you can wait longer though if you wnat him to develop more first. Lambert was doen at 6 months and he turned out fine.

Save the cahonies!!

Boo & Clovis' "Bulldogs of Louisiana" fried chicken photo gallery:

http://www.pbase.com/glandry113

In Ontario it is law to have your dog given their rabies shot at 4 months (this is what the vet told me) if the dog bits anyone they will go into full quarentine. I did feel really pressured but I stuck to my guns and said no. I don't mind going in a few times for all of his shots.....so he is due for his rabies then his neuter.....then he is done for a year.

He is a beautiful boy......and very very smart. Mine you Emma is teaching him everything...how to stay calm, sit, sit for breakfast-dinner- and apples.....it is amazing to watch him learn from Emma...

He will pick up a toy and take it over to her to get her to play with him...and of course she does....

They are amazing together.....

Its just that some owners and vets pile way too much stuff on a dog at one time so that they dont have to come back for another appointment.

Aussie/Golden, bet that boy is some pretty.

Good luck

Lynn K

Jak will be neutered at six months. They wanted to give his rabbies shot at four months and I told them no....that we want to wait until at least six months. They will not neuter until his has his rabies shot....

So I have Jak set for his rabies shot the beginning of April and his neuter at the end of April leaving 3.5 weeks between...is this long enough? Jak was born October 7th

Jak is an aussie/golden retriever.....Emma's (our bullie girl) brother.

please dont have the surgery done at the same time he gets his vaccinations, I think that is way too much for his system to take at one time.

Good luck

Lynn K

Ack: Here's the article...


Early spay and neuter article
Stephanie Fox

They’ve been doing it in California for twenty years, but in Minnesota, the practice is still controversial. While early spay and neuter for puppies and kittens is beginning to catch on, even proponents disagree on some of the details.

The movement was begun by Marvin Mackie, a veterinarian from San Pedro, California, whose two clinics spay and neuter 25,000 young dogs and cats every year. Locally, it’s the shelters who have been at the forefront, seeing early spay and neuter as the best way for curtailing an out-of-control dog and cat population explosion. Kevin McDougall, at the Minnesota Valley Humane Society, thinks that the early spay and neuter policy at their no-kill shelter may have contributed to cutting in half the number of unwanted puppies he sees surrendered. “It’s easy for a intact dog to slip out the back gate, no matter how careful a pet owner tries to be,” he says.

McDougall says that last year, his shelter neutered and spayed nearly a thousand dogs, cats, puppies and kittens. Many potential adoptive parents of shelter puppies were surprised to learn that their new eight-week old dog had already been through the surgery, and a few were concerned about negative effects on behavior or health of their new dog.

Some of these misgivings have a basis in fact, and contradictory medical studies only add to the confusion. Female dogs, according to some studies, have a higher rate of urinary incontinence after early spaying. Other studies show that this problem is not related to the age of the dog, and is often treatable.

Male dogs spayed at six months of age sometimes, but not always, end up looking less muscular, more like the females of their breed. Mike Strecker, a veterinarian at Riverbend Pet Hospital in Hastings says that this, and the whole idea of neutering, can be a problem with some owners. “For a lot of guys,” he says, “it’s a personal thing. It’s a very common reaction.”

Behaviorists like Petra Mertens of the U of M Veterinary School, insist that the practice may actually make dogs better pets. Dogs, she says, are often more playful than their non-spayed and neutered counterparts. There is also a decrease in marking and status related aggression among male dogs who have been neutered while young.

There are other benefits, as well. The incident of mammary tumors in females spayed before their first heat is significantly lower than in animals who are spayed later. Prostate cancer rates are also lower in dogs neutered early. And, of course, females avoid the risks of pregnancy and female cancers.

Dog owners, now being asked to go against decades of advice, can find this all confusing. Six months was once considered the recommended age for neutering. The common wisdom is now that older the animal when neutered, the fewer the positive health and behavior effects. “There are a lot of myths out there,” says Mertens. “Myths like a dog has to go through heat or have one litter, but these things simply aren’t true, and believing them doesn’t do the dogs any favors.”

Veterinarians and pet owners are only slowly accepting the procedure. Strecker was once a skeptic, but he has come to fully support early spay and neuter practices. The advantages for pets and their owners, from a decrease in cost (spay and neuters prices are calculated on the weight of the dog) to positive health effects, are bringing vets like Strecker around.

“Some of the older vets are getting used to it,” he says. “We’re finding that younger animals seem to do better during surgery. Vets have to make adjustments; liver, kidney and respiratory centers aren’t so developed. Hypothermia and blood glucose levels can be a problem, so we make adjustments. In my experience, they wake up quickly and smoothly. An hour after surgery, they are standing up, wagging their tails. Even the rate of recovery in very young dogs is faster since young animals, like young humans, heal faster than older ones.”

At one time, it was prudent to avoid any sort of elective surgery on very young dogs because of problems with anesthesia. Earlier kinds of anesthesia, mainly injectables, were administered per pound of dog. But individual dogs could react differently and sometimes even the best vets could miscalculate amounts. With older (and therefore larger) animals, vets had more leeway. Today, the new anesthesias are allowing veterinarians to do surgeries safely on younger and younger dogs.

“More and more vets are doing it, but it’s not the main stream by any means,” Strecker says. “To our average client, we tell them, neuter at six months or under.”

Veterinarian Linda Wolf is also not so sure that neutering or spaying at eight weeks is ideal for non-shelter puppies. Recently, the American Veterinary Medical Association published a statement approving early spay and neuter for pet population control. But, Wolf contends that the ages of eight to 12 weeks is a ‘fear period’ in a puppy’s behavioral growth, a theory backed up by studies published in the American Veterinary Association’s journal.

“You want to keep a dog that age very safe and protected because anything that happens during that stage can have a negative effect on adult behavior,” she says. “This is just my opinion, but, at shelters with adolescent dogs, eight to twelve age might be the prudent time. But, as a vet and behaviorist, I would love to see it done between three and four months of age.”

While even expert opinion differs somewhat, the trend seems to be supporting early spaying and neutering. “Every year we euthanize wonderful dogs, and we could prevent this,” says Mertens. “People don’t always take the responsibility. Even if there are some disadvantages in some animals, the pros outweigh the cons. Overall early spay and neuter will save many more lives.”

This is a very long answer. I did an article about this issue for a local dog magazine. Here's the article. Some of the board members have read it already. Thise folks should ignore this, but I hope it gives you some answers.