgery on our little boys or give them unnecessary meds..so we have to live with their "wild animal nature"!
But thast's what "unconditional love" is all about!
Gigolo's Mom


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## Toby's Mom (May 7, 2004)

:lol:


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## Mystify79 (Apr 6, 2004)

> _Originally posted by Nichole_@Sep 7 2004, 03:59 PM
> *Mystify79--
> 
> Does your grandma have a dog?  Maybe Tuffy smelled the dog and it was instinctual to start marking?
> <div align="right">index.php?act=findpost&pid=8532*


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Yeah, they've got two dogs, one a male. It's just so weird that he didn't do that the other two times we went up there.







I guess something snapped this time around.







Tuffy hasn't actually met my grandmother's dogs because they have some behavioral issues and are way aggressive so she had them boarded while we were there.

Gigolo's Mom - I guess Tuffy wants to be all man even without some parts :lol: I'm glad that he doesn't do that around our house though


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