Spay/Neuter ALL the time?

Im just curious if you guys say spay and neuters have to be done 100% of the time?

I agree that they have to be done if your dog can come in contact with dogs of the opposite sex, if they can get lose, for health reasons etc.

But do you ALWAYS have to alter a pet? My first pup was a cockapoo, he was the devil on earth and was not neutered. I truly wonder if neutering would have helped but I think not, he was born with that nasty temperment.

Second dog was a Shih Tzu, she was never spayed because we started showing her, and later in her life she lived in our apartment with NO acess to dogs whatsoever.

My father had a female pit, she was bred twice and then was spayed. The first was a planned litter the second an oops, but thats beside the point.

We rescued two male pups, and one pregnant female, the female was spayed and the males were not.

My mom has a Golden, she is not spayed but she does not come in contact with ANY dog as we live on a highly populated road. Her last heat there were no dogs around until her 18th day of heat and she was very secure.

With my Collie I am still thinking of spaying her. She will not be bred ever but it gives me the chills to think she could die while having a spay procedure. She does not come into contact with ANY dogs except my moms dog and shes female so I dont think I should have to spay her.

Any one else have similar thoughts?

Every time I take an animal in to get spayed/neutered I have a moment where I think 'ick' because it is an invasive procedure and the human equivalent would be rather traumatic. However, I've never, ever not gone through with it. And I've never regretted it. Especially when they are totally find the next day and don't have any qualms about what happened.

Spaying and neutering will save your pets a lot of stress. They won't have to worry about reproducing. They will behave better and therefore annoy you less which means you have a better relationship with your dog.

It significantly reduces the chances of them escaping or climbing fences and getting hurt or killed during breeding season. It helps with their behaviour in regards to marking. The females won't be bleeding all over your house.

And yes, it increases their chances of living longer healthier lives. Any surgery is dangerous but spays are pretty 'routine' and either way you take a risk. I think the benefits of spaying and neutering far out weigh the cons.

It depends on how you control your dogs. I have three intact males (Caza, Neeko, Hondo) and I dont plan on nuetering any of them (unless a problem arrises). I have learned to deal with and enjoy their testosterone. It really is quite simple to avoid an "oops litter". Its really your call and how much control you would have over her.

Mine never comes into contact with females but he's getting neutered anyway as soon as I have the money saved up.

I don't think you always have to do it. If I had a female I would do it for sure because of that bleeding.

Tobysmom youre dog is absolutely gorgeous! I believe youre on one of my other dog forums and I am always dying for you to post so I can see that pup!

My dobes not neutered,probally won't be. He's six now I think. He had a rough time recovering after getting a lump removed when he was younger and I jsut don't want to risk putting him down again. I cna control my dogs,so this isn't bad,but obviously a lot of people cna't stop all the accidental litters so fixing is usually jsut easier for them.

i don't think anything's 100%, but if your reason for not spaying is concern over anesthesia and surgery, i really urge you to talk to your vet about your concerns and re-evaluate. a routine spay is a pretty low-risk surgery. it's certainly lower risk than a pyometra spay if her uterus were to become infected. it's also lower risk than a c-section if she were to get bred. and then there's the mammary tumor issue- an unspayed bitch is much more likely to develop a mammary tumor than one who is spayed before her first heat, and i want to say close to half of mammary tumors are cancerous (but i could be misremembering that).

i personally would absolutely spay any pet dog i had unless she had some severe complicating health issue. with males it's less black and white for me because the health benefits are not so clear-cut, but i still can't imagine not neutering, though i might consider doing it later than the traditional six months.

If you are commited to supervising your dog, then it may not be necessary to spay or neuter.

I personally think it's in the best interest of the dog to wait until maturity has been reached (2-3 years approx, or later) if you do wish to spay or neuter.

Alternatives, which I hope become more well-known, would be vasectomies and tubal ligations.

I don't like to spay young, I prefer to wait until the dog is atleast 18 months old, preferably 2 years or so though. Its a huge responsibility to have to keep an eye on your bitch when she's in season. Plus, having a large dog (with a lot of hair) such as a Collie, it'll be somewhat messy. Just because you don't have friends with intact males, that doesn't mean she's totally safe. Intact dogs will run for miles to find a bitch in season and have been known to jump fences to get at them. Some people can deal with this, some can't. I honestly don't feel that there's a huge risk of something happening while in surgery. I know plenty of dogs (including my own) who've gone through spay/neuter surgeries and all have come out perfectly fine. Neutering most definitely helps behaviour issues in males more often than not, my girls haven't behaved any differently after being spayed though. Some people say it lowers the risk of cancer aswell, and I'm sure its true, but I've known a lot of dogs who were never spayed and lived without ever getting cancer. I don't think thats a huge risk either, my vet told me that spaying/neutering only lowers the risk by about 2 percent. Whether that's true or not, I have no idea. Its really up to you, but I do usually advise people to spay/neuter their dogs if they didn't get their dog from a responsible breeder on a breeding contract.

I've seen male dogs bend rebar style fences to get at a female in heat!

Personally I don't think it's necessary 100% of the time, and certainly not everyone who has an unaltered dog and doesn't compete or breed is irresponsible.

It's very much related to cultural background, which varies from country to country.

For instance, I lived in Germany until 1999, where spaying and neutering dogs is not as common a thing as in the U.S., but unlike here, there isn't as huge of an overpopulation problem due to better breeding practices, more intervention from breed clubs, minimal sales of dogs in pet stores, less of a "throwaway minded" society and so on.

My current dog is the first altered one I've ever owned (in 25 years) and I honestly can't say that managing unaltered dogs is as much of a problem as some people make it out to be, but I guess that very much depends on the responsibility of the owner.

Overall I'm very much pro spay/neuter, simply because there are too many uneducated pet owners out there for whom it is better to not have to deal with unaltered dogs, both in regards to behavior and reproduction.

For me personally, any dog I am not showing or planning to breed, male or female, will be altered as soon as it is appropriate to do so.

It is possible I would leave a retired male show dog intact if he was sought after for breeding purposes.

My bitches are spayed fairly promptly after their time for being bred is over. I'm not exactly sure of my plans where Penny is concerned. At this time I only plan the one litter from her, however, I might like to continue showing her in Breed if she matures well. Unless we are still burning up the show ring, I would likely spay her around age 5 - 6 years of age, and sooner than that if I decide not to show her in the Breed ring any more.

I think spaying and neutering is important if you plan not to breed your dog and/or show. Why keep them intact just because? Although we know why "most" men don't neuter there males . I also agree on waiting for the dog to fully mature until you chop anything but more so in the male dogs. I have an intact ACD who just turned 1 and he has been wonderful thus far but sometimes by the time a male turns 2 they can become tougher. If I had a female she would have been spayed already but that's just me. I don't care to deal with heat cycles. I personally prefer males over females . I know how some other countries are about spaying and neutering, I live in Massachusetts and we have a shelter who flies out to Puerto Rico to save street dogs because the country is so over-whelmed with them. The shelter has helped bring awareness to spay/neuter and to help control the population. We bring dogs here to find them homes and there are a few Puerto Rico dogs right here in my neighborhood Also, just because your dog isn't around males that can get her pregnant, doesn't mean, like Elegy, said that she is safe from pyometra or mammory cancer. I would get her spayed before anything like that can happen to her

Spay/neuter is a good thing, unless of course you have plans for your dog.

Just an ordinary house pet, why not?It would calm them down, and prolong chances of living a full healthy life.

I have not spayed my bitch yet, due to the fact she is training for wp right now(starting) and spaying would reduce her drive greatly. We are battling a heat at the moment, what a mess!!!Lol, but if I were not planning, nor saw any plans in her future, I would spay her.

My males train for WP as well, their harnesses should be arriving this week. So they will not be spayed. My other 3 are altered, as they are older and not worth anything show/performance wise.

As ong as they are a housepet, why not???

I'm just curious what being intact has to do with Weight Pulling?

Since you addressed me...


If you spay/neuter your dog, it decreases the drive that the dogs SHOULD have in order to sucessfully perform in WP..

It may be just me, but I never have understood that. I have had intact, and s/n males and females and I can say I have never noticed a change in drive. A lot of it has to do with the owner/trainer, some are just better at bringing out and utilizing that natural drive of a dog.

For instance, my intact bitch did not come with tug drive, but since I wanted her to play and enjoy tugging with me I capitalized on her love of food to really help her bring her drive to tug out. She will not yet tug with me everywhere, but she WILL tug with me vigorously every time I ask. (I dont ask her to do it anywhere I think she will refuse her toy.) She has even started accepting a tug toy as a reward for the clicker, which to me was a sign that is at least as rewardin to her as the treats.

Honestly, I will not work her during a heat cycle, she is not 'in the game' while the hormones are flowing. When I decide if I want to breed her again or not she will be spayed asap, to concentrate more on her performance sports.

I'd just rather not deal with the issues of having unaltered animals, when I don't ever plan on breeding or showing confirmation.

I don't want a female leaving blood trails all over my house (sorry to be so blunt! LOL), nor do I want a male raring to go at every female he sees, especially those in heat. Yes I know with training they're not that bad, but it's something that I shouldn't have to deal with.

I certainly don't think your a bad owner if your pet isn't s/n BUT, I don't see why you wouldn't spay/neuter a pet... I mean it is less hassle...

FWIW, having owned several animals both intact and altered, I never saw any decrease in drive either.

My 4 YO spayed bitch is one of the driviest busiest toughest dogs I've ever had of either sex, and she was spayed at 15 mos.

My 9YO import has been spayed about 18 months, and I've seen no decrease in her drives/guardiness either.

I was just curious.

Honestly, Crosbie is the ONLY fixed dog we have ever had.

BUT - we have ALWAYS had show dogs.

Conformation and Obedience were our training points for our dogs. Therefore, could not be altered.