I'm very curious as to everyone's opinion on when a good time to neuter(or spay)would be. I know this has been discussed in other topics, and that Ed has articles(and has said to wait until at least 8 months). I ask this because I have a male Chocolate Lab and through the contract with the breeder, I have to have him neutered in order to get his AKC (limited)registration(which I have no problem with, even though he is a fine specimen of a lab and would be an awesome stud dog). He is 6 months old right now and I was planning on waiting til he was 8 months, but after reading a topic in this forum, maybe I should wait a bit longer. Not having any trouble with dominance issues or any challenges yet, but there's the fact that I have an intact female GSD(won't be in heat again til Sept.)so it kinda puts me in a position to make an, almost radical, choice. I want him to develop properly hormonally and physically. Any advice?

i personally wouldn't neuter before the dog is full grown, and that varies from breed to breed. in my own breed, it means not neutering before 18 mos. my personal preference is to not neuter at all unless there is a health issue. if you keep your dog confined and leashed, there is no issue of creating unwanted puppies. separate your dogs when your bitch is in heat.

why do you need to register the dog with the AKC at all if you are not breeding or showing? you don't need the registration. do what is right for your dog's health. and make certain he doesn't ever have the opportunity to create an unplanned litter.

the dogs i have seen that were neutered young do not develop properly. think of how a steer looks compared to a bull.

of course if you are concerned about preventing male behaviors like marking and aggression, neutering may help if done very young. no later than 8 mos., i would think. but from what i have seen in my own dogs, i doubt personality is changed much by neutering.

i'll be interested to see what others recommend!

I won't neuter my 8 month old Lab before age 2, and probably won't do it at all unless his health requires it. I agree with Alice...they need the hormones to develop properly. I've seen a fair number of neutered and unneutered male labs and there IS a difference in the way they look.

(Of course, the "great" state of California may soon decide they know what's best for MY dog and take the choice away from me...but that's a whole other topic)

I'd wait until he turned 2. I got a 20 m/o male in September last year, and have waited until this spring to get him neutered.

Just keep your dogs seperated while your female is in heat. I know it's easier said than done, but it can be done!

Alice,

It sounds like you have experience with dogs neutered early, late and not at all - from this, can you comment on any physical changes in dogs neutered AFTER maturity? I'm thinking specifically about muscle/tone loss. Some people claim no difference, others say that previously well muscled dogs quickly lose bulk and definition after neutering. It's probably much more obvious in short haired breeds, so maybe your background with mastiffs can shed some light on this... as per your example (and I'm not changing to subject to bovines bulls certainly look much different than steers, but if castrated later in life, do they revert to that thinly muscled model, or keep all the muscle that their early exposure to testosterone helped create?

natalya, you know, i'm not really experienced enough to answer your question. the only time i ever had to neuter an older male, it was because he was sick, and so it is very hard to compare his condition before and after and pick out if anything was due to the neutering v. just recuperating from a very difficult surgery and getting older. we all lose muscle mass as we age, as a general rule.

i can't say i noticed anything about this particular dog that was different post-neutering that i thought might be due to the neutering. he seemed pretty much the same to me. he was neutered at 8 years old and lived to well past 11. he was still backpacking at age 9, though with less stamina than in younger years. but we were at high elevations and tolerance to elevation gain becomes less as we age, too. really hard to say what caused which.

it seems logical to me that muscle tone would be lost, but i'm not a physician or a vet.

 Quote: alice oliver

why do you need to register the dog with the AKC at all if you are not breeding or showing? you don't need the registration.

I agree with this. But if I were to do competition obedience with him or agility, would I need the registration? That's the thing. I want him to grow properly and be healthy and I'd like to do one of those two sports with him. AND it would mean that I spent a pretty penny for a dog that isn't registered. Then again I won't be able to breed this wonderful specimen of a choc lab anyway for what I paid for him *shakes head* but there's the competitions.

Yes, you do need an ILP (limited registration number) to compete in AKC obedience (and, I assume, Obedience and Rally).

Thank you. Good to know.

Should females be full grown before spaying? What are the benefits to waiting?