Our vet has mentioned that if we want to have Sparky neutered that they do this any time after 6 months. Question is - is it necessary / helpful / in everyone's best interest to have him done, or should I leave well alone? The only potential problem area so far is a little bit of humping - his blanket and hubby's leg. Lots of people have said he has clear show potential, he is from a strong showing pedigree and, being his mum, I think he's wonderful ;)
Well-meaning family are saying that I should leave him intact in case he has potential for breeding later on, but this was not our intention at all when we got him.
I know this can be an emotive issue, but would appreciate any comments / details of your experiences.
Thanks
Tracy

What breed is sparky??In my opinion dogs should be left intact unless for medical reasons,also if nuetered too early they sometimes dont develop and mature properly,this is the case in my breed (rottweiler) as their heads and muscle mass dont develop properly if "done" too early.As for humping legs/furniture he may well grow out of that and nuetering isnt always a cure!!My friends Basset is 3 now and is still intact and has just stopped doing this so much,the help of a behaviourist a year ago didnt help so maybe yours will just grow out of it too!!Just because you decide to keep him intact doesnt mean you have to breed from him.

Leave him as nature intended, only castrated a dog once and he suffered his whole life for that moment of madness. He will go through the teenage stage but he may do that anyway and to castrate just for your convenience IMO is just not on. People who buy male dogs should expect the adolescence to be tiresome. Only castrate for strong medical reasons.

I agree entirely - unfortunately these days it seems to be a part of a vets training to try and act as though it is the "norm" to castrate. Why inflict surgery if it is not needed?

Hi Tracy, the positives about neutering are reducing unwanted litters thus keeping dogs out of rescues/maintaining a good breed standard, reducing male dogs straying after bitches ( vigilance and a good recall will do the same),helping 2 or more males live together in peace, and ending frustration of highly sexed dogs who are not studs ( prepared to stand corrected on this). Vets and charities are pushing neutering just now, mainly for the first reason and there are ways around all of them. We had Morse neutered as our street is full of entire bitches whose owners are less than vigilant,he has no pedigree, we never intended to show or breed, and at the time I felt it kinder to castrate him at 7 months before he knew what he was missing. If I had been on CD I would have waited till about now. Our vet didnt put us under any pressure, we had a constructive discussion, and the vet felt he was mature enough to be done at the time. Morse is still a happy, confident dog and training takes care of any other issues. A friend had her lurcher bitch spayed and she still humps everything, while Morse didnt do it a lot before and dosent do it now.

Whatever you decide make sure you feel 100% its the right thing for you - is there a breeding exclusion on Sparkys pedigree?

everyones view on neutering is different, we had jack our sprocker castrated about a month ago now, we had him casturated mainly for the reason he is a x-breed, and having a pedigree unspayed bitch in the house didnt think it was a good idea to keep him entire, jack being a cross cant be show other than in novelty companion classes so no problem there and if he does prove to be a good detection dog there would be no point in using in for stud as he is a cross. Toby our ckc was casturated when my nan had him mainly because she thought that it would stop him cocking his leg up everything in the house but as he had been used as a stud dog casturating him made no change my nan had him for nearly 3 years and we have had him for 18 mths and he still cocks his leg occassionally, the only thing it changed was that he wasnt interested when tess came in to season.
it is up to you whether you want to have sparky casturated but if you start ringcraft classes and enter some shows see how you and sparky take to it before you make any lasting decisions
tanya

I'm all for not breeding unwanted puppies but why does everyone consider castration or spaying the only way. Bit like taking a sledge hammer to crack a nut, just because a dog is intact does not mean it has to procreate. Have seen both sides of the coin and I for one would never ever remove parts of my dog or bitch again except for urgent medical reasons, have seen what can happen to a neutered dog if you and it are unlucky enough to be one of the odd ones who encounter problems.

Jackie,

"why does everyone consider castration or spaying the only way"

Neutering and spaying are the only 100 percent guaranteed solutions to preventing procreation.

Sorry you had problems with a castrated dog. Being on the wrong side of statistics really stinks, believe me I know how this feels with my "human family" this past year. The fact that a problem is a rarity does nothing to lessen its severity or effect.

Regards,

Stacey

There is an alternative in the case of a male. I accept that taking good care of your dogs may not be fool proof but it should go a long way to avoiding unwanted whelps. Apparently the sort of problems my dog had are not that unusual, but are often put down to being just one of those things. The only unusual effect was that of the feminisation, although this does occur to some extent in all dogs castrated before maturity it does not usually lead to the dog requiring to be given male hormone to make his and his owners life worth living.

we tried the tardak injection before we had jack casturated to see what affect (if any) casturation would have, the deciding point to get him casturated in the end was the fact that he kept mounting tess my lab as jack was already a cross i didnt want to add to the thousands of unwanted crosses that there already are, casturation was the most sensible option

Vasectomy would do the same job, but leave the dog hormonally intact.

Jacki, I wish someone had told me this was an option in April! Agree with you that neutering is not the only way of preventing unwanted litters and is not the solution to behaviour problems, but are the majority of owners able to exercise the vigilance needed to keep in season bitches safe? Today I heard of an unplanned mating which will result in Christmas pups ( lab crosses) despite the bitches owner taking as many precautions as possible - the little madam fled as the door was opened a crack. The owners comment " Aye, ahll get shot ae them nae bother at Christmas, eh?" chilled my blood.

Thanks everybody,
As I thought, it's going to take a lot of thought either way, but appreciate the help. I think I will certainly ride it through for a while, anyway, and look at alternatives if and when necessary. Sparky is a border collie, by the way, Jestony.
Hi Lorelei by the way - have invested in a lunge rein which should arrive tomorrow - Sparky did a disappearing trick through the trees yesterday when a bull mastif came to play with him; I stayed put, sitting by the duck pond, (scared witless), blowing his whistle, and it took him about 2 minutes before he found me (felt like a lifetime)! He belted back, looking like something out of "Lassie come home", sat straight in front of me and did a "finish"!!! I think it might have scared him a bit as he didn't stray more than 10 yards without coming back and licking me today. Everyone on the park is saying there is an in-season bitch being walked, and that their dogs are going loopy, so better safe than sorry! He has now taken to trying to hump his best mate - an Irish red setter puppy who is 17 weeks old. Early teenage hormones? But he's still easier to cope with than my hormonal 12 and 11 year old daughters!

Tracy

Hi Tracy, that Sparky's some boy to be one boy! :) Bet you beat me to it on ebay for the lunge rein. It was away while I was muddling throgh the instructions and wittering about not having a credit card or cheque garauntee card.

Why did the Lab owners not take the bitch to have the whelp terminated. There is no excuse unless you do not know a mating has taken place. If you do not intend to breed your bitch then don't.

Because they didnt know it was possible.

They do now, if they are to be Christmas pups it can only just have happened, tell them and they can go to the vet tommorow.

Thats leaving mum at Christmas not being born at Christmas. The mating occurred in midSeptember - is there still time?

Don't know, best ask the vet, I suspect they may have to spay at this stage.

Hi JackiH, I told them the vet could help but theyre not interested. They think having a litter will be "good for the bairns " and believe its good for the bitch to have a litter. Hey ho, fingers crossed it all goes well for the dogs.

Heard of a lot of 'accidents' like that - will people ever learn - guess not. Lets help it all goes well and they or the dog don't learn the hard way.

<Neutering and spaying are the only 100 percent guaranteed solutions to preventing procreation.>

This is not 100% correct, a male dog can also have a vasectomy which will stop the risk of unwanted puppies but will not alter the male in any other way.
I do not know why it is not more popular.

messano

Absolutely agree,vasectomy is a MUCH better option although i didnt realise this could be done,so like you say if it can then WHY isnt this the preferred option.Leave the poor dogs with their manhood after all there are plenty of men in this world that could do with being castrated!!

When we first got our first boy (nearly 13 years ago) we decided not to have him neutered. He is an inside dog and we have very few other dogs around so it was no problem for him to be entire. A few years later, we added a bitch to our family. We had no intention of breeding them, so we had her spayed. When Cooper was 7 years old, he developed an enlarged prostate, and the vet advised having him neutered to prevent any future problems (cancer etc). For a 7 year old it was a huge operation, and it took him a long time to recover. I decided then that if I ever had another male pup, he would be neautered at a young age to prevent these problems, hence my 14 month old boy was castrated at 9 months old, and I have never regretted the decision.
I often wonder how people cope with multiple dogs if they are entire. Which one would be relegated to a crate for 3 weeks every 6 months, instead of sleeping in my bed?

Pauline

Pauline, sorry to hear about your boy he was unlucky but prostrate cancer is very very rare in the dog and recent studies have suggested that in fact it is more likely in the castrated dog than in the intact one. The only cancer that spay or castration will stop are infection of the tissues that were removed, it will and can effect any of the remaining tissue including the mammary glands and the prostrate.

Hi Messano,

It is correct that neutering and spaying are the only 100 percent guaranteed solutions to preventing procreation.

I meant neutering by the dictionary definition of the term. A vasectomy is neutering, as is castration.

I do not know why vets do not offer castration as an option. I think there is far too much nonsense about saving an animal from some future disease, like cancer, that is used to justify complete surgical removal of all the reproductive organs.

Stacey