Best Age To Spay and Neuter - Page 2

BTW, a dog can have a vascectomy or a tubal ligation that will render them sterile and neither procedure will interfere with their physical development. These dogs will still need to be spayed and castrated at a later age as the bitches will still come into season and the males will still act like, well like males. Intact males are not always the best family pets for kids.

Blitzen, my 3.5 yrs old intact male and my kids (elementary and middle school age) are just best buddies ever, so I disagree with your last sentence.

I am speaking of a male dog that will attempt to mount a child. Most do, some don't. Certainly there are always exceptions. I've had male dogs that would never think of mounting a child while others had no qualms whatsoever about doing it. These dogs would never have bitten or otherwise injured my kids and they were still buddies, but they would still try to mount them if not watched closely. I've noticed that males are most likely to do this just after they are bred or when there is an in seaason female on the premises. If your dog doesn't do that, you have a very good dog. In a dog's mind, mounting family members is a term of endearment LOL.

Even before I started breeding, I never spayed or neutered and never had behavioral problems with males or females. Spaying or neutering does not do what good training does.

You are one in a million, SGBH. Most buyers of pet males would be having a conniption if their newly aquired puppy humped their kids. Instead of training the dog, they'd want to take it to the local shelter or worse. When I was breeding, I recommended that all pets were neutered early; bitches to do all that was possible to prevent breast cancer, males to prevent them from developing bad habits and from roaming. I really didn't care if the males got big heads or if they grew an inch taller than they normally would have. I guess we all have our own prospective on neutering pets.

Just as an anecdote (from someone who's no more than a pet person, really), I essentially never spayed my long-gone wonderful bitch. I determined never to breed her after she failed to please AKC judges (in truth, a grave mistake - wonderful dog worthy of it), but never bothered to spay her. Partly from apathy, partly from being a young kid with no money. Bottom line, though, she never got pregnant to any dog, certified or roaming mutt. I was forced to spay her as a 10yo when she developed tumors in her uterus. She went through that fine. But she lived a good average life and never had a hint of any cancers prior - and she was a wonderfully healthy dog. I've heard some say the "breast cancer" thing is a scam. The uterine cancer seems more logical. Just throwing that out there.

I have 2 females that lived to 14 and 13. One from stomach cancer and the other to bladder cancer. Neither was spayed.

You've been lucky, SGBH. May I ask how long you have owned dogs and how many? My very first ever bitch died from pyo and renal failure when she was 12. Of course there are always going to be dogs and bitches that defy the odds and do not develope breast cancer, pyo, prostate cancer. Not every smoker developes lung cancer either, but why take the chance if it's preventable? Breast cancer is influence by sex hormones in dogs and humans. It's not an old wive's tale, bitches spayed before their first heat have almost zero chance of developing breast cancer. After that the odds of getting cancer increases with every season. There are plenty of articles on these topics on the internet if anyone is interested in statistics.

Since 1982, I have owned 3 males and 6 females that were permanant at our home. Not that it matters, I certainly have not owned enough to develope statistical data on the entire breed. Just "chiming" in on the coat tail of "the Ol'Line Rebel's" post, with my own personal experience.

I support anybody that decides to spay or nueter (unless they want a working dog or REAL GSD then I'll ask why, but that doesn't mean I'll stop them). Will I do it? No, but that's becuase I can protect her from any males, plus when I do get a male, I would rather have him intact, I know I wouldn't want my mans taken away.