Over a few weeks, his testosterone level will drop. He will lose interest in sex. He will continue to pee on trees and bushes. That's social, not sexual.

Technically, females are spayed, males are neutered(the action is called castration).

All the necessary chemicals to cause a male to act like a male are now gone. Any remaining male traits are either normal male traits(lifting the leg) or caused by environmental/training situations(leg humping).

Temperment may or may not change. That is not necessarily a gender thing.

His interest in Lily will be modified some. Smell is the driving force in dog society. They will still smell in greeting. He will no longer be excited by females in season, after the testosterone disappears.

My friends chihuahua mix stills smells his packmates genital area..they are not concerned aout it. Humping is a dominate driven behavior and should always be corrected. Marking can also be dominant driven...

I want to add that depending on his age he might not lose all interest in sex. Every now and then (Rusty was neutered at 3 yrs old), Rusty gets the urge to mate with Ginger and attempts to mount her. He has also "tied" before with a female in heat at the shelter (which shocked me - I did NOT know neutered males can do that).

This is more likely to happen when the dog is neutered at an older age. Mocha was neutered at 8 wks old and NEVER does this.

FYI, Ginger then proceeds to rebuff Rusty, and then tease him. She is spayed and thinks this is a great game. She worships Rusty. He eventually gives up.

Thanks all ... and thanks handymac for the clarification .. I never get the terminology right.

the terminology is much easier with donkeys .. I actually helped the vet geld my 2 male donkeys in the barn. The first time, I didn't realize I was supposed to help ... boy, that was a learning experience!

Rocky's doing really well ... the day after, he's acting like nothing happened ... have been trying to keep him quiet today.

Funny, he doesn't hump ... Lily humps ... so I know it's a dominance thing ... though she rarely humps him, since he is really submissive to her. She constantly humped the other rescue, Brownie, who I had to take back. He was not submissive to her at all.

glad to hear losing the family jewels didn't bother him too much! it's been so long since i had to deal with spay/neuter, how long do you have to keep him quiet? are all of the sutures internal or do you have to take him back to the vet for suture removal?

pam---holding a equine's hind leg while a vet works is not one of my favorite things to do.

nina - I'm "supposed" to keep him quiet for 10 days! Sure, he was bouncing off the walls yesterday already. He never really walks, always prances. LOL! I keep trying though. The sutures are disolvable, so they'll go away on their own.

handymac - no kidding! And I was amazed that we would do that surgery in the barn in a stall. Not the most sterile environment for surgery ... but it was no big deal for the donkeys. Who knew!

I didn't know a neutered dog could still tie. Wow I would be shocked too.

Get well soon Rocky.

I am laughing at this right now. For the last month (and Rusty is now 11 and hasn't done this in years) he has tried to hump Ginger. And frankly she is being an "instigator".

Rusty is 11 yrs old and neutered at 3 years old.

Ginger is 9 years old and spayed at 6 months old.

The have been living in the same house since Ginger was 1 yr old.

For the last 1 month, Rusty has been "inspecting" Ginger and she has been sending some very OVERT signals to him, while my husband and I are in the pool.

It's very obvious and quite hilarous really. I don't know why 8 years later he has begun trying this, or why she encourages this... but honestly its' funny when you've had 3 glasses of wine and watching from the pool.

She has adored Rusty from the day he arrived here years ago, but this takes the cake. And she obviously teases him when he instigates the situation.

When all is said and done, Ginger, Rusty, and Mocha go to bed with nothing really happening, but it's still funny.

My 10 yr old pack cracks me up.