The Debate on When to Spay or Neuter Your Dog

[Anonymous]

I have a male and female dog. The female dog got spayed at around 5 years old. She has always been a well behaved dog. She was easy to train and everything. Only change I noticed after the spay was weight gain. Not sure if it is related or just an age thing. Vet has never told me to have her lose weight, but she does appear overweight to me.

The male dog is not neutered yet, but we will have him neutered soon. He’s a year or two old and pretty well behaved. He has never peed in my house and usually only pees once or twice when we go out on walks. He seems to be a very calm and well behaved dog too. It will be interesting to see if he changes after the neuter surgery.

I am not against spay/neuter, we just happened to be later in having it done. Never planned on breeding either dog and have definitely taken the precautions to prevent either dog from having a litter. It was kind of a pain having the female dog in heat so many times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a male and female dog. The female dog got spayed at around 5 years old. She has always been a well behaved dog. She was easy to train and everything. Only change I noticed after the spay was weight gain. Not sure if it is related or just an age thing. Vet has never told me to have her lose weight, but she does appear overweight to me.

The male dog is not neutered yet, but we will have him neutered soon. He’s a year or two old and pretty well behaved. He has never peed in my house and usually only pees once or twice when we go out on walks. He seems to be a very calm and well behaved dog too. It will be interesting to see if he changes after the neuter surgery.

I am not against spay/neuter, we just happened to be later in having it done. Never planned on breeding either dog and have definitely taken the precautions to prevent either dog from having a litter. It was kind of a pain having the female dog in heat so many times.

Also, male dog doesn’t hump, or at least we haven’t observed him doing it and we watch him closely since he’s still a very young dog.

[Anonymous]

My male dog was neutered at about 11 months. He’s 15 lbs. He’s never humped anything. He does mark a million times when we’re on a walk. He never pees in the house. I think some of this just depends on the personality of the particular dog.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone here who chose not to spay or neuter their dog who can weigh in?

Like, never? Yahoos like you are why we have so many unwanted litters and so many animals put to death each year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Until this last week I’ve only had rescue dogs that have been spayed/neutered when we got them. We got a male puppy a week ago and his breeder recommended waiting till 2, our vet recommended waiting till 1…..he is not a large breed dog. We are just going to see how it goes and try and hold out till a year since it seems like the best thing for him. I haven’t gone to dog parks in about 10 years so I have no experience with unaltered dogs and their bad behavior, I feel like dog parks in general feed into bad behavior from the owners and the dogs so I generally stay away from them

Np. I used to think that way about dog parks until I went to a good one where owners paid attention to their dogs and did something when their dogs misbehaved.

Not all dog parks are the same. Our male pup is six months old today and we plan to neuter at one years of age.

[Anonymous]

I have lots of friends with intact dogs. Their dogs are well trained/behaved (most of them do dog sports or otherwise have working dogs), and are only altered if medically necessary, for the most part.

If I were to ever get a well bred dog, it will only be altered at physical maturity (2-3) years old. Females will likely get altered sooner, since I don't want to deal with heat cycles (and possible pyometra).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have lots of friends with intact dogs. Their dogs are well trained/behaved (most of them do dog sports or otherwise have working dogs), and are only altered if medically necessary, for the most part.

If I were to ever get a well bred dog, it will only be altered at physical maturity (2-3) years old. Females will likely get altered sooner, since I don't want to deal with heat cycles (and possible pyometra).

I also know of two people who have male dogs that do dog sports and they are not neutered. Amazing dogs. I do think that telling people they need to fix their dogs due to behavioral problems has been a bit overblown. Sure, some dogs have issues and it does help get rid of them, but most dogs grow out of adolescent hormonal behaviors.

[Anonymous]

Shocked that people do not always neuter and spay their dog(s).

We chose to spay our female dog but didn't schedule it until after she had her first heat. I did some research and that made sense to me.

[Anonymous]

We have no interest in neutering our puppy. He isn’t aggressive, doesn’t mark in the house, doesnt hump, and has no unwanted behaviors except jumping (which has nothing to do with being intact). He’s really the perfect pup. When we started researching we were shocked to learn of issues/behaviors associated with neutering and since our pup is perfect in every other way, we don’t see it in our future. It’s been difficult since we can’t board him or take him to daycare, but we found sitters with their own dogs that he can hang out with. We take him to the dog park multiple times a week, and have only had a few iffy interactions (and each has been with a neutered dog).

Our guy has little chance to escape or impregnate another dog. The only pro of neutering would be making our lives easier with day care but he didn’t to be our fur baby so that’s a burden we’re ok with. Unless he suddenly develops unwanted behaviors or becomes a target for neutered males we don’t plan on neutering.

Our guy is 11 months old btw.

[Anonymous]

I have a 2 yr old Pug and a 1.5 yr old toy spaniel, males, and I do not plan to neuter either one unless prostate problems appear later in life. Previously I neutered my dogs at about 4 mos.

I've had these breeds previously and I'm convinced that taking away all their testosterone is, on balance, much worse for their overall lifetime health picture than leaving them intact. Joint, tendon and disc issues are of particular interest to me, especially with the Pug.

If all of Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands etc. can figure out how to have healthy, nicely behaved dogs without cutting off their gonads, tails and ears, I have to believe people like me can figure it out too. There's zero chance I'm going to "create unwanted litters" of puppies, nor am I going to enter intact bully breeds in fighting rings. Or whatever other things ASPCA say to bludgeon all dog owners into questionable choices.

[Anonymous]

I train and compete in dog sports, so my opinion is biased toward physically fit dogs and responsible owners.

You don’t want to neuter before growth plates close, because hormones help with structure. Pediatric neuters often result in leggy/lanky dogs. For small dogs, this is between 12-18 months. For larger dogs, it’s 2 years. You can do X-rays to verify. (You also don’t want them jumping above elbow height until this point).

The dog/dog interaction seems to vary based on the status of testicles. A pair of neutered and intact males likely will have more social issues than two intact or two neutered dogs. (YMMV, dogs are individuals obv) Someone with a pack of neutered dogs will likely neuter the new one just to keep the peace.

Many dog sport folks are looking into vasectomies and ovary sparing spays to keep the hormones while eliminating the risk of accidental breeding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have no interest in neutering our puppy. He isn’t aggressive, doesn’t mark in the house, doesnt hump, and has no unwanted behaviors except jumping (which has nothing to do with being intact). He’s really the perfect pup. When we started researching we were shocked to learn of issues/behaviors associated with neutering and since our pup is perfect in every other way, we don’t see it in our future. It’s been difficult since we can’t board him or take him to daycare, but we found sitters with their own dogs that he can hang out with. We take him to the dog park multiple times a week, and have only had a few iffy interactions (and each has been with a neutered dog).

Our guy has little chance to escape or impregnate another dog. The only pro of neutering would be making our lives easier with day care but he didn’t to be our fur baby so that’s a burden we’re ok with. Unless he suddenly develops unwanted behaviors or becomes a target for neutered males we don’t plan on neutering.

Our guy is 11 months old btw.

This is a copy paste from a agenda board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a 2 yr old Pug and a 1.5 yr old toy spaniel, males, and I do not plan to neuter either one unless prostate problems appear later in life. Previously I neutered my dogs at about 4 mos.

I've had these breeds previously and I'm convinced that taking away all their testosterone is, on balance, much worse for their overall lifetime health picture than leaving them intact. Joint, tendon and disc issues are of particular interest to me, especially with the Pug.

If all of Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands etc. can figure out how to have healthy, nicely behaved dogs without cutting off their gonads, tails and ears, I have to believe people like me can figure it out too. There's zero chance I'm going to "create unwanted litters" of puppies, nor am I going to enter intact bully breeds in fighting rings. Or whatever other things ASPCA say to bludgeon all dog owners into questionable choices.

They also have a large number of unwanted puppies that they have to ship put to other countries for adoption

[Anonymous]

This is like the new circumcision debate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have no interest in neutering our puppy. He isn’t aggressive, doesn’t mark in the house, doesnt hump, and has no unwanted behaviors except jumping (which has nothing to do with being intact). He’s really the perfect pup. When we started researching we were shocked to learn of issues/behaviors associated with neutering and since our pup is perfect in every other way, we don’t see it in our future. It’s been difficult since we can’t board him or take him to daycare, but we found sitters with their own dogs that he can hang out with. We take him to the dog park multiple times a week, and have only had a few iffy interactions (and each has been with a neutered dog).

Our guy has little chance to escape or impregnate another dog. The only pro of neutering would be making our lives easier with day care but he didn’t to be our fur baby so that’s a burden we’re ok with. Unless he suddenly develops unwanted behaviors or becomes a target for neutered males we don’t plan on neutering.

Our guy is 11 months old btw.

This is a copy paste from a agenda board.

Yes.