I actually socialized them quite a bit when they were between 3-9 months, never at an actual dog park though because they were my babies still and wouldn’t be able to defend themselves if something happened and for some reason I couldn’t intervene. They were introduced to two older female Australian Shepherds and got along great. As well as an unaltered fully grown German shepherd who didn’t act aggressively towards them. He really didn’t care about them but sniffed and showed little interest. (The German shepherd saw me as family and was one of the main inspirational reasons why even decided to get a dog after ties had been mostly cut with the family). They will also see the occasional neighbors’ dog and they will exchange pleasantries similarly to me and the owner engaging in small talk. No cases of aggression but they do get really antsy, usually calming down shortly after they realize they aren’t going to see the dog or have been given permission to engage. I think it's the wondering that makes them so fidgety.

I’ve introduced them and continue to introduce them to a multitude of environments, from taking them to a friend’s house or apartment, to talking them on trips like camping, or just going from a walk around the lake we have to drive to up the road. Not to mention that at certain hours of the day (really late or really early) and a few mostly private outdoor areas I train them with no leash and have done so since they were little bitty. As a result the know how to behave with a leash and they know the rules of when I take them off and we aren’t inside. They usually don’t get farther away than 20ft except in fields where then is much more visibility then it’s more like 50ft.

They’ve only encountered a dog one time that I wasn’t ready for and they behaved perfectly. It was 1:30 in the morning and I was letting them run around the field behind my apartment (if I'm gone a good bit of the day I like to give them and outlet for some energy before bed) and a neighbor the building over brought out their dog (female at that). And my dogs started to go over till I said “Stop, Lets go inside” (another story for another day: but I have put a lot of time in expanding their vocabulary so in this case they understood “stop” and “inside”), I didn’t even yell it but both dogs stopped in their tracks but remained completely focused on the female dog till I got their leashes on. They were probably 9-10 months old then. I had just recently stopped letting them socialize with other dogs till I knew what to do about this surgery. Just in case problems did start to develop.

After all even though they get along great with each other, if for some reason they do start acting aggressively towards other dogs I’m nervous for the other dog more than them really (regardless of who’s aggressor). I’ve instilled a very real since of loyalty towards each other and while I’m not the really worried about them fighting each other; if one gets into a fight with another dog, the other dog is not up against 60 lbs of Australian shepherd, it’ll be up against 120 lbs of Australian shepherd with two mouths. (That’s assuming they are the same size they are now, they are only 11 months old and the vet said they would probably grow a little more, not tons obviously but there are two so if they gain another 10-15 lbs that another 20-30 lbs of dog). So I’ll probably continue taking it easy as far as socializing them more till I feel I’m in the clear.

***If you get easily offended do not read this next part. I will keep it clean but this is coming out of frustration towards the topic more so then anyone specifically***

I’m getting really frustrated with people so willing to toss out medical knowledge without actually possessing any medical knowledge. Any of you who use the argument stating that “unless you plan on breeding them, neuter them because the organ serves no other purpose” are wrong. Dead wrong, I can’t think of one organ that doesn’t have either multiple functions or a function with multiple purposes. In fact I think it’s because of people like you, so willing to take everything said by your vet at face value and never thinking it might be wrong; that there is so little knowledge on the subject. I mean how long has a vet been able to say “chop its balls off and that’ll fix everything” before someone said “wait… maybe that’s not it”. How long has it been since anyone has really researched the subject?? Why would/ wouldn’t you research something that is at least publicly known to be beneficial but lacks any real evidence?(yes the would/ wouldn’t is on purpose cause you should really ask yourself both questions). And if you believe what evidence is shown, do you even consider the context it is in?? After all there are good pet owners and there are bad pet owners but to a vet and a researcher you’re the same mathematically. Why should I take the same advice you’d give some ******* neglectful owner? Obviously being a good owner my dogs are more prone to different behaviors and illness then one who doesn’t care. Reinforcing what I’m saying with MY vet’s lack of knowledge on the subject, her complete disregard for anything having to do with their environment, and the blank look she gave me when I started talking about different types of biological functions on a genetic level. Considering the fact that she was probably in school after high school for almost half the amount of time I’ve been alive, I was expecting to learn something that visit and be the one with the blank look not the other way around.

Seriously, if you’re going to take the time and preach it at least find some sound evidence in the matter or be quite. It only take a few minutes to open a tab and google search something (anything is better than nothing, and most search engines have a scholarly search tab which brings up much more reliable information if you really wanted to put the time in it) and it prevents you from looking dumb when someone calls you out. While any advice is much appreciated can you really consider it advice if the statement lacks a reason? YOU say that the testicles only purpose is breeding so removing them is best; I say that keeping them in will make them grow ten feet tall and fart out thunder storm. The fact is both these statements have the same amount of validity without a logical explanation as to why these outcomes are expected.

I know some people are probably reading this and thinking, “Yeah, I know what the reason is, it’s hormones that can cause cancer”. To you people, I applaud you for looking for a reason but did you really just have to take the reason at face value? After given a reason wouldn’t the next step be to connect to the two? Explain how they correlate. Not in this case. In this case its: Testosterone is in the testicles, the testicles get cancer, so the testosterone must be the cause of cancer. You guys remind me of a saying I heard a few years ago; you hear hoof beats but you think “horse” not “zebra”. Sometimes things aren’t so obvious when you only try to interpret it one way.

And for most of you people out there talking about cancer. Why don’t you crack open a book, your material is either very dated or a product of your imagination, at least when I’m giving someone advice and the information is my opinion I have the common decency to let them know that and that there is no evidence (although even in these cases I provide a reason for my opinion). And anyone that thinks that cancer prevention is anything more than a shot in the dark is very naïve. There is a reason we have so many cancer foundations and so many different organization created for the sole purpose of funding these cancer research foundations. The fact is cancer is still a mystery and the best solution we’ve been able to come up with for people is chemotherapy and radiation which **** near kills you by itself. I think if the solution was so simple we would have capitalized on it years ago.