Neutering a working dog to eliminate protective/aggressive behaviour? - Page 1

Does anyone have experience with neutering a high drive, strong alpha dog before 2 years old, and it successfully stopped protective tendencies? I don't want the protective edge, but want to maintain the drive to work (single purpose only). Any experience with the subject is welcome. 

Don't do it; won't work, and the dog will be useless for anything someone else may want to use him for if he's a good, high drive dog now. Please don't take offense, but why on Earth are you trying to get rid of protection tendencies instead of getting a breed suited to to what you want to do? Why try to change the dog to suit your needs as opposed to choosing a partner suited to your goals and temperament? 

What kind of dog is he?

The only thing you will do for sure is stop breeding.

I know what kind of dog I need. That's not the issue. A Lab can show protective and aggressive tendencies as it's testosterone kicks in. It's not a breed issue whatsoever. Just wondering if anyone has had a dog lose those tendencies once the testosterone is removed from the system. No, it won't work 100% of the time, it may never even work 10% of the time, I'm just interested in the experience of others. 

A properly bred dog will not show these instincts for no reason and an experienced trainer will know how to manage them and channel or contain them. I have seen many dogs lose all drive for work and even life after being neutered. I owned a bomb detection dog that came to me neutered and the dog lasted with me for a month due to its lack of drives.
 

I neuter all my working dogs as a rule, but aggression has never been an issue aside from this one individual dog. I've found when the dog is high drive to start with, neutering will very rarely take anything away from their drive, though I HAVE seen females lose some drive when spayed, or sometimes following a first heat cycle. I may end up cutting the dog from the program, but am considering neutering him to see if it takes that edge off before I cut him. I have no issue handling the dog, personally, it's an issue of whether or not someone else will be able to. 

I guess you don't want to tell me what kind of dog it is...

It's exactly as Hired Dog says. If you're considering not keeping him anyway, please, do not neuter him! Then, if you get rid of him, who will want him? I know of literally zero working dog people who are going to willingly take a neutered working dog due to the reasons Hired Dog and I stated earlier. They may make an exception for a particular dog, but you're asking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. Better to leave him whole and find someone who can handle the whole dog. If you don't want to handle him, and you neuter him, and he doesn't change, then you get rid of him and he's going to have to find a *pet* home who will handle him as he is??? 

I rehomed a spayed prison dog- guess why she was let go from the prison? She didn't work after she was spayed. Not sure how people think a dog can function with such a key system missing...

I don't know if this will help or not:

My second GSD began to show people aggression when he was only 5 months old. I thought neutering him would help, so he was done when he was just under 8 months. It never made any difference in his temperament. He bit me, he bit my husband in spite of intensive behavioral modification and OB training. He was 100% GSL, but I honestly don't think that mattered as much as his basic temperament. Personally I would not neuter another male that young hoping for an improvement in those areas. The working line people (them) and the show line people (me) here don't agree on much, but I am with Hired Dog and Jenni on this. Neutering is not a magic bullet.

Good luck with  your dog. I get the impression that  you want to do the right thing and that  you are a responsible dog owner - I respect you for that.

Poor dogs.

I was just interested in people's personal experiences with the situation. I don't intend to post on this forum again. I DO know that it may or may not make any difference whatsoever, that's why I asked the question. I actually do know what I am doing, I do know what I am looking for. I'm familiar with breed differences. I'm not interested in pissing contests, I just wanted some first hand experience from those that were familiar with the subject.