To Neuter or Not ....

Your decision, but FWIW I kept a stud dog who lived to 16, and at no time was he offensive sexually, at no time did he cause an unwanted litter, never marked in my house or anywhere else inappropriate, never strayed because we have good fences, and would look at me for permission before he covered a bitch (I didn't train this - he just did it). So based on him, I think most of it is about training and circumstance. It's my opinion that a lot of growing up, mentally and physically, happens in the first 2-3 years with males especially, whereas females tend to be grown-up after their second season.

An entire dog can be castrated at any time of his life, but you can't stick 'em back on once they are off.

Posted at the same time as JudyN, and maybe I'd've thought differently with a dog as extreme as the young Jasper!

 

I have never neutered any of our dogs for convenience or my vet's advice, (although I don't recall a vet that has yet tried to persuade me either). Maybe I just give them one of my glances which is usually quiet enough
If there was an actual emergency, of course our girl would be spayed.

I have a couple of attachments to post, here is one.
Neutering Dogs. In Depth | Doglistener

I will have to find the other so will post that later.
.

 

More information.
Neutering Your Dog – Making an Informed Decision

Neutering dogs. It it really necessary and what's the best age to do it?

 

Sitka is getting castrated on the 29th when he turns 18 months. I had read some articles on this saying 6 months+ was fine and other saying 24 months+. We took the vet's advice to do it now as he has one undescended testicle that is too warm inside him and a cancer risk.

 

That certainly adds another whole perspective to the decision, I think it makes the choice far clearer.

 

Funny this option is never offered to men in the same situation.

 

Why not just remove the problem one
Can some men still get an erection like some dogs do after castration?
Maybe i'm just getting too silly now

 

We have a neighbor with a load of dogs and the only male has been castrated, he will still mate and get a tie with a female but obviously without a pregnancy.

 

Never been to boarding school? I can think of a few priests for whom the operation would have proved beneficial.

 

The simple scientific fact is that both dogs & bitches need the surges in Testosterone/Oestrogen surges that occur during puberty to trigger the timeous closure of the Epherial Plates(aka growth plates). Remove the main source of these hormones severely delays the closure & less dense & longer bones than normal, it can also affect joint formation. Testosterone/Oestrogen are produced in smaller quanties in other glands, but the amounts are miniscule when compared to the genitals.
These hormones also affect behaviour & in a nervous dog the lack can make the behaviour worse, it can make a normal dog reactive.
Prepubescent neutering is a quite straight forward operation on young dogs & is used by vets as a substitute for responsible ownership.
At one time we had 11 entire dogs & bitches, including 3 active stud dogs. No unplanned matings or litters despite the fact they all lived in the house. When the bitches were mature & had a planned litter or it was decided that they were not ever to be bred from, they were spayed to prevent pyometra, which is directly hormone related.
I currently have 2 castrated rescues, one was castrated before he came to UK & the other when her was 3 years old as part of the rescues rules.
I took one of my dogs to have a titre test sample drawn before he was vaccinated aged 10 weeks, the newly qualified vet for some reason checked his testicles & found only 1, he immediately told me he needed castrating immediately as the retained one would go cancerous. I asked him which one was missing, much to the vet's surprise, I then told him that as the pup was starting to teeth, his testicles were playing Yo-Yos, a senior vet heard our conversation & popped his head into the room, he advised the young vet not to try to tell me anything about dogs testicles as I probably knew more than he did. . The pup matured, had two fully descended testicles :& died aged 15 1/2 still entire, never had a day's illness other than getting old