Thought this would be an interesting subject...

[Red_ACD_for_me]

About how many owners Neuter/Spay, reasons for doing so or not doing so and what have your experiences been with intact M/F. Anyone experience pyometras, mammory cancer, or testicular, prostrate cancers?

Okay me first I have always N/S my animals in recent years but now own a 21 month old "intact" ACD and my reasons for him being intact was initially to show him but that didn't work out because he was a jerk in the show ring as he matured. So, we have dabbled in protection/schutzhund work and he is now an official house pet and my hiking partner and constant companion I wasn't planning on neutering him until he was fully mature around 3 years anyways. However, not having an intact male for awhile now I am seeing why I have always had my males fixed before they were a year old There brains are just not where they are supposed to be

I also grew up with GSD's all my life owned by my Grandfather who would never neuter plus back in those days it wasn't common practice late 70's early 80's. I don't ever recall any cancers but I do remember one of his dogs getting a huge growth as he got older around his rectum which could have been cancer but the technology wasn't as good back then as it is now. I do remember one of his dogs running away and was never found which is a common thing intact males can do "roaming" but again long time ago and no leash laws. I never owned a female dog because I have always preferred males but as a vet tech I saw my fair share of mammory cancers in intact bitches as well as cancers in males. So, how about you all ?

 

[Dreeza]

Oakley came neutered. Definately would have neutered him ASAP if he didnt.

I will speuter any dog i get in the future, as i have no plans to show, and wouldnt want the responsibility of a pregnant dog!!

 

[Roxy's CD]

My first dog Smokey Bear, a Norweigan Elkhound was not neutered. I was young, but I don't really recall having any issues because he wasn't neutered, and there were no health issues related to him being intact. He was never really asked to do much, training wise, so maybe that's why I didn't really notice a difference. *shrugs*

Roxy was spayed ASAP at 6 months old as well as Hades. When I got Roxy I was still living at home but she was my dog, and it was my money. I guess I just got her the surgery because I knew I never wanted any litters and I didn't really want to deal with heats.

With Hades he had to be neutered, but he would have been anyways. By that time I had heard of the risk of certain cancers in intact dogs. It was never really that I was worried that he would impregnate another bitch because he was always in my sight but once again, I never planned on breeding him so I figured why NOT get him neutered?

 

[BostonBanker]

My first dog was a Bedlington Terrier, neutered at 6 months, lived to be over 15, and had no health issues until the last two weeks of his life, when his liver and kidneys began shutting down.

Meg was spayed right before I adopted her at about 1.5 years; she appeared to have had a litter previously.

Any dog I own will be spayed/neutered by 6 months at the latest. I have no intentions of ever owning a show dog, and everything else I want my dogs to do can be done without the "hardware". Being closely involved with a rescue, I do not ever want to contribute to the over population problems. I know too many people (responsible dog owners, with well-trained dogs) who have lost their dogs for an hour or two, or overnight. That's as long as it takes for something to happen, and all of a sudden (well, not really sudden), there are 4 or 6 or 11 more dogs out there in need of homes.

 

[jess2416]

OK going to be very very honest right now.....

If I wouldnt have found this forum and learned everything I had, Chloe would probably NOT be spayed right now...but thankfully I found this place and learned that it IS the responsible thing to do...

And any other animal that comes into my life or home will be spay/neutered also...

 

[RD]

Ripley was neutered at about 1 year of age, for health reasons more than anything - he was extremely thin and neutering was our last resort to put some weight on him. Worked like a charm.

Dakota is intact, soon to be neutered. To be honest I have had NO problems whatsoever with him. But, there's just no reason to leave him intact anymore. He's physically mature, not going to be bred, not going to be shown and since I now have an intact female in the house, I don't want to have to deal with him being stressed during her heat cycles. So yeah, he's getting the snip.

Eve is intact and will remain so until she's physically mature. If she is tremendously talented on stock, I wouldn't be opposed to holding off a while longer and talking to her breeder about getting a litter out of her.

 

[Bahamutt99]

Pro-neuter for pet dogs. I think its a great thing. That said, I am going to put a lot of thought into whether or not I neuter a dog in the future. I think I made a mistake by spaying Loki, because she could have been a superdog. I didn't know enough at the time to realize that my pup was better than 90% of the dogs being shown.

 

[skKi]

I plan to neuter and spay any pet I get, within reason. Parents' dog is spayed, my rabbit is neutered, I would even have neutered my rats if there were a qualified vet around here.
My future dog will be neutered before I even get him from the breeder. Unless you specify that you'd like to leave the dog intact for breeding reasons, she neuters and spays all the pups before sending them to their homes.

 

[Aussie Red]

Unless I had the " perfect " show dog and not just a hopeful and had full intentions of showing and breeding then spay and neuter are 100% for me. I have a long going issue with kennel clubs anyway and really do not support them either because of the spay neuter issue. ( KNOW WILL BE FLAMED HERE )
but if kennel clubs allowed show pets to be fixed it would help greatly to reduce puppy mills. I am not going to get into that here but I sincerely hold them accountable for puppy mills as I do the greed factor.
Now I have my male dogs neutered no later then 6 months because I do not want them to aquire the hiking the leg thing. A mature male can and still will do that after being altered if allowed to reach that point. Females I do at 4 to 6 months too because again not allowing them to achieve maturity and no accidents.
To me I think the attention span of the animal as well as the disposition is greatly enhanced when they are fixed. JMOT

 

[SummerRiot]

THe only dog that we have ever had fixed would be Crosbie because he grew out of standard for showing...

All of our other dogs have all been intact.

the bitches were a pain when they came into heat.. just messy lol

The dogs were brainless whenever a bitch would come into heat.

I would love to have a fixed dog someday, but only when I'm sick of showing lol

 

[colliewog]

Honestly, we rarely neutered our males, even after their show/breeding career was over and I've never (knock on wood) had one with testicular or prostate cancer. I had one male who had chronic prostatitis (inflammation of the prostate) due to being ultra-excited when the bitches were in heat, so he was neutered at about 7 yrs old. We never had a problem with them roaming, but they were never left outside unattended, so there was no chance for escape to search for girls. (Besides, they had girls at home to watch for so didn't feel the need to look for more).

My current male was neutered at 6 yrs old due to concentration issues during obedience/agility competition. If he were simply a house pet, I probably wouldn't have done it. Of course, with this decision, I must also keep close watch on them to ensure no problems crop up, so they had testicular exams (like a human male would do) done every few months, and a prostate exam (digital exam by vet) at least once a year. If you decide to keep an intact male, you owe it to them to be proactive.

Now, the girls are another story. We would always spay bitches as soon as their breeding/show careers were over (3-7 yrs old). We've experienced two pyometras in 40 yrs of breeding. No (knock on wood again) breast cancer. However, I did see it quite often when I was a vet tech, usually in smaller breed dogs, like Cockers and Yorkies. I'm sure there's no correlation there, but thought it was interesting. Pyometra we say in dogs of all shapes and sizes, usually those who experienced frequent false pregnancies.

 

[Whisper]

I have 2 female dogs.
Millie was spayed at about 5-6 months before she ever had a chance to go into season and Lucy was spayed at about 10-12 months.
I plan on spaying/neutering every dog I have of "pet quality."
As I plan on rescue, they will all be altered as well.
My dogs have no reason to be intact and go through messy uncomfortable heats the rest of their lives.
Lucy had a severe, extended heat as her first (and last of course) season but that has been the biggest problem.
Fortunately I have never had any pyometra or reproductive cancers, etc. of any dogs that have been under my care (including other people's intact animals).

 

[joce]

any rescue going in or out of my house is altered.I don't care how old they are.sadly I'd rather them loose a couple years of life than bring a litter of pups into the world.

Any dog I have as a personal pet will be altered when it reaches maturity-not six months,probally more like a couple years.

All my dogs are altered except my doberman and our newest rescue who's appointment isn't untill may. byron was going to be fixed but he had a lump removed and I didn't like how he recovered so I'm not putting him down again unles sits an emergency.


Dogs we had when I was younger were all neutered at six months and them compared to my dogs I let mature is no comparrison. I will never alter a dog before a year old again. We have had dogs altered at six months have mammary cancer and there were a couple dogs we took in to keep jsut till they passed on that had bone cancer thats history said they were altered prior to six months.

I think the majority of people cna't handle intact dogs so I don't blame people for altering before six months but for my dogs I'll never do it again.

 

[Baxter'smybaby]

I grew up with 2 dogs--a male beagle who was intact--and wandered everywhere--I have no idea how many little beagle-ettes he may have created. the 2nd dog was a beautiful english setter--whom we aquired when she was left without food and water. Turns out she had papers, a fine lineage--and a well known breeder wanted pups from her. My parents tried to mate her with several of the breeders dogs--but Dutchess would have nothing to do with them! Several tries--no pups, so they assumed she couldn't produce. Surprise--she was just waiting for the love of her life--Clacy the Irish setter--produced a litter of five beautiful pups---made the breeder cry!! Any way--learned my lessons from these dogs of my childhood --in my adult life, my dogs have always been "fixed"!

 

[Zoom]

All of my dogs have been speutered before I got them so far. When I get a puppy, depending on the breed and what I am doing with the dog, they will be speutered around 8-12 months. My next non-rescue Aussie will be left intact until full maturity, 2 years. I'd like to leave my Rottie intact until about a year or so to get the most development out of her, but that really depends on the breeder contract. Most likely 6-8 months.

I just cringe when I see the new-ish trend of speutering around 6-8 weeks...I'm seeing many consistant behaviors in dogs that I know were early speuters and it's really turning me off of that procedure...mainly excessive/obsessive poop eating and too gangly of a body structure. 6 months is soon enough IMO. Too bad there are too many stupid people out there who can't be trusted with an intact dog and are causing mandatory early speuter.

 

[ToscasMom]

Neuter/Spayer here. I would never leave a pet intact unless it were going to be bred or shown. So, that settles that.

I spayed Tosca shortly after she started having relationships with inanimate objects.

 

[zoe08]

Zoe is spayed. And both Justin's dogs are nuetered. Kenzie was as a pup. Buddy I had to keep on Justin to get him taken in, just cuz he's a guy and well I guess wasn't eager to do that to Buddy. But I said it had to be done, especially cuz they run offleash.

All my dogs in future will be spuetered.

My first dog Baby (now my parents dog) is 10 and she is not spayed. Never had a litter of pups, but always attracted male dogs and such when in heat. She should have been spayed, but now we figure she is 10 and it wouldn't really be worth the risk of putting her under now.

 

[skKi]

I just cringe when I see the new-ish trend of speutering around 6-8 weeks...I'm seeing many consistant behaviors in dogs that I know were early speuters and it's really turning me off of that procedure...mainly excessive/obsessive poop eating and too gangly of a body structure. 6 months is soon enough IMO. Too bad there are too many stupid people out there who can't be trusted with an intact dog and are causing mandatory early speuter.

What's to cringe about? I work with a considerable amount of dogs, many of which are early spay/neuter, and the only difference I've noticed is urine marking and intense sniffing/searching. The earlies rarely ever (aside from a select few) urine mark, and have little interest in rigorously scouting the "potty area" every time we take them out to pee.

All the poop eaters at the moment were late spays/neuters, although we had a poodle a few months ago who was an early that was also a poop eater.
The gangliest of dogs we have are all late spays/neuters. Although I'm sure both of those behaviours have nothing to do with the fact that they were spayed later than earlier, and has more to do with the dog.

I don't see the same flaws in the early speuter dogs that you're seeing. What behaviours are you talking about that you say it's "too bad" that some breeders do mandatory early speuters? I think it's great!

 

[J's crew]

With my personal dogs, if I get them from a pup I wait until about 2 years old. Those hormones are there for a reason.

Any rescue is fixed before leaving my house, no matter what the age. When I foster a litter of puppies of kittens I keep them until 12 weeks for that reason. 12 weeks is still way to early IMO, but the risks outweight the benefits.

 

[FoxyWench]

im PRO spay/neuter for any dog thats not to be shown/bred. and im even pro spay/neuter for some show dogs too (ive seen show dogs that have temperments that completly 100% makes me think, "there no way that dog should be bred!")