Prick-Eared

Last week, on Tuesday, while walking home from the dog park, I came across a black lab. At first I thought the owner was nearby since it was hanging around someone’s front yard, however as it retreated from Riley when we approached, it became obvious the Labrador escaped from a yard.

Turned out the dog’s name was Cooper, called the numbers on the tag, left a voice mail, slipped a spare leash on Cooper and proceeded home. Despite the fact he probably weighs 70-pounds, he is actually quite intelligent, since most labs I meet are dumb as bricks, not hard-headed and more obedient than I expected. I was prepared to babysit him for the entire day, then hand him over to the SPCA the day after in case if the owners were busy at work or were out of town.

The event is significant in that: I have been debating about fixing Riley for awhile for multitude of reasons ranging from roaming dogs to aggression issues. Whither or not I should get him neutered was heavy on my mind, especially since it became glaringly obvious neutered and spayed dogs and bitches are usually the aggressors at dog parks while the intact ones were laid back. The dynamics didn’t make much sense to me until Chris at Border Wars linked to a study in a chatroom. You can download the PDF here. Yes, that right, intact canines are less likely to be excited, aggressive and fearful compared to their neutered counterparts.

So why does the matter weighs heavily on my mind? Well, where I was from, free-roaming dogs were common and occasionally a few “oops” litters pop up. Of course, if an accidental litter occurred, the right thing to do was fork up for half of the care. That was why we had Tod fixed since bitches were trying to hail him while he was tethered, and we didn’t want to oblige by the “good neighbour” ethics because their females were stupid enough to wander within the radius to get tied. So I thought about that a lot.

However since moving to Vancouver, I never saw stray dogs, and usually any loose dogs were lost or slipped loose with owners close behind in toll. This is a sharp contrast compared to living up in the Peace country. Even compared to Victoria, where most of the “stray dogs” actually belong to the homeless and peddlers and are fixed, there are not very many wandering dogs in the metro. Honestly, what are the chances of an intact dog finding a bitch in heat in middle of Vancouver? “Oops” litters didn’t even happen that often in northern Alberta either.

Aggression issues? Dogs are normally really good at sorting themselves out. They bickers like people do. Besides, dog killers are glaringly obvious in their behaviours in their inability to concede to submissive behaviours and the fact they beeline for the vertebrate or lower intestines.  These types are far and few, and unfortunately, the dog culture established made that any scruff could be reported as “dangerous.” To someone who grew up in the backwaters, this was an abnormal way of sorting out social tension between dogs. Unfortunately people are justified in their beliefs, considering how many strains of dogs lack the receptive ability to read body languages.

It seems to me, the benefits of keeping a dog intact, at least up to eighteen months, outweighs fixing a dog from the studies coming out over the last few years. Even if there is no benefits to reap, the laws made it clear that a dog cannot wander, and the owners are responsible for any ill-manners. On top of that, Riley’s breeder issued a non-breeding contract, written up by the CKC, outlining what I can and cannot do with him. So obviously, the irresponsibles will find themselves in a lot of hot water. So there are regulations and guidelines in place shifting the burden upon the owners.

So will Riley be fixed? Not before age of two. Afterward? That is uncertain. It really comes down to whither or not a second dog is in the future, and if I want to risk an achondroplastic dwarf flirting.