Thank you, I haven't really noticed the leggyness in early neuters. It will be interesting to see if I notice it now.

 Quote: Jodi Moen

Thank you, I haven't really noticed the leggyness in early neuters. It will be interesting to see if I notice it now.

I never used to pick up on the physiological differences prior to getting my boy, but since Oscar is only reactive with other intact males, I've developed a keen eye for dogs we should probably steer well clear of when we're out walking or at the (human) park. Once you start to pay attention, you often see some very obvious hallmarks of males that have developed with the aide of heavy testosterone: they're often more thickly muscled, leaner in fat, and what I notice most often is a quite blocky head, with more pronounced eye brows. Not to say that an intact male setter will look like a mastiff, but in a line-up of breed specimens, an intact male (or one that was left intact until after adult development) will lean in the above direction of traits.

For some reason there are a number of intact male goldens in my neighborhood, and compared to their neutered-early neighbors, their heads are like night and day - more often than not I can spot them a mile away. People also often comment on how "beefy" Oscar looks, compared to other RRs they've seen - he was neutered at 2 precisely to let him develop naturally this way, and avoid growth plate closure issues down the road.

*These comments are not meant to be pro or anti neuter (as Anne mentioned, the decision of "if" and "when" is entirely personal, and should be based on individual circumstances), they're just something I've noticed myself paying attention to.