Decision to spay/neuter pets

[Hisgirl]

There is now science behind the wait-theory. It was published in the Vet. Journals but I don't have the link. I did, however, read the entire published paper and it caused me pause in spaying/neutering my own dogs. We waited until our male was 2 and we are waiting through 1-2 heats for our female.

Did you know other countries have spay/neuter laws that differ wildly from the US? It is actually illegal in some industrialized countries. Other's use a procedure that preserves the ovaries in females and does what is equivalent to a vasectomy in males.

Science is an evolving art so we should expect changes as we learn. Breeding an animal irresponsibly makes you look like a yahoo.

 

[DonaldnDaisy5]

Our first golden (f) we had fixed as soon as she was old enough. However, she developed severe hip dysplasia. Somehow she learned to compensate for her back hips and lived to the ripe old age of 16 before simply laying down for a nap and not,getting up. However we worried about her hips constantly so when we got the puppy (m) we talked with our vet at length. He suggested we wait until he was 2 so that his development continued at a normal pace to help hips/muscles/joints be as strong as they could be. Obviously if behaviors were a concern then we'd need to reevaluate what would be best for all of us.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Of course not, but it still doesn't mean they should be breeding.... There's more to it than just putting a male and female of a breed together. Randomly breeding poor specimens is how we end up with lines of dogs with genetic health problems, temperament issues, etc. Most people have a nice dog but it doesnt make them breeding material... most people also have no clue about genetic screening. Also Joe schmo isn't always screening homes and typically not writing spay/neuter contracts and so on. There's a ripple effect.

Of course and I assure you my stepmom and dad were very informed before the made the decision and they had the papers for their dogs plus the dog's parents plus the dog's parent's parent's for review of health issue and if some had cropped up no way would they have gone through with it. And they were under the careful watching of their vet.

I wouldn't suggest someone just up and decide to have two of their dogs mate and bam you've got puppies.

I was responding to the OP who said "There are already too many dogs looking for homes, the world doesn't need more puppies looking for home due to irresponsible owners!" Because there are owners who are being responsible even though there are def. ones who are not. If no dog ever had puppies eventually (though granted it may take a while) you woudn't have any new puppies period (the goal is to have less puppies not no puppies ever). But you also have people who adopt the "Christmas/birthday" puppy and return it when their child doesn't play with the puppy or the puppy becomes too much work. Or you have the people who adopt then later on when a baby comes along they return the dog*. Those contribute to shelters being full.

*caveat that sometimes it's in the best interest of the puppy/dog to be returned to the shelter/adoption/foster place

 

[Sleepy425]

Of course and I assure you my stepmom and dad were very informed before the made the decision and they had the papers for their dogs plus the dog's parents plus the dog's parent's parent's for review of health issue and if some had cropped up no way would they have gone through with it. And they were under the careful watching of their vet.

I wouldn't suggest someone just up and decide to have two of their dogs mate and bam you've got puppies.

I was responding to the OP who said "There are already too many dogs looking for homes, the world doesn't need more puppies looking for home due to irresponsible owners!" Because there are owners who are being responsible even though there are def. ones who are not. If no dog ever had puppies eventually (though granted it may take a while) you woudn't have any new puppies period (the goal is to have less puppies not no puppies ever). But you also have people who adopt the "Christmas/birthday" puppy and return it when their child doesn't play with the puppy or the puppy becomes too much work. Or you have the people who adopt then later on when a baby comes along they return the dog*. Those contribute to shelters being full.

*caveat that sometimes it's in the best interest of the puppy/dog to be returned to the shelter/adoption/foster place

It isn't just about papers. AKC papers are virtually useless - as long as you pay your money you can get them. A dog shouldn't be bred unless it has superior lineage. The dog should have some kind of proof of it being superior - dog shows, hunting competitions, etc. Being a responsible breeder can be a full time job to ensure the betterment of the breed.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

It isn't just about papers. AKC papers are virtually useless - as long as you pay your money you can get them. A dog shouldn't be bred unless it has superior lineage. The dog should have some kind of proof of it being superior - dog shows, hunting competitions, etc. Being a responsible breeder can be a full time job to ensure the betterment of the breed.

I assure you the papers they had reflected good lineage but on the same token it's a fine line to walk in regards to only looking at good lineage. Health concerns were far more important to my stepmom and dad than "this dog's mother was a show dog" or "this dog has excellent coat", etc.

And I wouldn't call my stepmother and dad breeders in the sense that most people picture in their minds. They did breed 1 time and spayed the female dog after that but did not breed over and over and over.

But as far as your point about dogs shows, hunting competitions, etc there are some bad people that exist in those worlds too. Just because your dog is a show dog doesn't mean you are exempt from issues of breeders of non-show dogs, etc. I've seen some horrific cases of puppy mills where the lineage was great and the dogs could produce appealing dogs for shows but the treatments of the mother dog was terrible. That I know though doesn't reflect on the other responsible breeders out there. There's also the fact that dogs bred for show dogs and hunting competitions have been bred sometimes for explicit characteristics that were not original to the breed but because there are more desirable characteristics..those characteristics can create at times a slipperly slope of health risks, etc over time if they are continued to be bred with specific characteristics in mind.

 

[because]

My show/working dogs, depends. If they pass all the health tests, temperament tests, and conformation wise are one of the best representatives of their breed, they are not spayed until after breeding age. That does not mean they will be bred as myself and co-breeder are very, very picky and will not put anything on the ground unless there is a waiting list and we are in a position to take back every puppy we breed at any point in its life in case the owner can no longer take care of it.

Every other dog is immediately spayed/neutered when vet recommends. Puppies are spayed/neutered or have strong, vetted spay/neuter contracts. I do my best to make sure my puppies never end up in a backyard or designer breeding situation or shelters.

 

[monsterkitty]

Our vet will not spay or neuter until at least 6 months of age. He prefers to actually wait until they are older. Our Golden, the guy in my picture, has bone cancer. One of the stats we've read over and over again in study after study shows that a higher percentage of male dogs who get osteosarcoma were neutered before the age of one. Our oncologist stated that yes, this is true, but most dogs are neutered before the age of one so you don't really know for sure. She did state that large breed dogs who are neutered after the age of one do have fewer cases of hip and joint problems.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

I will add spay/neuter information about my favorite animal - rabbits. Many people are surprised to learn that they must be spayed or neutered to improve their health and behavior. As many as 85 percent of unspayed females will develop reproductive cancer by the age of four or five. Since rabbits are prey animals and adept at hiding illness so they don't appear weak to predators, the condition often goes undetected until the rabbit is in severe pain and begins exhibiting symptoms. It's a very painful death that can be 100 percent avoided by having the rabbit spayed. For males, neutering helps eliminate urine spraying and other destructive, territorial behavior.

I fostered two rescued males from the time they were around 10 weeks old. When they reached their teenage stage (around four months of age), they became stinky, snarly, pee-covered little beasts. They went back to the rescue facility to be neutered. After a week, I picked up two sweet, lovely little gentlemen. It takes about a month for the hormones to completely disappear, but these guys were well on their way to being calm, well-mannered and content. My spayed girl is going to have her 14th birthday at the end of this month. There's no way she would have lived this long without being spayed. So yes, I support spaying and neutering for animals.