Five myths commonly associated with neutering in dogs

Abstract

There are some commonly held beliefs that do not accurately reflect the current understanding of how sex hormones affect health and behaviour in dogs. This article identifies five of these myths and indicates that: neutering is very unlikely to make dogs calmer; castration will not improve all problem behaviours in male dogs; pseudopregnancies can occur in spayed as well as entire bitches; delmadi-none (Tardak) is not a reliable indicator of the behavioural effects of castration; neutering can have negative as well as positive effects on the incidence of health problems in dogs.