Does early neuter help with the problems of owning two males?

[mnemonikos82]

Hi all, my wife and I own a 2 year old male gsd and are looking at getting another shepherd and we found a litter with the perfect parents and great timing to come home. The only potential problem is that they only have makes left unspoken for. Staley, our, current baby is very well socialized and came from a rescue so he was neutered at 10 weeks and I've been training shepherds since I was little.

My question is will getting a male puppy neutered at 10 weeks or so help with the typical male male behavior problems? I understand that allot of it comes down to training and that a female puppy would be ideal, but the timing is really good with this litter.

Thanks for your help!

[mysweetkaos]

My opinion is that it truly depends more on the personality and training of the two males. I know that isn't a lot of help.....but it is impossible to say without information on personality and how well trained and socialized they are.

[GSDBESTK9]

2 males is way better than 2 females! Definitely neuter the new pup but not at 10 weeks!!!

[DJEtzel]

No. You would be looking at a lot more health issues if you got him neutered that young. Take the time to socialize, train, and supervise. That's all there is to it.

[mysweetkaos]

Originally Posted by GSDBESTK9

2 males is way better than 2 females! Definitely neuter the new pup but not at 10 weeks!!!

Forgot to add....I do think you should neuter the new pup, it never hurts. As others stated, not that early though. I know the earliest our vet will even do it is 6 months. It certainly won't hurt....but it will not ensure that they will get along...does that make sense?

[Emoore]

I've never had an issue with two males. My older male is 10 and neutered, my younger is 1 year and is intact. No issues. Males don't tend to have as much same-sex aggression as females, particularly since your older male is neutered already.

[mnemonikos82]

Thank you for the quick responses.

To give a little more information:
Staley will be two years in March (the new puppy would come home a week shy of his 2nd birthday). He is the son of two guard dogs and is full german shepherd. His Mom and siblings were relenquished to a rescue because the mom was too gentle for guard duty and Staley definately has her temperment. He is very playful and extremely goofy, but is a little skittish at loud sounds. I did all of his training myself and he is excellent with his basic commands, but more importantly to me his listening skills. He may not always understand what I want (stay is particularly hard for him), but he's always paying attention to me. He has only had two aggressive instances in his life, one was at the dog park and another dog nipped me and another was with a friends dog who jumped up on me. Both of which were extremely out of character for him and since then at the dog park dogs jump all over me and he never really reacts.

His socialization is very good as well. My sister owns two dogs (a pomeranian (sp?) and a terrier mutt. My parents own a 120lb 4 year old german shepherd rescued from a puppy mill. He gets a long with all of them great and their personalities couldn't be more different between the 4 of them. We go to the dog park on a weekly basis and he never has any issues other than the 1 mentioned above. It was always very important to me to train him how to act around other dogs. He plays great with them, but always obeys me when I give commands no matter what else is going on with the other pups. As a by product of that training he runs around a lot at the park, but comes to me uncalled every 5-10 minutes and just checks on me (I don't know if he wants to make sure i'm still there or that I'm watching him). Fights and other misbehaving can go on around him and if I call, he will still come.

The only behavioral problem I really have with him is that he and the male cat we have (we have two), have a love/hate relationship. The cat will ambush him and thwap him a few times and Staley just looks stunned and later on Staley might chase the cat for a second, but always stops when called. So I, of course have to be very prepared to see that behavior not taught to the new puppy, but frankly I need to train it out of Staley too.

[Liesje]

I have two male GSDs, 3.5 years and 17 months, both intact and no plans to neuter either. Besides a little competitive marking in the yard, I've never had issues with my males, and I have a third male, neutered mutt, 5.5 years. Incidentally, the neutered mutt is the most likely to try to hump other dogs and resource guard. There is an occasional snark or spat but I've never even had a real fight here.

I think the fact that your current GSD is basically mature and hasn't given you any problems and the new dog would be a very young puppy will help a lot. There's no way to say for sure whether they will have disagreements as the younger dog matures but that can happen even with neutered dogs.

[Konotashi]

We had two neutered male Frenchies. They were both neutered at six months, they were littermates.
Out of the blue one day, they started fighting viciously. We couldn't pet them, play with them, or do anything without them attacking one another, so we found a home for one of them.

Neutering will never ensure that two males will get along.

[N Smith]

Originally Posted by Konotashi

We had two neutered male Frenchies. They were both neutered at six months, they were littermates.
Out of the blue one day, they started fighting viciously. We couldn't pet them, play with them, or do anything without them attacking one another, so we found a home for one of them.

Neutering will never ensure that two males will get along.

While I agree that neutering is never a guarantee, this is a different situation.

Raising two littermates is never recommended because they 1)rarely get the individual attention they need, 2)grow up together so they reach the hard developmental periods together, so often fights ensue, and 3) littermates (especially bully breeds) just don't get along often. Even if they were seperated early on, from the litters I have seen, they can still remain aggressive to only their siblings, when brought back together as young dogs.

I wonder if there are any studies done?