Yeah castration did make it worse, he wasnt scared so much because he would keep on at the dogs when he got up to them, and try and bite them.
I was young and naive and the vet swayed me

The vet should've known better, Gems, if he/she was aware of Scrumpy's aggression. Nervous aggression doesn't necessarily mean the dog backs off or hides, it can manifest as a sort of "attack as defense", if that makes sense.

Becs

yeah becs i agree, unfortunatly this vet obviously was seeing money rather than scrumps interests!
Ive worked on scrumps for 6 years and he is now quite good with other dogs on lead

My tuppenceworth.

I do not believe in routine castration in male dogs. I cannot see any health benefit at all. In an occasional case of testicular tumours in OLD dogs, then yes, but in my opinion there are far more negative aspects as there are positive. Male dogs often become "girly" smelling and are targets for entire males. They often gain weight if owners are not careful, coats change etc...

So, I feel unless your dog is bonking everything or weeing all over your house, castration will not help, so why put a healthy dog through an unessesary aneasthetic for no real benefit for the dog.
Dawn.

We got Dibley castrated after much debate. What persuaded us was an incident when he was around 19 months: another owner had her bitch out mid season, Dibley had been playing with my wife and I on the field however he saw this bitch and bolted. He crossed a very dangerous road and a car only just missed him. My last dog died of testicular cancer so because of these two things alone we decided to go ahead with the op.

For what it's worth Dibley, or any of the other dogs i've owned who have been castrated have never put on weight, their coat has stayed shiny, and we had none of the mentioned problems with other male dogs.

My vet wouldnt castrate Abe until he was 12 months old.They said he needed to fully develop before castration was carried out and mental maturity only comes with age.

Vegas was done at 12 months also,but by the re-homing shelter.

Very similar to what convinced me to have Satchmo castrated (at 13 months). In addition to the discomfort they must experience when not allowed to follow the course of nature, and in addition to the health benefits, I knew I could never stop him bolting. Everyone has to make their own choice for their own dog, and each dog's different, but I knew if Satch wanted to I couldn't stop him from bolting if instinct took over.

Becs

I only really had Benji done because a lady who walks her dogs where I do said her friend had Bichons and said that they are prone to hormone problems and that castration might help his skin problems so I was desperate to help him and had him done although I can't say I have noticed his problems getting any better

Cant see why it would help skin problems Foxy? You did what you thought was best for Benji, and he's just wonderful!
Dawn,

I had Harvey done at 7 mths, mainly because he was humping every dog and human he met Pleased to say that after about 8 wks this stopped but that was the only noticable difference, no change in his mad personality! Had no problems after op, he licked the stitches for a couple of days then left them alone, after 10 days had the stitches removed and was completely healed.