Phaedra,
I think that might work. I'll contact the rescue. I'd be willing to cover the cost. It is well worth it, particularly for a larger dog. I'll contact them and ask about this. Explain I plan for him to be a working dog. Hopefully, they'll allow this.

The concern for rescues is population control. So if they are reasonable, and not totally rigid with rules, I don't see why they wouldn't want to save some money! And, I think it shows you are committed to the dog, if you are willing to spend right away...

Many vets will not do a vasectomy on a male dog because desire for that procedure is very common in the animal sex crowd...

and there's your horrible trivia for the day!


My dog was cut at 1.5 years (did nothing to change his behavior and if tested hormonally he's still a stud, a condition common in a small percentage of male dogs). Ideally I would have waited until he was two but things came up. Personally I think non-breeding stock should be done at 2-3 years to insure that if things go wrong in the future and the dog ends up with someone who isn't as responsible that there are no accidents. Females dogs should be spayed for their later life as well or if you have no intention of breeding them. The risk of pyometra increases with each heat she goes through without being bred.

Hey Kiersten, looks like you had fun!! And there’s those awesome runners again. Love em.

 Quote: Kiersten Lippman

and may have some timber wolf in him.

IMHO, I think this “may” is a very slim possibility. They may be going here because of facial markings but nothing else suggests timber or any other wolf content. The body shape, droopy ears (wolves and hybrids are born with them erect) and the whippet tail just to point out the obvious. But he is a cutie none the less. Sounds like he’ll get a good home fairly quickly.

And what a great choice with Turk. Good looking boy and sounds just perfect for you. I hope you’re able to have the vasectomy done. I had no idea this was an option. Learn something new every day here.

Thanks for the pics and please keep us posted.

Oh well, this is the response I got:

"While I understand your concerns about early neuter this is not a subject we will budge on. Vasectomy are not always 100% but its not just the prevention of unwanted litters that has us neutering early. We also want to avoid behavioral issues that develope with an intact male dog. Unfortunately, you have to remove the testicles to remove the hormones. Also, its not just the neutering that has an influence on the working ablities of dogs. When those studies were done they were only taking into account the age of the dogs, when they were fixed, and if they had injuries that could be related. What they didn't take into account was the dogs diet, weight, activity, ect. An agility dog should not be doing the jumps and really working hard on their joints until after they are 18mon. old to prevent joint damage. I have seen many working dogs that were fixed young and do just fine. My own female dog was in weight pulling prior to us moving up here. She was fixed young aswell. Many of the working sled dogs are fixed and do just fine at it. Honestly, just because some people at a club (referring to the skijor club) didn't agree with early spay/neuter doesn't mean they are correct.

I would still love to adopt Turk to you but he would be fixed as planned."

Too bad. The vet today told me the risk of CCL rupture was pretty high with early neuter. I'm not sure it's worth the risk.

Has anyone done a controlled study of this issue or are the arguments vs.
early neuter based on anecdotal information?
I could see how a large breed mainly kenneled dog fed kibble and castrated early, lacking some drive to exercise because the dog lacks testosterone, might lay about more, get fatter etc, and then lack muscle tone necessary to protect joints. I could see that happening, how lack of bulk (testosterone sure adds bulk) could contribute to a more "string-bean" appearance of the overall animal, and have growth plates close later. On the other hand, colts, calves, lambs, pigs etc. are all routinely castrated well before maturity and these animals do not suffer from a rash of blown out joints. The meat animals are "harvested" often before full maturity but colts are not.
You could also supplement testosterone orally thru the growth period. It is cheap. Getting the right dose could be a little hard as he grows but it could be figured out.

Interesting Betty, the supplement idea. There was one study with maybe 1,000 golden retrievers, but I haven't found the actual article, just reference to it. Also, golden retreivers are notorious for hip and joint issues anyway.

This would be a fairly easy study to conduct because it would be purely observant- the animals involved could just be pets with routine exams yearly. Ideally, you'd use dogs from the same litter, some early neutered, others not.

For folks reading : I called the vet schoolin Madison( their pharmacy) and I don't think there is an oral testosterone, it has to be given by injection. I WAS WRONG !
No one seemed to have heard of giving a castrated dog back it's testosterone to enhance skeletal development. So, perhaps that's not such a great idea.

I missed this... but yeah...
Unless you want liver failure, you never want oral testosterone.

Oh, wow, thanks Aaron.

For Betty, or those interested, this article: http://www.medhelp.org/user_journals/show/144600/EVIDENCE-BASED-APPROACH-TO-NEUTER-SURGERY-AND-INTRODUCTION-TO-EVIDENCE-BASED-MEDICAL-PRACTICE is a (as much as possible) non-biased overview of all the recent studies on early (or traditional) spay/neuter. It also explains some of the analysis invovled in retrospective studies- in a form simple enough for someone like me who sometimes struggles with statistics and odds ratios.

Betty, all the references are included below the article, and he does discuss some fairly comprehensive studies, that included over 1,000 dogs.

This is the best, most recent, and most complete summary I've found so far. It was a worthwhile read.