No evidence for detrimental effect of chemical castration on working ability in Swiss military dogs

Gfrerer, Nastassja; Taborsky, Michael; Würbel, Hanno (2019). No evidence for detrimental effect of chemical castration on working ability in Swiss military dogs. Applied animal behaviour science, 211, pp. 84-87. Elsevier 10.1016/j.applanim.2018.10.019

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Hormones influence the social behaviour of dogs. Castration of male dogs induces a reduction of testosterone and has been shown to affect social behaviours associated with aggression and reproduction. Changes in social
behaviour could be critical in working dogs, which should be well trainable and behave reliably. It is currently unknown whether and how castration may affect the working ability of dogs. Besides surgical castration, chemical castration using a hormonal implant offers a possibility to castrate dogs temporarily. In the present study, we chemically castrated male Swiss military dogs and assessed their working abilities in comparison to intact males in a standard behavioural test series for Swiss military dogs (obedience, protection of the handler against an attacker, search of a hidden person in a building, reaction to social environment during a city walk). Chemical castration in Swiss military dogs had no measurable effect on any of the test situations in comparison to intact males.

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