I know that I've read on here that it's not a good idea but I saw a dog the other day who was by one of my boys and his hind movement was atrocius, he was gangly and tall.  People were worried that he had problems with his hips but thankfully they are fine.  Do you think that being neutered before 6 months can cause such problems?  As I think I remember people saying previously he was extremely tall for his age and for the breed.

Early neutering causes the growth plates to close late so teh long bones continue to grow, alswo bone decnsity is affected and the dogs do no widen in chest as they should and stay slabsided.

Thanks for this, what you describe is exactly the way that this dog is.  I was extremely worried as my males hipscore is high for the breed but people still want to use him as his pups are getting good scores and he's just a brilliant ambassador for the breed.  Luckily this dogs hips are absolutely fine.

Our old vet advised us to have our last dog neutered at 6 months of age - stupidly we took his advice, Spangler grew into a very long legged retriever, although he had problems with his hips before he was neutered I don't think the way he grew so quickly helped him at all :(
Someone did post a link on here a while ago about the problems with early neutering - I can't find it now, but maybe if you do a search you'll find it.

>Someone did post a link on here a while ago about the problems with early neutering - I can't find it now, but maybe if you do a search you'll find it.

I think it was Nikita who posted about the effects of early neutering if that helps at all...very interesting it was too.

This is the site that a few people have sent me to for information.