The Neutering Debate
If you live in San Diego (or many cities in the U.S.) the idea of spaying and neutering is ingrained in the deepest parts of your soul as the ethical choice. It's just what good animal parents do! Of course it is, how else would we be able to send our pups to daycare or romp in the 15+ dog parks and beaches without fearing little baby Spot Jr. might appear? All kidding aside, we know it is the ethical choice to encourage spaying and neutering because of the 8 million animals taken in yearly by shelters and the others that don't get lucky enough and end up being euthanized (which, sadly is about half)*. So my question is not whether spaying and neutering is the right thing to do, but rather "What if we're not doing it right?"
I was checking out the blog of one of my favorite authors, Patricia McConnell (animal behaviorist) and her post "The Plot Thickens: Spay Neuter Effects & the Health of Our Dogs" caught my eye. I've generally held the belief that with male dogs, one should hold off until after puberty to allow them to develop fully before removing vital hormones for development. I hadn't researched further, and don't go around telling people they're wrong for neutering young (the Humane Society neuters VERY young) because the truth is I don't really know for certain that waiting to neuter improves the health or life of our pups. What I do know is that from my experience all of the male pups I've met who were intact (not neutered) or neutered at a later age (closer to 2 years or older) had much better muscle development and bone structure (to the naked eye of course) than almost every other pup that was neutered early.
From McConnell's post I was directed to a canine sports article written by Chris Zink DVM, Early Spay-Neuter Considerations for the Canine Athlete: One Veterinarian's Opinion. When I was informed by my vet that spayed females have a propensity for incontinence at an earlier age I did start to wonder about the effects of spaying and neutering overall, beyond the muscular development of males. This article is an interesting opinion of actual findings related to full development. But what I loved more about it is the offering up of a different option. Why not offer male pups vasectomies leaving the testosterone present? Sure, you may need to take out a loan to pay for all of the dog training you'll need but maybe it's worth it. However, I've know plenty of crazy/dominant/marking neutered pups so don't be so sure that neutering will prevent that stuff. Leaving the ovaries in females seems like something that should be explored further but it definitely seems to bring up far more issues and concerns.
Rukus, neutered at 1.5 years old despite the plan to wait until 2 because he needed a tumor removed from his foot, so we did it at the same time. Now he is a sleeping old man, turning 16 years old in 5 days.
