# Personality changes after neutering????



## zellko (Jul 3, 2013)

Does anyone have experience with this. Before Mickey was neutered he was very quiet. Only alerted if there was a stranger on our property. Now, he barks alot more. He didn't "talk" or whine before now he talks (yeah) and whines (boo). I don't even know where to begin with training for this since it wasn't a problelm. Also, the reason he whines is now he's constantly hungry. Before, I could put his whole day's ration in the bowl and he would eat a bit and it would last all day. He acts like he's starving and it's so pitiful. He hasn't gained weight yet as I haven't given in to feeding him more. Please help!


----------



## Wicked Pixie (Oct 14, 2011)

Neutering deprives a dog of his testosterone, a hormone that has a huge impact on a male dogs behaviour. Testosterone surges occur in a young dog from about 5 months, peaks at around 10 months and then gradually falls back to a normal level by the time a dog is around 18 months old. Neutering causes an artificial sudden drop in testosterone, especially if carried out during this period of the dogs life. While these testosterone surges are often responsible for heightened reactivity, suddenly being deprived of testosterone can make some dogs less confident and therefore more reactive. I wonder if your boy feels more vulnerable without his hormone-induced confidence, his male 'swagger' if you will. If that is the case you need to work on building his confidence, not punishing the unwanted behaviour, as his confidence increases the barking should diminish..
The feeding issue is more easily solved. Spread his food allowance out through the day so he is never totally empty and ravenous. He will adapt to the new feeding regime and hopefully stop whining for food.


----------



## Buildthemskywards (Jun 16, 2012)

I haven't had any experience with this and from the research I did before hand I found that usually it's just a case of them becoming more affectionate. The differences I have found are that Mylo is less aggressive (used to growl at my other half now and then regarding food but doesn't now) and possibly slightly more affectionate (he was very affectionate before any way) but that's about it. He's always been fairly quite and never really whines. I didn't find much of a difference in his eating habits either. As I'm sure you're aware though, you do have to watch the amount you feed as they require less calories afterwards and therefore require less food or they can become overweight (hence the myth of neutering causing weight gain). 

I don't know if your guy is an anomaly or I just have limited experience but I would think that maybe there is something different going on rather than it being related to the neutering. I hope one of the more knowledgable board members can be more helpful.


----------

