Boy or Girl?

Often I am asked which makes a better pet. Which is easier to housetrain? The answer is not always simple but here is what I have found over the years…. Just remember there are always exceptions, as well we evaluate each puppy according to their parents and individual personalities.  I do not have an unpleasant dog in my breeding program nor would I place a puppy who had a questionable temperament.

There really is no difference between the sexes if you spay or neuter your puppy.  Males should be neutered at a young age and providing there are no intact female dogs in the home they will not mark inside the home with proper housetraining.  Intact females will occasionally mark just like an intact male.  Intact females can be very dominant.

No matter what, females are the boss.  They will boss the males and their human owners if given the chance.  Sorry but that’s how it is.  Girls are just more precocious. Girls are much more serious, intense and demanding than the males as a general rule.  Females can be moody and standoffish.  If you have more than one girl they don’t share “power” there is always one or two who are boss of the others. If you spay your girl you take away the hormonal changes which, in turn, lead to a more consistent and less intense personality.  From my point of view as my girls’ age they become more serious and less puppy-ish.  This doesn’t mean they are grumpy or less fun, they are just more “grown up” in their behaviors and how they relate to us.

 Males tend to more happy go lucky and love everyone.  It is very rare to have neutered males fight.  Females are always the boss of males- neutered or not.  Boys tend to be puppies forever. My boys play all the time… everything is a new game and they continue to exhibit puppy behaviors as mature dogs.

My boys tend to be quieter than my girls who are more of the “alarm ringers”.  Again, this is not really a sex related trait but a training issue – most breeders tend to have more girls than boys – hence the statement “girls are noisy compared to the boys”.

Size is a genetic determination not a sex determination.  Males are just a small and cute as the females if your breeder has those traits in their dogs.  Unlike some other breeds males are not larger just because they are males.  Our Pom boys are just as adorable and petite as our girls in most cases.  Males shed less than females, however male and female if spay/neutered shed less than intact dogs.