To cut or not to cut???

[Rcher]

I have a 2 year old Kemmer that I use for bobcats and lions, in the summer I will chase coons just to keep him in shape. The dog is outstanding and I could not be happier with the way he hunts, hes not perfect, but gettin close.

When I got him from a well known breeder he suggested that if I wasnt going to breed him to have him cut because of all the BS you have to put up with with an uncut dog. He told me to do it before the dog turned 5 months or it would not help. Long story short I didnt have him cut. Now I have decided I am not going to breed him but will cutting him at this age put an end to all the pissing and starting fights and all that other BS??

[FullCryHounds]

Sounds like there might be other problems if he is starting fights. No hound should be fighting under any conditions. I keep all my dogs, all males, all together all the time. I started this 11 years ago and it is the best thing I've ever done with my dogs. They grow up together, eat, sleep and play together all day long. Some are cut and some aren't. I've never had a single fight in 11 years in the run or out hunting. I would be willing to bet you run both females and males together and also keep them seperate in single kennels or on chains. I don't know enough about canine psychology on why keeping dogs seperate makes many of them aggressive towards other dogs but this problem seems to be common enough that something is going on with a lot of dogs that are kept this way. I kept my dogs in kennels for years before I changed 11 years ago and also had all the problems assiciated wtih it. I would definately have your dog cut so he doesn't pass on this behavior. Also think about changing how you kennel your dogs as I would be willing to bet his aggession towards other dogs would stop.

[Ike]

I know a guy here locally that kept both his males and females in the same kennel, fed them together and the whole deal. Somewhere he picked up a yearling male plott dog and fed them together with shock collars and watched them close for a short spell, then had a dog fight while he was gone to work. Two or three of his males about stretched the plott dog but he did manage to save and pull it out of the kennel.

After that plott was healed up he tried the deal again and same deal went down, and he had to put down the newcomer on the second encounter. That all together deal might work with males only, if they are all raised together, but with the males and females together I'd say those dogs were reverting back to wolf type behavior like their ancestors and would warn against it.........

ike

[Rcher]

I actually have two curs a male and a female.They run free around the yard, I have the in ground fence system, and they sleep in the house with us.

The male only fights when another dog shows aggression towards myself, my wife, or my son, to tell you the truth that part doesnt bother me from what I have read curs form a very tight bond with their "family" and this is common and I knew it going in. He has never started a fight while hunting or outside of our yard.

Honestly my biggest concern right now is that he pisses on EVERYTHING!!! if you leave something in the yard for 10 seconds he finds it and hoses it down. It doesnt effect his hunting when we are in the field he just hunts and its not a problem.

I am not going to breed him on my own, I know enough about it to know I dont know enough to breed dogs.But he is a great hunting dog from great blood and if someone who knew more about it than me wanted to use him in their breeding program I would love to get a puppy out of him some day. But if if cutting him would get him to stop pissing on everything without effecting his hunting then show me where the line starts.

So I guess my question is this. If I cut a 2 year old dog will it 1. effect his hunting and 2. will he stop marking everything or is this a learned behavior?

[Mike Leonard]

It sure cuts down on the pissing and scratching and that crap, and it won't hurt their hunting ability one bit that comes from a different driver.

It won't fix a fighting dog but if the fighting is male competition driven it will sure cut down on it.

Now here is a problem I have seen with some dogs that are cut very young before their adult hormones kick in. For some dang reason they give off a sweet smell and many males especially a new one will just hum them and torment them. I mean they won't give up at times it is very frustrating. I haven't noticed this happening as much if you wait till they are a year or better in age before you cut them


If I didn't want to keep this line going and raise a pup now and then I would cut and fix every dog on my place. It makes life easier and you can just forget it and load up and go hunting.

Spayed females are the ticket if you want a no nonsense hunting dog. No pissing around or nothing just go look for a track.

[Coyote]

Every male I have ever cut, it didn't seem to matter. They still wanted to piss on everything. The only help I found was a little electricity and even then it didn't completely cure it.

[tomzr2]

My grandfather had a dog that was aggressive on the tree. Had him cut, he was never ill again. Calm and quiet. He was around 4 when he was cut. The dogs son was also aggressive on the tree. Had him cut at 4, DID NOT help. He still stratched, pissed, and fuzzed up like a rooster. Guess it depends on the dog. But I believe it is an inheritied gene, one that I cull on. A dogfight at the tree isn't a pretty sight.