I've posted before about the little man, he's nippy, jumpy and very energetic. Exhausting actually!

I had him neutered a week ago and since he just seems to have gone crazy. If we let him outside he barks and barks, digs, whines to come in, throws himself at the door...so we let him in, he goes crazy...knocks over tables, nips at my 7 year old, chases the cats...is ripping everything apart...i'm telling him "no" every five minutes. Dont get me wrong, he did all this before but he seems ten times worse since his operation, he just doesn't stop now.

Is this normal? I was under the impression it calmed them down? (He's 8 months by the way, terrier mix).

neutering can calm dogs down but certainly not in a week! it can take months before the hormones leave the body.
He shouldn't be allowed to run about like that after an op. If you can't control it then he should be crated to prevent injury.
Have you tried to mentally control his excitement with some fun training? He sounds like a normal puppy with lots of pent up energy to me and is displaying this behaviour because he doesn't have anywhere else to direct the energy.

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This is completely normal for a young dog, it's just lacking in social skills and training I'm afraid. That's not to say you don't do any with him, just that people often under estimate how hard work individual characters can be.

Neutering is not guaranteed to calm down behaviour, not even sexually related behaviour. It can help, but often it can also exacerbate a problem as well.

He may well mature into a more laid back character, but realistically, you can only judge that by looking at his parents, and their parents, that gives you an *idea* of the sort of characters he's from, and what he could turn out to be like.

As sleeping lion said, he seems to be lacking in doggy manners and a bit of training.

What training have you done with him? Do you do any formal/informal training with him?

i.e. He has to sit and wait for you to open the door before he's allowed to greet people, he has to sit at the curb before crossing the road, has to give paw or something before having his dinner etc ?

I'll tell you what our routine is during the day, dogs (like children) like routine, it makes them feel safe and secure.

7:00am, wake up and breakfast 7:15 - 7:30 outside. From 7:30 - 8:00 they are locked in the kitchen, whilst the kids have breakfast in the front room then they're allowed in

8:45 - 9:30 they are on their own while I do the school run, then they have free roam of the house.

12:00 they are locked in the kitchen again for an hour while my daughter has lunch then they have free roam of the house

2:30 - 3:30 Pup is on his own while I take Duke on the school run

4:00: Dinner then 4:15 - 4:30 outside, then free roam of the house for an hour until our dinner time at 5:30 then are locked in the kitchen

6:30 - 7:30 Take both of them out, we carry pup as he's not had his vaccines and take them both to the park opposite where we meet alot of other dogs and they can run offlead there.

Again, when they get back they have an hour in the kitchen to calm down and be by themselves, all evening they have free roam of the house.

Things I always get them to do:

Sit before crossing the street, sit and wait for their dinner until I say "okay", sit and wait whilst I open back and front door to let them go out, I'm sure there are other things but I can't remember

Oh sit still whilst putting on a lead before going on a walk, and once a day for Duke I do like a formal training, sit, stay, wait, down, beg, close, etc for 5 minutes. For the pup we're just doing recall, 4 times a day lasting for about 5 minutes each depending on his concentration.

Have you tried doing a recall game with him? Giving him a kong stuffed with peanut butter, or those treat balls where you can put his dinner in and he has to move it to make the biscuits come out

I have a jrt x who is 5 months and I find the longer he's been walked the calmer he is in the house. I find that walking through our town with him takes more of his energy than a walk somewhere secluded. So I like to mix up our days of a walk in town in the am, home then play and training throughout the day then a walk around a field or quiet village. If my kids are too tired for a walk and my husband is away we do training in the garden and ball throwing which really tires him out!

It will take longer than a week to calm down, my golden was neutered at 10 months old and he was easily 18 months old before I saw any change.

I have to say I don't like routine for dogs. I find it makes them clingy and expectant of what is happening and I like my dogs to cope with change and different goings on every day. Puppies are different but at 8 months old he's kind of moving out of that phase. I hate beggy dogs at tea time and walk time. Mine just accept whatever happens will happen at whatever time. This is just my dogs though I feel Rupert would be very dependent on people should he have a regular routine and that get broken, I like having an independent dog who doesn't worry if something changes.

Re training/stimulation, I'd pick something easy to start with that you know he is capable of and work from there. Ie. can he do a sit stay? If so get him to do that and build on it.

Anything like that is mentally tiring for them and it sounds like he could do with a bit of mental stimulation. Get him to do little sequences and leadwork outside with you rewarding when he gets it right. If he is very food oriented I'm sure he'll be just desperate to get things right first time which makes it a lot easier

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i had a similar experience only jake was a very well behaved dog before being neutered, people were always commenting on how good he was - even the trainers at classes. about 2 days after being neutered he was a dog i didn`t recognise and i was tearing my hair out thinking the vet had sent me home with a different dog it was like a sudden last ditch release of hormones and he just HAD to go nuts and get it out of his system but 2 months on and he`s returning to the same calm and loving dog he was before he was neutered - he`ll still have the few odd loopy moments but nowhere near as bad as he was when it was first done. i`ve actually found he`s become a lot more clingy to me also since he`s calmed down. as the others have said it can take a while for the hormones to settle after having it done, i swear if someone had told me it can send them nuts for a while i`d have thought twice at the time you did say your pup already had a few issues so it might be you need to also address those before you notice a real difference also? i`m not sure, i didn`t neuter to calm my boy down as he was already so laid back he was horizontal i was kinda told if i didn`t have him fixed i couldn`t adopt syd (then again they let me take syd home the week before jake was neutered and have never contacted me since so in effect i actually could have)

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owned by:

jake - chocolate labrador
sydney - liver/white english springer
twix - dlh cat
lacey - dsh cat

never forgetting my baby banjo running free at the bridge, RIP baby xx

This is all completely normal terrier behaviour. Terriers are as mad as puppies even when they're 15 years old. There's never a dull moment though and they are comedy genius You can help to control his behaviour with reward based obedience training, brain games and tons of exercise then he should be more manageable.

Can we have photos of the little imp please

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I suspect the naughty behaviour is a direct result of him not getting his usual exercise since the operation.

From reading your routine, it looks like the dogs don't have a walk in the mornings, just in the evening? I have a 10 month old entire bitch GR puppy here at the moment and she would go up the wall if she couldn't have her walk in the morning. Just for mental stimulation alone, I think they need a walk in the morning, as they wake up full of beans.

I'm not sure that neutering really calms dogs down really. Well, it doesn't change their personality anyway... I really do think vets have something to answer for when advising owners, the earlier they get rid of their reproductive parts the better!

I think if you make sure he gets a good walk inthe morning as well as at night, this should help him to calm down a little. Also, go back to square one with his training, as he's entering the "teenage" phase and most things seem to go flying out of the window at this time

I'm sure things will get easier, good luck!