SOUTHPAW, My dog has had more vets do horrible things to her than you want to think about (anesthesia 4x, surgery 2x most recently with a foot long incision and staples, antibiotics, exams, shots, bordetella vaccs, stool samples, etc) and she still loves them. She'll pull me into the office if I let her. Auster will scare some vets because when she's on the exam table she tries to lick their face. They see a GSD and assume she wants to bite <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> .

That said, I think an animal's reaction to the vet is more of a function of their temperment and socializing than the fact that they are spiteful for having their manhood taken away. I've seen males run into the office to have their neuter stiches removed.

I also think that for the owner not interested in serious training an early neuter (at around six months) is a wonderful thing. The dog recovers more quickly and hormonal behaviors don't become permanent.

I thank your right Lauren this year we dope him up and it did not help at all

My cat is the same way. I do everything possible at home and try to make the other stuff quick. Luckily he's the healthy one.

My dog was neutered at 6 months. He is sweet with people but is fairly dominant with other dogs. Even unneutered ones. He has mounted many dogs over the years (both male and female) trying to make his point, but thankfully has not been in any major fights. Even though he was neutered at an early age he is a big "marker". He will mark many times when I take him to the park we live behind, doesn't even really want to run just stop, sniff and mark. I don't know if not neutering him would have affected him differently. He is not a protection breed and therefore leaving him intact maybe would not have created a significant change. I do know that a neighbour had their 6 month old puppy neutered and he died on the operating table. Since Max was my first dog, I felt better getting him neutered as I really did not know what to expect if I kept him unaltered.

It always amazes me that the people I know who have female dogs can hardly wait to rush them over to the vet to be spayed, but the owners of male dogs look like they are going to pass out if I bring up the "neuter" word. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

i'm also looking for info regarding this topic.

i guess the question i need to think about is:
Do the benefits (if any) out weigh the risks of the procedure?? :rolleyes:

have always heard before that neutering increases the lifespan. is this a myth based on a small % of subjects or what the hell is the real deal? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

i was all set to neuter at 6 months. that time has since past and i have become confused. it appears both his nuts are hanging although there is not much space between his legs so being that his nuts are so damn large one kind of gets stuck up higher, when sitting they both are rolled out on the floor. is this normal?

Some mounting behaviour is more dominance based than sexual. My spayed female huskies will mount
their unneutered brother and gleefully hump away, he is quite accepting about this and can usually be induced into a wild play session which seems to be the object of the "play hump". In different situations mounting can be a much more
serious expression of true dominance and scraps can ensue. Puppies mount each other alot when working out litter order. Many easily excited little house dogs seem to have real propensities for "leg love" and I don't know if neutering has any effect or not in this situation. All I know is that there is situations when spayed and neutered dogs are handy. When all the outfitting dogs came in season at the same time I know I was praying for spayed female leaders and ready to do a couple of on the spot neuters when everybody was acting like hormonally challenged boobs <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> . If it is a dog of breeding potential you just have to work around it but a few "politically correct" dogs can make things run alot smoother at certain times of the year. We ended up separating the kennel into two "tribes" and running the outfitting operation at two separate locations - ah peace at last!. If you do have unaltered females you need a kennel fence set-up
like Fort Knox or really close supervision as it is not the male dogs in your own kennel that make all the problems it is the neighbourhod mutts that
idiots let run loose and the people that own those kind of dogs would never think of neutering
(or spaying, or worming, or vaccinating, or training etc) their dogs! Whew! - excuse that last ranting bit - I just had to vent!

The fact of the matter is..a neutered dog cannot contract or develop protrate cancer cause it just ain't there anymore! Prostrate cancer when found in humans at an early stage is "treatable" but in dogs..it's usually too late and treatable is more of "kept comfortable" or until the owner decides to euthenize.

The fact of the matter is..the majority of unaltered animals are owned by irresponsible pet owners who live in a dream world that thinks every bitch should have a litter so the kids will see where puppies come from or thinks that neutering a male is taking away his "manhood". These are also the same irresponsible people who think that leash laws don't apply to them and allow their dogs to run at large because they have an acre or two and so does their neighbor... Never mind the fact that the neighbor also has unaltered animals who think the same..and...guess what..we have more puppies...Oh..just call the dog catcher..he'll take care of the puppies... Now these are supposed to be highly educated, highly respected individuals of the community.. people that are teaching your children in the schools.

As a responsible pet owner; all of my dogs and cats are neutered and if another cat decides upon taking up residence in my barn...it will be snip, snip, snip as soon as I can trap him/her.

Ah yes but Barbara the people you describe should probably not have dogs in the first place. So sure, neutering/spaying will prevent unwanted litters. There is a definate plus to brainwashing idiot dog owners into thinking they MUST spay/neuter. However for anyone to make a blanket statement(not saying you said this Barbara)that all people who don't spay/neuter are irresponsible dog owners is just silly.

Messing with a dog's endocrine system is just stupid. Leave your dogs unuetered. Also whats this crap about a dogs prostrate not being there when the dog is neutured (gonadectomy)? First of all the prostrate is right behind the dogs bladder. Prostrate cancer is caused by an enlargement of the prostrate gland when testrostore binds to the androgen respectors. Without testicles the dog cannot produce as much testorone.

The people telling you to neuter your animal are the same people telling you to vaccinate your pet every year. Both of them are crap. Could you honestly look me in the eye and tell me that a human child with no testicles would grow up to be a normal healthy person(without the aid of extrogenous testorone) ??? The answer is no. The same applies to dogs.

Robert

 Quote:

Originally posted by wismz:
Messing with a dog's endocrine system is just stupid. Leave your dogs unuetered.

Different does not mean bad by default. I had my wisdom teeth removed. Given, they don't produce hormones but they are part of an even more vital system <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> .

 Quote:

Originally posted by wismz:
Could you honestly look me in the eye and tell me that a human child with no testicles would grow up to be a normal healthy person(without the aid of extrogenous testorone) ??? The answer is no. The same applies to dogs.

Again, "normal" and healthy are not the same thing. The average American doesn't get enough exercise, is overweight, doesn't drink enough water, etc. It's impossible to say since there aren't any studies on the subject of early human neutering (I didn't see you volunteering way back when <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> ). Neutering an adult and a puppy are different as well.

Now, if we are talking about the 0.1% of dog owners that seriously compete with and train their dogs I might be thinking differently. However, the vast majority of dog owners don't know their dog temperment well enough to know what they've got, much less how it changes!

I wish that I could put together a more compelling agrument at this time, but I don't have access to any veterinary journals and there's this little thing called finals <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> .