Cocker owners- neutering question

I think that's probably a myth. My cocker is not a fear biter, but he is nervous and a little reactive - he was that way before the neuter and mistaking it for competitiveness we hoped the neuter would help. There was no change in his behavior whatsoever.

Most Cockers that I have been familiar with seem to become less tolerant of strangers and more territorial as they grow older, and this didn't seem to matter if they were male or female, intact or neutered/spayed.....I saw the tendency to be more prevalent with females, but the females in a great many breeds tend to become more territorial as they mature whereas males are a bit more easy going.  While they are beautiful dogs, I wouldn't necessarily even recommend them to folks with small children as they seem, (and of course there are always exceptions) to have a more difficult time dealing with the noise and quickness of children.  They don't necessarily like to be squeezed and hugged which little kids love to do with animals-especially as the cocker has the luxurious fur and soft long ears just like a stuffed animal.  The cocker however doesn't necessarily want to be treated like a favorite stuffed animal.

I have a 2-year-old cocker who is neutered. I was told cockers get more territorial as they get older and tend to get "nippy." We socialized the heck out of our cocker when he was a puppy and my husband insists on taking him to work with him everyday to keep him socialized around people. So far, Monty loves people and all dogs. I will say though that I have to agree with suefitz, children can be a little overwhelming for him. One in particular used to come over and treat him like a wind-up toy, here for the child's amusement. Monty never bit or nipped but does get somewhat growly with him and will retreat to a "safe place" to avoid certain kids. Monty does better with female children. I think they're more gentle.
 
But to answer your question, I did not notice any change in his personality after the neuter . . . We go thim neutered when he was around 7 mos. old.

The only Cocker my family has had was intact his whole life. [&:] Asta was very dog aggressive, though admittedly, my step-mom didn't do a great deal to socialize him, but I always wondered if he would have been less dog aggressive if he had been neutered.  We were constantly breaking up fights between Asta and dogs 3 times his size we would encounter while hiking.

While they are beautiful dogs, I wouldn't necessarily even recommend them to folks with small children as they seem, (and of course there are always exceptions) to have a more difficult time dealing with the noise and quickness of children. They don't necessarily like to be squeezed and hugged which little kids love to do with animals-especially as the cocker has the luxurious fur and soft long ears just like a stuffed animal. The cocker however doesn't necessarily want to be treated like a favorite stuffed animal.

 
I disagree with this and it's such a common conception of cockers that cocker rescues won't even adopt to people w children... which I just think is so sad. The American cocker is supposed to be a wonderful family dog. Because of all the backyard and puppy mill breeding that was done in the 40s-70s the temperament got perverted into something very un-cockerlike.
 
Happily, my dog is absolutely wonderful with children and has been from the get-go. In any mixed group of people he will seek out the children first, and the younger the child the more he loves them. He adores babies, and tolerates all sort of hugging and kissing gladly. I joke that we'd better have a baby soon because he wants one. []

My dog is an intact male. (I thought about getting a litter or two out of him - Not sure about that yet.) Jack is a 1 y.o. English Cocker from field lines. Their personalities are somewhat different than American Cockers, but I really don't think too much different.

He would bark at little kids or guests. He stops barking immediately if one has a tennis ball or any object he could fetch (or if I snap him out of it). He goes in the play-mode in 2 seconds. I'd like to socialize him more with kids, but we really don't have many friends with kids... yet. He ignores calm kids completely.

During obedience classes, he'd walk around the dogs' owners saying hi to everyone. He'd ignore other dogs or play with small dogs only if they allowed him to be the boss. He is very gentle with them *as long as they agree who is the boss*. He can be defensive around dogs that are larger than him in size, and he hates Labs. That's him.

So, nobody seams to have notice any behavioral changed in their Cockers. It's interesting, because I read that there is about 60% success rate of neutering reducing territorial and male-to-male aggression.

So, nobody seams to have notice any behavioral changed in their Cockers. It's interesting, because I read that there is about 60% success rate of neutering reducing territorial and male-to-male aggression.

 
I would think that still holds true but only when the aggression is related to sexual behavior, ie competition for mates. If you take 'aggression' as a whole, including fear aggression, dominance aggression, etc the figure won't come out the same.

I am not a cocker expert but I am a professional dog groomer and I think that with all dogs including cockers it depends on quality of the breeding and the quality of the home life. I groom many cockers and I do both  good and bad ones, but that is true with all the breeds I do, good poodles, bad poodles, good Lhasas bad Lhasas etc.