Not quite, but it's fascinating stuff! Many of us are involved with problem solving with issues between owners and dogs. A good part of which prevents rescue situations (as resolution of conflict, outcome happier owner and dog) and also in evaluation of dogs that turn up for rescue.Originally Posted by Catty1
Aggression can be categorized into various types that have correlation to various populations. One of Dr Serpell's studies (1996) divided types of aggression into these profiles on the chart below and these are typical of the aggression profiles used in these studies.
These are the different kinds of aggression that were evaluated in the ECS study.
Dr Serpell was doing studies on canine behavior using the English Cocker Spaniel and as part of study design, one of the questions always asked of owners was if the pet was neutered. He asked about the dog's color and registration among other things. They didn't expect some of the things that the study revealed. Neutered pets are supposed to be easier to care for after all. But as they charted their data, they discovered some surprising behavioral patterns. Among those was the fact that neutered females in that study were significantly more aggressive to children. (A5 on the chart)
Skip this part if you don't have an interest in canine genetics! It might be hard to follow, apologies for that. We've probably heard about the little cockers that take a bite (they are at face level to kids). This was one study which as a side effect, documented a correlation of risk to children at that time. There were behavior patterns having to do with the color of the dog and the popularity of that color or variation. The red color in the ECS is recessive, a phaeomelanin based. If you understand recessives, you know that by choosing recessive elements in a breed, you remove dogs of dominant expression phenotypes and begin to 'fix' the recessives and the types of behavior and health traits in the popular animals of that phenotype. Reddish/yellowish cockers in the ECS were very popular and parti colors or black and liver dogs were not favored. (this does not mean that the color itself fixes behavior, but by selecting WINNING dogs that had the color being favored in the showring, there was a tendency to select for those elements. Among those who study some genetics, this is called "Popular Sire" syndrome. It created a trending toward bloodlines that had temperament issues may have inadvertently been selected for. As a side bar, HYPP in Quarter Horses gained wide manifestation due to this through the sire known as Impressive. Elements of this are reasons why AB 1634 is dangerous to dogs and people. The effect of selecting for show winners has had massive effect on different breeds. Show champions may be great dogs but narrowing the genepool arbitrarily is foolhardy. Many breeding programs are now developing lines to fix the problems that developed in decades past.
Okay, moving on... study on animal behavior, genetics including color issues related to this is really keen stuff to follow as it relates to general considerations for those of us doing rescue (all breeds). And very importantly it helps in problem solving when working with a frustrated owner, to help them to keep the animal from being relinquished. Prevention is a wonderful thing!
Who does these studies? People trying to bash neutering? That would definitely be conflict of interest and create reason to be skeptical! But it isn't biased that way at all. "The Alliance for Contraception in Cats and Dog". (site: http://www.acc-d.org/) is an organization which advocates neutering and is behind arranging these symposiums. Here is a bit from their Animal Welfare page-Anyway, charts. All the charts pictured here are from Dr Serpell's work. Notice the N values. Most animals in the studies compiled were neuters.Imagine the increased impact we could have on the homeless pet population with the ability to permanently sterilize a cat or dog with a simple injection. Imagine what we could accomplish with the money and time saved by a simpler method of pet sterilization. Imagine trapping, neutering and releasing feral cats and street dogs without ever driving to a clinic or worrying about finding a recovery site.
ACC&D was founded to make this dream a reality. For decades we’ve been hearing that a non-surgical sterilant for cats and dogs (continue ....)
They found that OWNER directed aggression was higher in neuters.
Neutered dogs were also more likely to fight with other dogs.
Neuters are more reactive. (seem more likely to be stressed or exciteable) More liable to be sensitive to loud noises and activity.
Many owners now have to deal with sedating their dogs during storms and fireworks. This problem seems to be increasing.
Is there a solution?
What if animals were more acclimated to typical stresses before being neutered, would they be less reactive? Does increased maturity before neutering confer character less behavior associat with stress? For example, leg lifting in male neuters seems to be better established if they are neutered later. Of course, there are genetic components involved in the unstable fear of loud noises. In the past, dogs were raised with more exposure to such noises (eg hunting, guns). Nowadays, dogs can be bred for generations and not be tested against the ability to accept such noises as normal.
Puppies have several fear periods while they are growing. Does neutering during fear periods have any correlations?
Another type of reactiveness charted above. Licking and grooming, maybe more in the way of creating granulomas on the skin.
As to too much barking, it appears that there is just a slight lead with neuters.
Many PET male dogs are neuters now. YAY! That's not a bad thing when owners are not prepared to control their dogs.
However, many of these male pups are not given the opportunity to learn to lift their leg before they are neutered and frequently they never learn to lift their leg. This is not a major thing, for most, but you can see it on many forums that neutered boys with this behavior are quite common and dog folk are sometimes embarrassed about it (yep, that macho thing crops up!). Many who prefer neutered boys who do lift a leg, now give them a chance to mature a little and have had better success on that.
A reason for wanting the dog to lift his leg, that has nothing to do with macho, is that some people prefer the dog squirt on an object rather than squat in the yard and make yellow spots in the grass. Now GREEN LAWN issues are a different sort of obsession.Just read somewhere on PT that a senior citizen in Utah had a brown lawn. So apparently this is an issue that can be legislated. Maybe an excuse for leaving a male dog entire longer. LOL!
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