CANINE BEHAVIOR QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS By Kathy Diamond Davis Author and Trainer

Q: This may sound funny but my husband and I actually have no idea and would like to know. We presently have a 10-month old female Westie and she was spayed when she was 6 months old. We bought another Westie, a male this time, and we'll be picking him up in about one month. We will definitely have him neutered as well. Our question is, since both our girl and our little boy will be neutered, will the male still try to hump her or not? I have read numerous articles about dogs' sex life and all but they never mention neutered animals. I know that a neutered male's urine smells much less "masculine" than if he were not neutered and that this will not be as "sexy" for the female but will she still want him or not. Is it up to us to try and stop him if he tries to hump her?

Sorry for our ignorance but we want to know what to expect.

A: Not a silly question! The smell of a neutered male seems to be not as provocative to other males who are intact as is the smell of an intact male, but they still know he's a male. The female dogs seem to adore neutered males. With both male and female spayed/neutered, they don't have the physical and emotional ups and downs of hormone cycles, and their relationship with each other tends to be pretty wonderful.

If she were intact and went into heat, you would need to separate them even if he were neutered, because a neutered male can sometimes still tie with an intact female in heat! Injuries can occur when unattended dogs tie, so you'd have to separate them whenever you were not closely supervising. Dogs generally do not go to this point unless a female is actually in heat, so with your girl spayed, that's not likely to be a worry. The female usually will not accept a male unless she is in heat (though there are exceptions), and a male is not nearly as intense about mating when those powerful scents are not present.

Some mounting is not sexual, and as with people, there's a wide margin of he/she interaction that is flirty but not leading toward sex. Likely you will see some mounting, and it could even at times be her mounting him. I have 3 dogs, a male and 2 females, and I interrupt this behavior within several seconds when it occurs, without making a big deal out of it. Dogs are generally quite tolerant about being mounted briefly, and in a way it's healthy, since it gives the dog a sexual orientation toward opposite-sex dogs rather than toward humans. You would not, of course, want to allow a dog to harass another dog with persistent mounting.

When we first brought home our youngest female, she had been recently spayed, and it was amazing how much she kept mounting our older, neutered male. I don't remember how long this behavior continued, but it wasn't long, and now that it's a couple of years later, I haven't seen her do this toward any animal or person in a very long time. The behavior just faded away.

Many people call mounting in dogs an act of dominance, but it certainly wasn't in that case, nor is it when my male mounts one of my spayed girls. He likes girl dogs, nothing wrong with that! People also report that a recently neutered male will sometimes show a temporary increase in mounting behavior. Though sometimes an increase in mounting behavior indicates an infection or other physical problem in one of the dogs, usually it's not a big deal. Just interrupt it calmly if it doesn't stop in a few seconds, and of course interrupt a dog who starts to do it to a person.

Females learn to tell the male "no," if the female has experience being bred. Some of this is instinctive. She may turn and snarl at him. She might just sit down. Notice if his front legs are locked in front of her hind legs. It's possible for her to be unable to get out of his grasp, and of course you would want to intervene. But remember, don't punish or make a big issue of it. Just calmly interrupt, and get them interested in a new game.

Date Published: 1/29/2003 3:25:00 PM

    

Kathy Diamond Davis is the author of the book Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others. Should the training articles available here or elsewhere not be effective, contact your veterinarian. Veterinarians not specializing in behavior can eliminate medical causes of behavior problems. If no medical cause is found, your veterinarian can refer you to a colleague who specializes in behavior or a local behaviorist.