Hey, All-
Thanks for all of your responses! I grew up with larger breed dogs (males); a Husky-Shepherd, Magnum, and an Airedale- Sheepdog (? Wheaten Terrier Mutt ?), Ziggy, and my family had them both neutered. This definitely calmed both of them down, and that worked well in CT. and Upstate NY.
Here's the thing about my little Cockapoo, Black Beard, and my situation: We live in Northern Israel, in a little town where not so many people have gentle, "pet" dogs. Some have dogs that they take care of well, but who are mostly used for the purpose of guarding their humans' properties/ families, and some have dogs they take care of, but they let loose all the time, and so they are mostly "street" dogs. Most of these dogs (that we've met here) are pretty cool, or at least, let us know if they want us to "stay away" (i.e.- "Grrrrrrr").
I talked about possibly neutering Black Beard to make him more chill, with my friend Yitzchak (who is a true-blooded American from Seattle, and who has had and raised many really great, initially abandoned, dogs in his day), and he told me I'd be doing a BIG disservice to Black Beard to neuter him, especially here, because BB would be seen more by other male dogs as weak "prey," etc. It's true that I have yet to see a neutered male dog here.
Another BIG consideration (but this could go either way>?? Any dog behaviorist specialists out there-- Help?) was that last week, when I was walking Black Beard, we came across another male (larger, sort of stocky) dog. I didn't think too much about it, because BB loves to meet and play with other dogs, and if the other one feels threatened and growls, I pull BB away, and we move on. Most of the time, the two dogs either sniff each other and that's it, or they prance and play and have a jolly old time... This time was different.
I had Black Beard on a long, "Flexi" leash, and this STOCKY, Salt-and-Pepper Alpha-Male attacked him. And I mean, ATTACKED my Black Beard. It was horrible and super-scary! BB was screaming, obviously willing to submit, but this dog wouldn't stop, and was, it seemed, in it for blood. I probably did the wrong thing, trying to pull BB by the leash away from this dog. For a good 30 seconds, they wouldn't disengage. I read later, online, that in this situation, the best thing to do is drop the leash, and let it play out, so I think I made a mistake. But with the Flexi leash, it's just not the same, anyway (it's cumbersome and tangly). Anyway, I pulled again, and finally, BB came away from the dog, and I scooped him up (and finally, the dumb idiots who came out to see what the noise was, chased this asshole, malignant dog away). We (BB and I) were both shaking, and I felt around on him to see if he was injured. He was wet, and I was afraid he was bleeding, but, thankfully, it was only his pee (he'd peed himself). Later on, at home, I was scratching his hindquarters and he yelped when I scratched his left hindquarter. So, this melee had, indeed, yielded a couple bruises on my little guy, after all.
About an hour later, Black Beard had to go out, so we went down the block to sit at the local outdoor caffe, with some friends. I was just telling the story of the recent attack to some friends, when, all of a sudden, I looked down and THERE WAS THE NASTY SALT-AND-PEPPER ATTACK DOG!!! I started to yell something to my guy-friend, that THIS was the dog that had attacked BB, but before I could even get it out, the bastard alpha started on BB again! With everyone RIGHT THERE! Thankfully, this time, there were around four strong guy-friends there, and they IMMEDIATELY started attacking the attack dog. As he was running away, my buddy (who owns the caffe) threw a metal chair at him. Unfortunately, it didn't hit him. But the point is, this dog had NO FEAR of people, and DIRECTLY WENT FOR my BLACK BEARD, who had NEVER instigated anything.
So, with all this in mind, would I be doing BB an injustice by neutering him (so he couldn't even begin to defend himself)? Or, would it actually BE BETTER to neuter him (so the other alpha-males wouldn't even bother him)?
I AM going to posit this question to Cesar Millan, BTW!
Cheers, Folks!
>Arielle