I have a seven year old male Labrador I am thinking about neutering. He's physically fine, he is just not used much for stud, and it does not seem worth my while to keep him intact for that rare person that would want to breed to him. And all my bitches are too related to him for me to consider freezing his semen.
My question is: does anyone have experience neutering and keeping an older male and does this calm them down as far as their ardour for bitches in estrus? I am cutting down on my numbers of dogs, but do not want to place him anywhere, I love him to pieces. I just don't need the bellowing, whining, chewing doorjams, refusing food and general anarchy with him when I have a bitch in heat!
I have heard varying responses to neutering an older male, and would like to hear from those on this Forum with experience in this. TIA

I haven't noticed a big calming influence but YMMV.

If he's closely related to your girls is there a chance you might want to bring him back into the pedigree a couple generations down the line? Think about that before you decided not to freeze.

I've done this just to keep an "old" line fresh and up front in my program.

In my experience when you neuter an older male, he has already learned all the tricks and will still exhibit similar behavior when girls are in heat. He might not be quite as gregarious but still know what is coming down.

I neutered a 10 year old boy that had been used at stud. After about 8 months he didn't bother with the girls. He will lick them and let me know they are in season but he is not "crazy in love".
FREEZE him. You may want to go back to him in a few generations.

I neutered my 8 yr old boy after he became sterile and he is much easier to live with when the girls are in season. He still confirms my progesterone tests and tells me when my girls need bred without losing his brain. It has worked great for me. Good luck in your decision.

My 13 year old boy still tries to breed the bitches in season. . . and they love the attempt. But, I have to keep him away because it just wears him out trying. He has not been able to tie one since he was neutered at about 10 years.

Yes, neutering did calm my old boy enough so that he does not refuse food and he is not manic crazed any longer. He is the best breeding barometer in the world. I don't know why I even do ovulation timing tests!

*He's physically fine, he is just not used much for stud, and it does not seem worth my while to keep him intact for that rare person that would want to breed to him.*

I don't mean to hijack this thread. Seems good advice has already been offered. However, this sentence caught my eye regarding his being used at stud. He falls into the category that most decent dogs fall into ..... rarely used. It's only a very few dogs who are exceptional and heavily used. The rest of the dogs who are kept in tact hang around because their owners love males and even one or two bitches coming to them is an adventure. If he's a pain in the neck, neutering him will make a difference. At the very least, it will give you peace of mind that he won't get to one of your own bitches.

I just had to make this decision myself and now am glad I did. My boy was being used once or twice a year as Stud between my program and outside Stud. He has produced some wonderful "puppies" but nothing that has wowed me so we made the decision of having him neutered. I am very glad I did as the peace of mind is worth it's weight in gold knowing I will not have any accidental litters, as he is really horrible when a girl is in season.

My vet recently did his first vasectomy.

Just read this:

A canine vasectomy is a procedure where the vas deferens are cut or tied so that a dog cannot impregnate a female. The surgery is a safer surgery than desexing because it is less invasive and usually requires less anesthetic. Health-wise it is also safer because unlike desexing (neutering), none of the hormones are removed, so growth is not affected and problems that result from removing the gender-specific hormones won't be present. The only risks that go with a vasectomy are the risks of anesthetic if a dog is prone to problems from anesthesia or if the dog is obese it may make the surgery more complex. It's an especially handy procedure for people who have medium to large sized dogs (they don't have to wait until after the dog is done growing to have a vasectomy done) and people who want to have their puppy sterilized (none of the side-effects of early age altering).

The reason I think it's not widely available is that it's new, and people want to go with what they already know, which is altering. Also, many people also are under the impression that castration is a cure-all for behavior problems, and since a vasectomy doesn't take away anything, it isn't. When I can find a vet to do it, this is how Daddy will be sterilized; after doing a lot of reaserach about the procedure vs. traditional sterilization, none of my personal pet male dogs will be desexed.

Oh but I WANT the hormones removed, gone, vamanos amigos! No vasectomy for this older male, but I can see where it may have a place with a young dog that is not around bitches in heat.
My whole reason for this post was to find out if the neutering calmed the behavior caused by the hormones. I think I'm hearing from most that it does help the crazed behavior, for the most part.
I'm still not sure if I am going to take the plunge, but thanks all for their input!

I always remember what a vet told me when I neutered a 6 year old boy, years ago. When we had the discussion re: whether it would calm his desires, the vet pointed out that after 6 years of his hormones ruling his life, to neuter at that age would change very little and that if it was the only reason I was neutering that he couldn't guarantee it. As he pointed out, he wasn't cutting off the dogs nose, rather, it was the other end.

(It was not the reason, the dog had begun to have seizures and we thought they might be triggered by his prostate enlarging, and of course, we definitely wanted to avoid accidental breedings.) In those days he was my only pet, I had no females but neighbours had unspayed females and I noticed when he got excited about them, what I thought might be a slighly higher chance of a seizure. After he was neutered, I can't honestly say I saw a decrease in his seizures, but I had figured it was worth a try. The meds did only a reasonable job of preventing them, but he still had the odd one. He lived to 13.5. Still got crazy around girls though.