Keep in mind we are PEOPLE and dogs are DOGS - different!
To illustrate this, watch a mom dog disciplining her puppies. Or one dog saying “no” to another dog. They DON’T use newspapers and they don’t yell! Rather they give a short low growl to say no. Or quick nip on the ear. Or will quickly snap and growl at the other dog. Then that is it!
Think about it. Notice the other dog instantly obeys.
Another thing is who is boss dog. You should be the “alpha” dog - learn how to do that. It is a matter of respect for you vs disrespect. Dogs have their own pecking order and “rules of doggie etiquette” - if you will. Learn about that and your dog will recognize you as the Alpha leader and do as you wish! (While periodically testing you to see what it can get away with.)
Six months was the gold standard forever; it’s only fairly recently that they dropped the age limit and tied it more to weight, which allows for a younger spay/neuter (which yes, is best for the animal).
Six months was the gold standard because at one time general anesthesia involved things like ether. Anesthetic deaths were not uncommon. By waiting until body mass “peaked”, anesthesia was hopefully less dangerous.
The last dog I had spayed at 12 weeks of age was running around playing and eating two hours post-op.
Early neutering affects socialization in dogs according to one vet. I believe she was talking about social interactions between dogs. I can’t add anything to that, maybe it’s something others have heard of, or maybe it’s nonsense.
People and dogs are indeed different, which is precisely why these types of dog training strategies can backfire badly.
Your dog also understands that you are not a dog and does not necessarily interact with you as he/she would another dog. Since a dog’s range of expressions and behaviors is somewhat limited (compared to humans), the dog will recycle behaviors when interacting with you. But that doesn’t mean you can take dog-dog communication and automatically apply it to dog-human contexts.
Dogs have much better reflexes and shorter reaction times. General rule-of-thumb is that a reward or punishment must occur within one second of the behavior for dog training to be effective.
Dog social hierarchies are much more complex than the simplistic strict hierarchies that are commonly put forth. And again, your dog understands that you are not a dog.
Dogs don’t generalize well overall, so they require consistency and repetition. However, they DO generalize danger and fear-responses rather quickly.
Punishments can work so long as you utilize proper dog-human communication skills and communicate clearly in terms that the dog understands. In addition, the timing of your punishment delivery needs to be solid. If there are any doubts about your dog training abilities, you are much better off using a training system more heavily slanted towards rewards than punishments. If you mess up the rewards training, you wind up with a spoiled dog, which is frustrating and annoying. If you mess up the punishments, you wind up with a fearful dog, which is dangerous.
The dominance theories used to interpret dog behaviour have been debunked. The late Dr Sophia Yin has a great article with video links here. I’d encourage Me_Billy and HoneyBadgerDC to read it before advocating such damaging practices.
And just FYI, I’m two weeks away from becoming a certified dog training professional.
That’s kind of interesting, though I went through it quickly, may have missed some detail. I didn’t notice any significant negative effects of early neutering. Less aggression in dogs is often a positive. OTOH I didn’t notice any great positive effects either save for ensuring dogs and cats are neutered before being placed with people who may not follow through on their promise to have them spayed or neutered. But it doesn’t take much to end up with more dogs and cats in the world when people wait just a little too long.
Some states ( Pennsylvania is one) require a shelter to only adopt out spayed/neutered animals, or else they have to put money into an escrow account. Managing that account can be too costly/too much trouble for an organization with a shoestring budget.
Early spay/neuter has made it possible for some shelters to keep running. Also, since the animal weighs less, it uses less anesthetic. Along with that, the surgical time is reduced. $$$$ saving is a huge plus.
Thanks, but my system has worked for many years and I’m not going to fix something which works.
Also I have a lot of fun with the “who is boss dog” thing! One of my dogs will periodically climb up on my pillow above my head (I’m boss!) and I will let him play boss for a bit. Then make a big deal of explaining that it is MY pillow and his pillow is over there! Then moving him so I can have my pillow back.
I’m not advising you to change how you interact with your dogs, just to read the linked article and think about it, before you make recommendations to others.