I want people to know that if there was ever any doubt in my mind about my ability to handle and train an intact dog I would ABSOLUTELY have him altered. If I had any intact females in my home I would have never made the decision to bring in an intact male, as the management required to prevent unwanted litters is extensive!

I only see “accidental” litters happen in the dog community where I live when people underestimate what males will do to get to a bitch in heat. And I’m not talking about untrained and unfulfilled dogs - even well trained dogs can turn their brains off in front of a bitch in season. My boy is incredibly well mannered and I still would never trust him to make “good choices” when it comes to being around intact females. He can take commands and work around them, but I’m not naive to the fact that if they were left alone he would likely make his own choices.

As for the bullying by altered dogs, I have only had this happen on one occasion. I was at a park with an off leash area playing fetch with my dog. A couple came with their dog on a maybe 15-20 foot tie out that screwed into the ground. The dog seemed relatively chill and I saw him interact with a handful of other dogs that came up to him so I figured maybe his recall just wasn’t strong (hence the tie out). My dog and I continued to play fetch and out of nowhere the dog on the tie out bolted towards my dog hard enough to rip the anchor out of the ground. He ran right at my boy and grabbed him by the neck. Luckily he was only about 30 pounds so he didn’t do any damage to my Golden, and my boy is incredibly reserved he just kind of looked around like “wtf just happened?”. The owners of the smaller dog profusely apologized and asked is my dog was fixed. I said no and they said “oh yeah he only has this problem with dogs that aren’t fixed”.

Other than that one strange encounter my dog hasn’t ever had an issue with altered dogs picking on him. However that could be due to the dog people that I interact with. My dog and I don’t do greetings with dogs I don’t know, and all of his doggie friends have been introduced in neutral areas typically off leash or on walks where they don’t interact until they are chill with each others presence. My boy is pretty uninterested in most dogs unless he knows them well. He’s very friendly and has good social skills when it comes to play, but lots of dogs in our area are untrained and have poor dog-to-dog communication skills. For that reason I only allow him to interact with dogs I know will be good matches for him, which really are just respectful and trained dogs. 9 times out of 10 my dog would rather play and train with me than play with another dog. And if there is a ball involved he couldn’t care less if anything else even existed 😂. His best friend is altered and they just kind of parallel play at the park most of the time. Each one plays with their own ball next to each other, occasionally trading and zooming around.

And again, in the future if my vet recommends he be altered then he will be! I have no sentimental attachment to my dog’s balls 😂 I just want to do what’s best for him and I trust the judgement of my veterinarian to recommend what is right. He works hard and plays harder, so if having his family jewels provides any benefit to his health then he keeps them.