Veterinarians will tell you that neuter your male dog calms them down. They say that the hormones associated with being intact makes them more aggressive. Now that Bear is back from surgery, I believe there is an alternate theory. I believe that having to prance around in the “cone of shame” for two weeks significantly destroys the confidence of the “detached” dog to simply make the intact dogs aggressive only in comparison.
Cone of shame
It’d be interesting to put the cone on an intact dog for two weeks and see the result. It is “purchased” for the price of an xBox wireless controller, but is useless after the two-week period taps confidence and all sense of pride from your dog. The original cone, the one Bear wore when we picked him up, the one he was wearing as he walked past a pit bull mix (probably intact) in the waiting room, jutted out four inches past his snout. He banged into everything. I expected him to be skittish after banging into things, but he just kept at it, pushing through the waiting area, past the door, and eventually into the car.
Declan consoling Bear.
At home Bear kept running into things and began whining. I couldn’t take the enormity of the cone any longer, so with Dec standing guard making sure Bear wouldn’t rip the staples out of his belly, I took the cone off and cut it back three inches. With the condensed dish, unable to receive dish-network channels, Bear can navigate through the house a bit better.
Feeling free without the cone.
Bear gets two pain pills a day. He is already eating and drinking normally.
Questions
- How will this affect his scent training?
- How will we survive two weeks of low activity?
- How much training will he be able to withstand?
One more thing 
Hernia??? I thought his balls were cut off!