Does neutering always ruin the coat

[pip1965]

Otto is nearly two now and I know that the responsible thing to do would be to have him castrated ,however he has the most beautiful coat,really shiney and i feel ridiculously heartbroken at the thought of it being spoiled .I also feel quite nervous of putting him through an op when its not essential,especially as i recently heard of a springer that died on the table ,and you also read of the recovery problems on here .I know I am being a wimp about this but I really hate the idea of him suffering,to be honest I suspect he would be a bit of a drama queen about it 

My other half is not keen anyway,he just doesn't see the need,so far he has never really shown any interest in the opposite sex,we have no dominance problems and he is generally well behaved (well for a cocker )so why would we neuter him?Are the health advantages very strong?

[Black Red + Yellow]

No real experience personally but a friend had their Springer spayed and her coat is really fluffy now, not at all silky now - she was also spayed early ie....at 6 months before a season so whether that had a bearing also I am not sure.

I do agree that as Otto manages his urges well  and has no issues (not that neutering is a fix anyway ) neutering is not necessarily essential for your circumstances.....mostly it is a personal choice.....as long he is happy to have his tackle examined too

[Ninasmum]

Otto sounds like a fab dog    Personally i would think along the lines of 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' 
Alfie was neutered only because we also have girls & sadly it did change his coat, which previously was beautiful    It changed from silky to woolly over the following 6  months or so. 

[Pudding]

Bob has been neutered and his coat is fab... he is a solid Black show type, with a very heavy coat.
i do use Yumega plus oil which help keep his coat silky and glossy
if you are not going to breed from him why dose he need them.....
 Neutering dogs
reduce the risk of reproductive cancer such as testicular cancer.
A neutered dog is less attractive to pet thieves

[black taz]

Taz is neutered as well (at 7 months) 

The majority of his coat is still very silky although his front legs are quite fluffy, but to be honest his coat was the same before he was done, so i have not really noticed a much difference.

[elaine.e]

William was castrated on veterinary advice at 15 months because he only had one testicle descended. His coat stayed silky for a few months but then became woolly, matted very easily and was impossible to hand strip. He's nearly 7 now and I persevered with thinning scissors until about a year ago. He's now partly clipped and looks like this

(he has chest feathering too but the wind has blown it under his tum in this photo) which I think is fairly OK and is easy to manage.

If William had both testicles in the right place  I would have left him entire. He's never been interested in bitches or shown any strong male tendencies at all. My other Cocker, 20 month old Louis, is entire and I don't have plans to have him castrated. He's reactive with other dogs when he's on lead following being attacked by a big dog when he was 11 months old but I don't see that castration will help with that particular problem.

I agree that castration reduces the risk of testicular cancer and may make your boy less attractive to thieves, but overall I prefer to leave my dogs entire unless there's a medical or behavioural reason for castration.

[bracken]

2 of my girls and spayed and sadly both have lost their silky smooth coats they are now both clipped as the coats are dense and easily managed this way. It took around 6 to 12 months to change completely

[Hurtwood Dogs]

My first cockers coat blew terribly after he was castrated at about a year old but Dave was done nearly 2 years ago (aged 2) and hasn't been affected quite so badly (he had the same issue as William which is why I eventually had him done). He did have a pretty heavy coat anyway though and because of where we walk every day, I've given up and have him clipped out now anyway...

It doesn't sound like there is an overwhelming reason to have your boy done (castrating can actually cause behavioural problems and is definitely not always a fix for existing behavioural problems) you sound like a very responsible owner and probably if it was me, I'd leave him as nature intended and just keep an eye on his bits for any unusual changes that might need checking by the vet

[Mittens]

Hi - I posted exactly the same thread as this about a year ago - sorry can't for the life of me find the link - we had the same dilemma with Eddie (great temperament, no urges, lovely coat etc) and got advice from both sides of the coin from all sorts of people - our boy had one undescended testicle though, so to cut a long story short, when he developed a sudden and large cyst on his (other) tail   at i guess around 12 months the vet said if he didn't operate it would get too large to remove without him having to be docked, so he had to have an anaesthetic anyway.. HOWEVER the vet only removed the undescended testicle, as he said he thought we were responsible owners and he was not of the view that testicular cancer was a major risk...... as one COLer put it to me, if you went around removing everything that might get cancerous later down the line there would be nothing left inside!  

Sorry, that probably doesn't help, but we opted to keep ours as intact as we could as far as nature would let us!

[*Jay*]

My little bitch was the only one of my dogs whose coat didn't get wooly after neutering - she did have a very very fine coat though and spaying her actually improved it and she grew feathering 

[Gwynnie]

We had our previous male Cocker neutered and regret it. He had shown no particular interest in females and was not aggressive with other dogs, slightly anxious sometimes though.
The result of being neutered was:
A) a changed coat. Our groomer said it would change and she was right. Obviously not all dogs may necessarily have the same amt of change
b) a change in behaviour. The loss of testorone decreased his confidence so he became more anxious with some dogs we met. We had not realised that the testorone was boosting his confidence because he was slightly anxious to begin with.
C) we had post op complications which resulted in him being re operated on 11 days later. We now believe that complications may have arisen due to an underlying health issue that was not diagnosed at the time and which later resulted in him having to be PTS last year.

Obviously the above are what happened to us. Please do not think that I am saying they will happen to you. I just think it is useful to know how other dogs are affected by things before a decision about something like this is made. You did mention in your post that you are aware of coat/operation risks
Unless you have to neuter for health issue then I feel it is an individual decision. There are pros and cons to consider. Not only is there vast amt of information from experienced COL's but there is loads of information on the internet.
We will not be considering neutering unless there are medical/behaviour issues and before neutering we would look at alternatives ie injection and behaviourist. Mind you when he is cocking his leg everywhere in the house I may think differently
Hope you reach a decision you are comfortable with and sorry for the length of post

[karen488]

We have a new pup and have started to think about this too. There has already been alot of pressure to have her neutered from every book I've read and puppy classes. I feel like she would almost def. Get cancer if I didn't have her spayed pre 6 months. Reading a more balanced opinion here think I will take more time to decide. If it isn't broken...

[Nicola]

We have a new pup and have started to think about this too. There has already been alot of pressure to have her neutered from every book I've read and puppy classes. I feel like she would almost def. Get cancer if I didn't have her spayed pre 6 months. Reading a more balanced opinion here think I will take more time to decide. If it isn't broken...

I do think it is slightly different for bitches than for dogs. There are some more compelling health reasons to spay a bitch than to castrate a dog plus the hassle factor of seasons to take into account although again it's entirely individual choice.

My male Cocker is entire and will stay that way but I have had a Cocker neutered in the past for health reasons. It didn't affect his personality at all, he's a light blue roan working Cocker and his black bits went a bit fluffy afterwards but I couldn't really compare it to a show Cocker with much more coat.

[Top Barks]

I have three working cockers all neutered and while there may have been some change and i'd have to say their coats are fine and not wooly like my old show boy's went.
Then i made the mistake of letting someone put clippers on him.

[pip1965]

Thanks for all the replies,it's very interesting to hear all the views .What brought it up today was a conversation with a local doggy daycare unit who are highly recommended but who don't usually take entire males.Luckily we do not need day care at the moment but it set me thinking ,for example if we did have to use kennels or a dog walker are we making life more difficult for both us and him by leaving him entire