My pups are almost 8 weeks old. Sods law is in play as the boy I like best is partially lacking in the testicular department. I do know that some dogs in his line have been slow to drop but I also know a couple of distant relatives did not drop at all. How soon should I start to panic? I had wanted to keep a bitch but there is just something about this boy.

OK we get this all the time. Twice I have kept a boy and been told they could not find one or both of the testicles. Although I had him neutered at 2 when I realised I could not cope with the 2 sexes running around and then having to be separated - the first of these matured perfectly normally and neutered or not he has been a  brilliant stud dog!!! Goes through the whole process to this day.
The other also was fine although was re-homed at 6 months. It is also the most common thing pointed out by the new owners vet.
My experience is they are so tiny at 8 weeks they can hide away. I hope your lad is the same although of course undescended testicles do happen.

With some of ours, it's not unusual for them to wait until 7 or 8 months to drop, so you really do need a claivoyant!!!  ;-)   New owners have been told at 8 weeks that they will have to neuter their dogs because of this...........errrr...hmmmm...

Jo

....and the more you check the more they withdraw them so you can't find them, and get more worried, so you keep checking, and they keep hiding and ...so on and so on.... ;-)

I'd say it depends on where it is. If it can be felt in the vicinity, I'd take a chance. If it cannot -no, I have said that never again will I risk it. They have to be there at 8 weeks for me. So far I have never had one drop late (if not very close) in EITHER of my breeds OR my cats. If they're not there they've never turned up hence I'm not prepared to risk it again. I also don't think it is a good idea to breed from late developers as it's just creating more late developers so would not be all that happy with one that appeared at say 6 months.

Such a pain. Can you not run him on with a bitch for a while longer to see if all comes right?

I bought a male where we could feel both ready to drop - as we thought - until about 13 weeks, so I was confident. One, then disappeared, never to re-appear, so once bitten twice shy for me.

>I also don't think it is a good idea to breed from late developers as it's just creating more late developers so would not be all that happy with one that appeared at say 6 months.

Ditto this, it's amazing how common it seems to be when you've had one yourself and everyone then tells you that 'oh yes, they had one too'.

> xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">I'd say it depends on where it is. If it can be felt in the vicinity, I'd take a chance. If it cannot -no, I have said that never again will I risk it. They have to be there at 8 weeks for me. So far I have never had one drop late (if not very close) in EITHER of my breeds OR my cats. If they're not there they've never turned up hence I'm not prepared to risk it again. I also don't think it is a good idea to breed from late developers as it's just creating more late developers so would not be all that happy with one that appeared at say 6 months.

100% agree with you Marianne, I have never known a dog or cat drop another testicle as it has got older.   In fact when they've been neutered, the 'missing' testicle has been found in places where it would never drop!  Friends with a R&W setter were told to try homoeopathic remedies to get their dog's ball to drop...if only it were that easy!

Things are looking up. I am sure I felt 2 tonight! I just hope it stays down.