Dutch Shepherd Forum

Thanks for all the links!

Chris Zink has information on early spay/neuter in this article too.

http://www.caninesports.com/uploads/1/5 ... s_2013.pdf

Both of ours are still in tact. Xena has just gone through one season and it was much easier to handle than I expected~ probably because I don't let her out of my sight anyway. We are due for our second in February, so I will make the call after that.

I would never ever want to breed either of mine, but I do appreciate them having their hormones. My vet said that their ability to build and retain muscle mass could be affected by spay and neutering. She also agreed to do a vasectomy on Thor but admitted that he would be her first and as such a bit of a guinea pig... I also read a bunch on leaving Xenas ovaries and removing her uterus but the big question is would that last tiny bit of retained uterus bleed? would it get infected? and Would a male dog try to mate with her anyway?

I have noticed that Xena is a bit more jumpy in general since she became mature but I am not sure if that would have happened anyways (it coincided with increased bear activity in the neighborhood, so she could be responding to that).

The military uses both males and females, mostly GSD, Malinois (which they breed)' DS, and Labs.
Dogs are acquired at one to three years of age.
All females are spayed.
Cryptorchid males get neutered.
Normal males are left intact because it's thought this increases aggression.
Military dogs tend to be dog aggressive but this could be from handling choices.

Puberty stops the growth of long bones. Delaying it with neutering makes taller dogs.
I don't know what this says about neutered dachshunds.

Of the 14 dogs I've adopted over the years, all we're spayed or neutered. Most females were spayed young. They lived to be between 13 and 16 years old with little degenerative disease.

One female Siberian who wasn't spayed until she was over 3 years old developed incontinence around age 9. She was treated with inexpensive pills (i believe it was called stilbesterol) for a short time and returned to normal. She was short and heavy boned. She died young at 13 of bone cancer.

The small, neutered young, Chocolate Lab I adopted for my sister at 10 months old for $10 ran at least half his life on my sled team and lived to be 18 years old. Feed 'em right. Keep 'em lean. Work 'em hard.

Based on their rough play, I think my spayed girls may have behaved in a more dominant way toward my other dogs.

Boofies

Speaking from experience with humans and with horses, some things are obvious, some less so but likely. Removing testicles is a smaller operation than removing uterus and ovaries. More anesthesia time, and potential surgical complications for females. In young puppies, not all testes are descended and the vet may remove a lymph node instead of a testis. If so, the retained testis has a high chance of cancer (if kept in the body, this is called cryptorchid) and also increased risk of infection. So at least wait till they are both palpable in the scrotum and you are sure they are both testes.)

Obviously, if you haven't got the tissue you can't get cancer in it.

Castration is the technical term for removing the gonads in either gender. Castration prior to puberty delays bone closure and bones get a little longer. Human castrati tend to be taller than non-castrati, Geldings are taller than stallions, but not as broad as intact males. Same should go for dogs. Late cut horses -- after puberty and perhaps after sexual experience ("proud cut") still have a sex drive and want to mate females, they just can't inseminate. But they have less drive to mount than intact males. Less drive to fight and to round up mares. In humans, a castrati who is late cut still has sex drive but it is diminished.(think stepping on a land mine) A male may have ED and a female who lost her ovaries due to some operation may have arousal insufficiency with lack of lubrication. (Humans may supplement with hormones, and that's a whole 'nother story.) Early cut humans have much less sex drive but still have some, in whatever orientation they would otherwise have had.

Less sex hormone (either estrogen or testosterone) in adult life can lead to osteoporosis (less calcium in a bony matrix, and therefore more brittle bones in older ages). Later castration results in less calcium loss; testosterone lays down more bone than estrogen, which is why women break hips more often than men.

Not sure if this is either interesting (if not, quit readng!!) or relevant, but it is my professional 2 cents, apply it to dogs as you may. V