Question about intact males...

this is more curiosity than anything. I've never had an intact male dog, and now I have Oskar, who I'm waiting till he is at least a year old (end of May) before I neuter him.

He's 10 months now, and for the most part, I don't really notice that his behavior is much different from the neutered males I've had. He's been a pretty easy dog, and he still is. He doesn't mark anymore than any other dog I've had (including my female Shiba) and he's pretty gentle.

However, in the past month or so, he has developed a great deal of interest in other dogs in general, and females in particular. He's never been around an intact female, so it's not an issue of a female dog being in heat, thankfully, but lately he's just....super interested in Bel who is spayed. Esp. after she pees. Not to be too gross about it, but he has to run right up and sniff her and sometimes lick her right after she pees. She's not terribly patient with this--she mostly just rushes off, but will, occasionally turn around and snap at him for this. He was around another spayed female recently, and did the same thing, and she also was not at all pleased by his interest.

He's only tried to mount a dog in play (and hasn't done it to Bel for months, though he did do it to my best friends neutered male GSD the other day! that was clearly play, though).

It's not a big deal at all; I've just not seen my neutered males be quite so interested, and I wondered if it was because he's unneutered.

Comments

  • Yes, that is a typical intact male thing to do. Ours spend a lot of time smelling pee spots on the ground. They rush out of the barn/house to go and smell the spots or they will just go right for the female if she is around. It's kinda annoying. Some dogs do it more than others, the COs are nuts with it, Kona is less nuts about it. Does not matter if the female is intact or not.

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  • Yup, had that same experience with Sevuk. When we found him he was unneutered and our vet recommended we keep him like that for a while incase his owner turned up (this was before the spay/neuter law and our vet said he knew people had gotten sued over stuff like that.) Even now though he's neutered, he still does that kind of stuff...Maybe because he got fixed at a later age. :T
  • Yes, Kuma does that too. Especially if they are "new" and he hasn't met them, he loves to check the girls out. And it doesn't matter if they are spayed.
  • Wait until he starts doing the strange air-tasting thing - looks like they are tasting the air or something. It's kinda gross on the larger "wetter" dogs (like Blue) - makes a rather distinct smacking sound. I'm not a fan of that.

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  • @brada1878 - yes he does that too. :-) And then he starts drooling it a bit, so I cannot imagine what a dog like Blue would look like after that! Since Kuma normally has a "dry" mouth. Actually, Peggy and Bob just visited (at the local Pet Expo) and Kuma did that while at the show (and started to drool). Those pheromones...
  • Taro used to hump every female dog that was within his reach but now he mellowed out quit a bit. But also with my dogs, what's been said prior is all normal behavior for intact males.
  • My neutered male does the same things as Oskar. Koda is very interested in female pee. He humps Mei, but Mei humps him so this might be learned behavior from her.

    My neighbor has intact male and female Malinois. His female is just about to go into her first heat. Koda goes nuts over her. He literally made out with her for like 15 minutes the other day french kissing and was all up in her business licking her. His favorite thing is to have females lick him too. This happens quite frequently. Honestly, he's the horniest neutered dog I have ever met.

    I've lived with intact dogs my whole life, and I think there's a big hype about their behavior being so different. I'm not convinced that it's all that different other than managing behavior when a female is in heat. I don't have to worry about my neighbor's Malinois or Koda and her producing MaliKais.
  • Brad, I know that air tasting thing....my (neutered) GSD use to do it very occasionally and it was gross. Oskar is more drooly than Kai was, too, so it will no doubt be even more wet with him! (There's a name for that action, too, but I can't think of what it is right now....).

    Tara, I agree, at least in my limited experience, it's been more about the individual dog than if they were intact or not. Toby was a hellion after being neutered at 5 months, and Oskar (licking aside) is still a pretty calm and sweet dog while intact.

    anyway, thanks guys. I was curious about this behavior. And poor Bel....she's little, and still recovering from her surgery, so she can't really get away from him as quickly as she would like. I have to intervene most of the time.

  • Oh yeah, totally forgot the drool. If there is a female close by or he's smelled something "interesting"...there will be drool.
  • edited March 2011
    Its called Flehmen response and also occurs in male cats and many herbivores.

    Brad do your male neutered dogs act strange around so many bitches coming into heat around the same time? Aside from Tara's Koda....I don't know that all neutered males are so over the top....not sure though so thought I would ask what your experience is on that in your group.

    Snf
  • Hehehe, if you do a google image search for flehmen response you get a lot of funny faces. So cute.
  • edited March 2011
    Flehmen is also normal in sheep, horses and cows. And I guess a lot of other animals too. I think I once saw a giraffe do it too ;)
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