How Does Dog Neutering and Spaying in Bernalillo Affect Behavior and Personality?

Does spaying or neutering change my dog’s personality?

No one wants to feel that they’re changing their dog’s happy, energetic personality by spaying or neutering them. The reality is that while spaying or neutering your dog may change certain behaviors, your dog’s personality remains essentially the same.

At Coronado Pet Hospital, we provide medical care, including dog neutering and spaying in Bernalillo, to keep your furry loved one healthy and happy. We understand how concerning these types of surgeries can be, and that’s why we want you to know how spays and neuters may affect dog behavior.

What’s the difference between personality and behavior?

Your dog’s personality, also known as their temperament, is based on genetics and socialization. It’s the overall emotional composition of your pet.

Your dog’s behaviors, on the other hand, are actions performed in response to their environment. These actions can be influenced by the dog’s personality.

What causes a dog to choose one behavior over another when presented with a particular set of circumstances is determined by the outcome the dog hopes to achieve.

A dog with a confident, relaxed temperament may choose to greet the stranger at the house because he expects attention, play, or a treat. A dog with a nervous temperament may choose to run the other way because he expects a scary or harmful interaction with the unfamiliar person.

Many factors went into one dog having a confident, relaxed temperament and the other a nervous one. And there may be situations where the usually confident dog is nervous, and the shy dog is perfectly at home. Their lifelong health is undoubtedly one factor, and hormone levels have a place in every dog’s physiology.

How do spaying and neutering procedures affect personality and behavior?

While spaying and neutering your dog may change or eliminate specific behaviors, it is not guaranteed and may or may not change their overall personality.

Spay and neuter surgeries remove the organs that produce hormones. For females, the removal of ovaries reduces the release of estrogen. For males, removing the testicles minimizes the release of testosterone.

By reducing these hormones, the behaviors influenced by these hormones also become affected. In fact, spaying and neutering your dog may help reduce or eliminate a range of negative behaviors.

What kind of behaviors can change when neutering or spaying my dog?

Since hormones can affect and drive specific behaviors, spay and neuter surgeries may impact hormone-related behaviors. Here are common unwanted behaviors that may be affected through these surgeries.

Female Spays

Intact female dogs go into heat cycles twice a year. During these cycles, they want to roam to find a mate. This behavior can cause dogs to leave their home with the potential of getting lost or injured.

Spaying dogs eliminates their heat cycles and can potentially lessen or eliminate their roaming behaviors. Another hormone-related behavior that may be affected is urine marking to attract males.

While spaying can possibly reduce hormone-based behaviors, your dog may still exhibit these behaviors, but they won’t be hormone related at that point.

This means that your dog may still perform the same behaviors in a given situation (taking off when the gate is left open) because she’s learned to expect a particular outcome (freedom!!!), and that outcome is desirable to her.

Male Neuters

Intact male dogs also like to roam to find a mate. Just like intact female dogs, they risk becoming lost or injured. Neutering your dog may lessen or potentially eliminate their roaming behavior.

Though not guaranteed, neutering dogs may also reduce other negative hormone-related behaviors such as mounting other dogs, mounting your leg, or urine marking.

Again, while neutering may help reduce hormone-based behaviors, your dog’s personality, socialization, and environment may still cause him to display undesirable behaviors. The difference will be that the behaviors won’t be hormone derived.

Aggressive behavior toward other dogs may be one of those behaviors affected by neutering. On the one hand, your dog may have learned that fighting is a successful way to access a valued resource, meaning the surgery would make little difference.

Also, diminished hormones may mean that the unspayed female dog at least becomes a less valuable resource, and your dog says, “Meh!” to cute little Princess and moves on with his day.

When Looking for Dog Neutering and Spaying in Bernalillo, Choose Coronado Pet Hospital!

At Coronado Pet Hospital, our veterinarians have decades of experience neutering and spaying Bernalillo’s dogs. Our compassionate doctors ensure every precaution is taken during these procedures.

Contact us today to schedule your Bernalillo dog neutering and spaying procedure!