When to neuter?

[Laurel]

Blaise will be 6 months old this month...his obediance classes start this Tuesday and last for 4 weeks...I was thinking of waiting 4 weeks till he is done with his classes, but is waiting till he is 7 months too long to wait to have him nuetered? I don't want those darn male hormones to kick in. lol

Laurel (Zookeeper )
Blaise ~ 5 mth. old male rottie rescue Peekaboo & Cami ~ Cockatiels
Shade & Sassy ~ cats
Shyla ~ 4 year old shep. mix female
Tyler ~ 11 year old shep/husky mix
Trixie & Mynxie ~ 2 pet rats
Abby ~ guinea pig

http://home.woh.rr.com/myers3

[spidey]

There's really no reason you couldn't have it done the day after a class, it's a pretty minor procedure (it's not like spaying), and most dogs are more or less back to normal by the next day. That said, there's equally no harm in waiting until he's seven months old. Whichever you're most comfortable with should be fine, one month likely won't make much difference either way. Enjoy your classes! :)

[Judi W]

Just curious. If you don't like male behavior, why did you get a male?

[Laurel]

I did not say I did not like the male behaviour.....I am talking about preventing some of the male hormones from kicking in as everyone talks about on here and how they say to neuter them if you do not plan to breed before they kick in. And as for getting a male...instead of being questioned about why I got a male I think I should be commended :)....I got him because I rescued him from a home that kept him caged for 3 days solid, not feed nor watered and sitting in his on defication and urine. He has a loving and happy home now and I don't care whether it is a male or not. All I wondered was when the best time to neuter was. Every animal listed below that I have has been a stray or an unwanted. I wish more people would do as I have and there would be a lot more happy pets instead of ones being euthanized every day.

[Judi W]

I was simply questioning what in the behaviors you did not want. Many delay neutering until the dogs are physically mature if reproduction is the reason for the neutering. If it is behaviorial, I was sincerely curious. Being an intact male should not, with proper raising and training, mean undesireable social behavior with other dogs or with people. Yes, with both males and bitches, the hormones do contribute to mental maturity which should not automatically be considered a bad thing. With the males in particular, they also influence physical development. Although it is becoming more and more common to neuter early, if you have no intact bitches at home and if he has had some physical distress in his early life, you might consider delaying the neutering for a while in order to give him the benefit of those hormones in his physical development.

[Teena]

I personally prefer to wait until the dog is at least a year old, male or female. I understand the reason behind shelters spaying/neutering when you adopt an animal. However, if a female is spayed to eairly her female parts do not fully develope.
This sometimes can cause problems with UT infections.
With training a dog should behave intact or not.
Axel was a year old when I had him neutered. Both my other dogs are shelter animals. Rose was spayed at 4 months. :(
Copper is a male and was a stray, so we have no history on him at all.

[Birdie'sMom]

Originally posted by Teena
I personally prefer to wait until the dog is at least a year old, male or female. However, if a female is spayed to eairly her female parts do not fully develope.

I thought that if you were going to spay a female it was better to do it before their first heat to avoid some types of cancers? I've never heard that they need to fully develop their female parts - why? Not arguing with you, just truly curious.:)

[Teena]

I had to take Rose into the vet because she was peeing alot, i was afraid it might be a UT infection.
My vet examined her and asked what age she was spayed.
I told him 4 months. He said that was to soon, females should be allowed to develope before spaying. That while the rest of her body grew, her private part did not. That it was VERY small.
Such a small moist place on her 90 lb. body is a pefect breeding ground for things to grow.
Oh and we got on the subject of dog being spayed at very young ages in shelters. He was VERY much against it.
He went on a small rant about it. hehe
I get a kick out of him.

[Birdie'sMom]

That's interesting. Birdie was spayed at 5 months old and I am having UT problems with her as well. I wonder if that has something to do with it.

[Laurel]

In response to Judy....yes I agree that with the physical distress that he had in his early life that I will probably wait a little bit. We have a female at home but she is spayed and the other male is outside and he gets along with him great. Hopefully since he will be in training, his social and mental skills will be properly maintained. He absolutely loves any person that he meets whether he has seen them before or not so I don't think he'll have a problem with people. He has a wonderful attitude and is so friendly...except when he wants to pull his little dominance "grumble/growl" act and try to make us think he is boss. Then we have to put him in line. Once he sees that we have taken over the situation he then gets up and walks away. Only problem I see with him at this stage is chasing and mouthing all over the cat. No matter how much we command "enough" he just acts like it goes in one ear and out the other. I then go up and take his collar and pull him off and say "enough" and give him a big stuffed animal to play with and that holds him off for awhile. Any other ideas when it comes to the cat? Thanks for everyone's comments and suggestions.

[spidey]

He said that was to soon, females should be allowed to develope before spaying. That while the rest of her body grew, her private part did not.

I've never heard that, and Googling turns up nothing to support it either (there's speculation, but nothing else, many sites specifically say that there hasn't been a study done to prove this, but that it seems unlikely). It's doubly confusing because (to the best of my knowledge anyway) the urinary tract and bladder aren't related to the reproductive system in terms of physical development, aside from where they're located. No matter what age a dog is spayed, the risk of bladder leakage exists from the hormone withdrawal.

This site says "I think that the current research indicates it is pretty safe to spay puppies anytime after 4 months of age and it is likely that even younger spaying will not cause problems."

[Teena]

He is very strong in his belief of this. He's been a vet for many many years.
He's heads above all the other vets around here. He's very honest, frank and to the point kind of guy, no BS. One of the things I like about him. :)
He brought Axel back to health for me when the traditional
vets here were scratching heads...and making Axel sicker in the process of trying to help him. I was worried there for awhile I might loose him.
Being a holistic vet, he often uses natural products when he has seen they work better or just as well, with less stress to the system , than manmade meds.
I often think how lucky I am to have found the vet I have now.

[Carina43]

Hi Laurel...the last two males I raised from puppy-hood were neutered at about 18 months old. Both were in classes (Cooper pretty much ongoing) the whole time, and apart from a little extra bullheaded-ness starting at about 10 months old, I had no problems. And I didn't mind the bullheaded-ness really - it was quite manageable and a sign my sweet little puppy was growing up into a mature dog! :)

Cooper even had to do an obedience class where he was the only intact dog & someone had a bitch in heat there...poor Coop drooled a lot and was quite distracted!

I personally think it's fine to wait a bit...opinions seem to be all over the board on neutering. But I think if there's a chance that a dog will get a bit more mature & adult (instead of retaining some puppy traits forever) by delaying neutering, that's my choice - to wait. I also have a dog who was neutered at over 3 years old...he's pretty pushy but I don't know whether that's hormonal or not. He's a great dog...if I wanted dogs with softer personalities I'd have Golden Retrievers instead of Rotties. (I LOVE Goldens, don't get me wrong!)

If you decide to neuter while he's in class, it's no big deal, males are usually back to normal activities within a day or so, it's a fairly minor operation.

[Mick Trainer]

I too am a big advocate of waiting with both males and females. As yet I have not seen any actual research that was conducted into the benefits of such procedures when conducted young. There is much supposed research into many things regarding dogs but in realism there is very little that actually seems to have occured. Getting funding for such research would always be a very real problem for anyone wanting to research dogs. There are very few companies or Govts that would pay to research results into dogs. At the end of the day there is nothing that they could gain from such data that the community or company could profit from, and thus funding would not be forthcoming.

I believe that the dog should be allowed to develop mentally and physically and do not believe that all modification achieved through this procedure can possably be positive. Absolutly no were in life are there all positives to any prodedure. What results these prodcedures truly have on the animal are not known and I believe it nieve to believe that they would all be favourable. I believe that no one really knows for sure what these procedures do to the animal totally and how these relate to behavior etc. I prefer to wait and let the animal develop as it should and make adjustments as needed.

I do exclude rescues being done before they leave the shelters etc from this. It is not an ideal situation and thus we do what is necessary.

Mick.

[Anne]

Mick. since you are training Sophie (and me) and she still is very much the puppy in her general behaviour, do you think this is because I had her spayed at 22 weeks. I did this bc I had a GSD female unspayed at 8 months who came into heat and developed pyometra, it was life threatening and emergency surgery was performed to save her life. That experience scared me enough to want Sophie spayed before her first heat.
Did I, by spaying Sophie at 22 weeks delay her development and is she stuck now with the puppy behaviour because of that?