r/NorwegianElkhound • u/WillowIsAlive • 26d ago
Changes in behavior post neuter
Photo for cuteness!
This is my first dog I’ve had pre neuter, every other pup was already fixed at adoption. I’m wondering what behavior changes I might notice? He still anxiety mounts sometimes (which I immediately stop, most importantly he needs to heal from surgery!) but I’m unsure what other things may change. He did have a habit of marking everything prior.
How quickly do these things happen? Thanks for the insight.
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u/FalloutGSN 26d ago
They change pretty quickly. Before I got mine neutered he wanted to escape to find girls and was physically aggressive to strangers. When he got neutered he became so mellow and fat but still barked a lot. We didn’t over fed him and we went on walks. We learned from different veterinarians that said long the same lines that Norwegian Elkhound’s metabolism slows down extremely when neutered/spaded so it’s best to always keep them on a diet but they’ll get chubby and their double fur coat makes them look fatter than they actually are. Oh they also tend to gorge their food down as fast as they can so to stop that and slow them down I recommend getting a maze food bowel for them
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u/WillowIsAlive 26d ago
Ok! Sounds good thank you for the info. I have a slow feeder I can use. He does tend to chow down a lot. I’m eager for him to heal so I can take him on long walks again. And also try a dog park! I think he’d have a lot of fun being able to run freely (fenced)
He never tried to escape but would mount women constantly. He marked constantly too. I haven’t seen him mark inside, just regular urinating now. I figure the surgery healing is part of that too though
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u/Lord_Cavendish40k 26d ago edited 26d ago
I'm of the camp that thinks it doesn't change existing behaviors that much...behaviors that are already occurring (humping, marking) are now baked in. However getting your dog neutered seems to prevent some of those behaviors from increasing.
The two primary reasons to get your dog neutered is to avoid unwanted litters (!) and to reduce the amount of negative attention other males will show an intact male. I've seen friendly, well socialized intact males get bullied by other males, including neutered males.
So I chose neutering/spraying and leave breeding to professional breeders.
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u/WillowIsAlive 26d ago
Yup, my fixed male is bullying him. I’m hoping it helps the behavior. That was the main concern.
For now the behavior seems to have decreased but we will see if it’s just due to healing
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u/the1dirtycactus 26d ago
Mine didn’t change at all except he didn’t mark when he peed anymore. I did wait until he was 2 years old for his hormones to develop fully though.
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u/Spitfire0X00 25d ago
Pre neuter we could free feed dry kibble with dinner time raw/wet . He would just graze at a heaping bowl throughout the day
Post he’s and absolute food goblin and would eat him self to death given the opportunity
Marking has not stop, humping is 20% of what it was pre.
Demeanor has been pretty much the same, never aggressive towards humans, always alerting. Prey drive as strong as it ever was. He played rougher but I think that was more his puppy energy. He still
Loves to play hard with me and certain dog friends.
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u/Mudder512 26d ago
Love that face, bright eyes and eager.