cocker spaniel owners?

Question

please tell me the benefits and disadvantages of neutering a male.
I do not want pro - neutering lectures or information of a general nature, I wish to hear from breeders/owners of cocker spaniels.
Photos of your spaniel (neutered or not) would also be very apprieciated.
Thank you

Answer 1

Neteruing your cocker spaniel will greatly reduce reproductive realted cancers and not contribute to the shelter population. There are no disadvantages unless you want to show your cocker but check the AKC standards at www.AKC.org

http://picasaweb.google.com/Darkangel4214/Charlie (My unnetured cocker charlie)

http://picasaweb.google.com/Darkangel4214/Lady (my expecting cocker lady)
http://picasaweb.google.com/Darkangel4214/Lexi (my new puppy Lexi)

Answer 2

I own two cocker spaniels who are AWESOME dogs! They are excellent with my young children, have never growled, snapped, or so much have looked at the kids in the wrong way. They are great in the house and were easy to potty train. This breeds size is perfect for a family pet. They are not so big that they are intimidating or hard to handle, and yet they are not too small that they are easy to step on or injure. The negatives about the breed..... I can only think of two. One is they bark at the neighbors when they are let outside and they have a lot of grooming needs.

Answer 3

The only benefits of not neutering a cocker spaniel is the fact you can breed your dog. The benefits of neuturing far outway not neutruing. Your dog will not get testicle cancer, it will not "hump" you and it will have far less behavoiur problems. A good way to think about it is this: imagine if you had all these hormones going around in your body but you couldn't have sex. That wouldn't be very nice. If he doesn't have those hormones he's doesn;t feel the urge and will not hump you and will be a much happier dog. Unles you are breeding the dog not neuturing it is actually quite cruel!
Hope that helps!
P.S. My cockers are all neutured/spayed and are very well behaved.

Answer 4

there is no reason not to neuter your cocker... anless u are a breeder..and the dog u have is showed and a good breed spicimen. fixed dogs gernal live longer (they don't have hormone to get them ll hyper) it this is a pup u will want to do it well before its 1 roung 6mos is the best time as just before themale side revels it self... cocker can be aggressive dogs and geting a male fixed is a good idea...
are u afraid the hair won't grow right or something???? the only way u can mess up cockers hair is bad grooming....ear shouldn''t get shaved down. some cocker will get long lashes but if they are ever cut they do not grow back. just take to a good groomer. getting a dog fixed does not change how they look....just how they act...to a point but u have to train from there.
if the dog has sex on it mind..but it can't have it...man that would sux...just get him fixed.

Answer 5

I owned two cockers, to me he was a great dog either way, i neutered mine after a year of having him. They tend to put on a tad bit of weight a year after getting neutered but still the same dog. If he's not going to enjoy the pleasures of mating with another female it would be a good idea to neuter him to take the stress off of him. Because dogs want to mate and without there testicles it reduces the desire. Plus they wont hump things as much.

Answer 6

my brother in law has a golden/red show style cocker and his step daughter has a black working style cocker, both were castrated at approx 8 months old, the black is now 5 yrs and his temperament is fantastic, he is obedient without any aggression whatsoever but his coat is very wavy almost verging on the curly side but this is due to electric clippering-including the feathering-he looked awful-like a lamb! however the golden/red is a different kettle of fish entirely! he is now 20 months old, his coat is flat and silky (he hasnt been clippered only handstripped by myself-which he adores! but he has had two different groomers that have made a complete pigs ear of him, and i ended up correcting the mistakes!) and he is overweight and has an insatiable appetite, stealing food, raiding the fridge etc..when we looked after him for a few weeks-while B-I-L and his wife went on a cruise-lucky them! we found out that he has several dominance issues, which having him neutered doesnt seem to have cured! also he fell 'in love' with my lancashire heeler girls leather hooded dog bed and would try and hump it at every opportunity! (once with one of them in it! she was not impressed with an overweight cocker jumping on her bed-so she shot out and nipped him on the bum!) but he is a suspected 'puppy farm' dog and his first owner kept him in the kitchen 24/7 for the first few months of her ownership, my B-I-L then took him on, and he has destroyed and stolen lots of stuff since then and there is the real possibility that we may take him on! (he must have really enjoyed himself at our house because every time we go to visit he thinks he is coming back home with us! and runs out the door, with an expression that says 'right! were we going now then?' then when we go without him he has such a sad look on his face and it feels awful looking at him) but i must admit i think that having both cockers 'done' means that their ownership is much more relaxed and there isnt a worry that they will run away.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v372/aimbrizdogs/000_2040.jpg

Answer 7

Hi Rose, I couldn't reply to your off-list question because your yahoo answers profile is set so that you cannot receive direct email.

Our cocker is about 14 months old now, he has started occasionally humping cushions, but not people or other dogs!

It seems in the UK - rightly or wrongly - that the onus is on the owners of bitches to have them neuteured. Most bitches I meet seem to have been done, not so for the males. So the unwanted breeding does not seem to be as much of an issue as I had anticipated.

He is still very friendly and boisterous, but not unmanageable and not really interested in other dogs, he prefers his ball! Maybe that will change and if he appeared to be very sexually frustrated I may reconsider castration. Right now as long as he has plenty of attention and walks, he seems quite happy.

I think, from looking into it, it does cause their coats to change due to loss of testosterone.

The prostate cancer is the main issue I think in favor of castration, but I think for now we have decided to leave him entire, and see how he is over the next year.

Regards
Emily

Answer 8

If you want breed specific information, you'd do better to go to a Cocker Spaniel site like this one:

http://www.cockersonline.co.uk/discuss/index.php

Answer 9

Are you planning on breeding your cocker spaniel? If not, there is no reason not to neuter him.

Answer 10

Usually, that is too long for me. I think it depends on the guy and his face though. Certain guys can easily pull off long hair and other people can't.