Dog Spaying and Neutering – Should You Consider it?

Dogs — By Mario Monk on August 29, 2010 10:10 pm

Should I spay my dog? It is one of most asked questions to veterinaries. Many owners feel huge responsibility when taking this step and they want to be sure if it won’t harm dog’s health and self-esteem.

To make this answer short – yes, you should consider spaying and it won’t harm your dog’s health or self-esteem. In most cases.

We’ll talk more about this last sentence – “In most Cases!” And let’s take a closer look to advantages and disadvantages of spaying and neutering a dog. Both male and female.

Breeding and puppies

A vet I know once told me about a dog owner, that, asked if his dog is spayed, answered: “No, not recently”. Although this answer is a bit funny and made me laugh, in reality it is not funny at all. This has proven that there are people who does not know one well-known fact: spaying is irreversible.

Spay your dog only if you don’t want puppies from that dog. Ever! Spaying cannot be done backwards. Once spayed – dog will stay spayed for the rest of its life.

If you are not considering to use your dog for breeding I personally would recommend to spay your dog. It helps to prevent unwanted pregnancy for bitches and keep wandering around under control for males. Shelters are full with unwanted puppies – don’t add to that number.

Behavior changes

Spaying or neutering may (and in most cases will) affect behavior of your dog. Spaying and neutering triggers huge changes in hormonal system of your dog which means that many behavior problems should fade out. This includes:

• Aggression – many studies show that most dogs are getting calmer and their aggression lowers after sterilization.
• Territory marking – territory marking is highly related to your dogs sexual needs. No sexual needs, no territory marking. In most cases.
• Wandering – it is common problem for male dogs. When the time is right they do wander around looking for a female. Spaying eliminates a need for mating and wandering around.
• Disobedience – sterilized dog hormonal system changes. Their activity lowers, agressivity lowers and need to be a “rebel” lowers.
• Howling, barking, growling

Take a note that behavior problems in older dogs  are not just something that is caused by hormonal activity. Over years all problems mentioned above may become a habit. Thus, solving behavior problems by spaying or neutering may be harder for older dogs and it might involve some training as well.

Health

Health issues regarding spaying or not spaying is a double-edged sword. On one hand it may exclude some illness and on the other hand it may cause some as well.

At first, be aware if your dog has any illness that makes high risk when using anesthesia. In most popular cases it is heart related problems, but might be others as well. Always mention it to your vet before making any surgery.

Sterilization removes possibility of some genital related diseases. In example – inflammation of prostate for males or uterine inflammation and mammary tumor for female dogs.

On the other hand sometimes female dogs encounter urinary incontinence after sterilization. Possibility for this happening is very small, but this fact does not help if it happens to your dog.

Obesity is a very common problem in sterilized dogs. Spaying lowers activity of most dogs. This means that you have to change diet of your dog after sterilization. Many dog owners do not know that.

Diet changes might include switching to food that is specially produced for sterilized dogs or food with lower amount of fat or by just lowering amount of food you gave your dog before sterilization.

And of course you have to keep in mind that sterilization is a surgery. And there are always some risk of complications (and even death) during any surgical operation or postoperative period. And even if everything goes well, first week or so will be hard for you and your dog as well.

Spayed females are never in heat and spayed males do not pay attention to females in heat

It is very hard to calm a female dog in heat. And it is not much easier with males either when a female in heat is nearby. And it sure is a nightmare when you have both genders at home and male is in heat.

Boys wander around when somewhere nearby (it can be miles away) is a female in heat. This triggers numerous problems for your male dog:

• dog fights and injuries – male dogs are aggressive to other males when competing for attention of opposite sex.
• traffic accidents – when wandering around on streets with high traffic intensity chances to get into accident are pretty huge. A fact that your dog has only one thought in his mind does not help here.
• mean people – those are people who do not like your dog wandering unattended. Especially owners of a female in heat. And you can’t blame them – you are responsible for what you have tamed.

Life is not much easier for female owners:

• restless nights – females in heat are quite nervous. Especially during nights when owner needs to get a sleep. And it is not that easy to calm a female dog when she’s in heat.
• uninvited guests – when my newfie girl was in heat there was a nasty toy-terrier visiting regularly. Did I tell about a dozen of other dogs grazing in my backyard all day and night as well. No need to mention, but it was quite uncomfortable.
• unwanted pregnancy – hopefully I managed to escape this side-effect of having a female dog in heat. However I had several worries about that and numerous nightmares about rising Toy-terrier and Newfoundland puppies.

So, still thinking about spaying or not your dog? Don’t do it if you are planning to use your dog for breeding or you think that dog is not healthy enough to undergo surgery. Otherwise I recommend you to do it. It will save you a lot of trouble and don’t worry – dogs are not like human and they don’t feel like missing something without having sex now and then.
Photos by: lillaladybird, Vorstius, I woz ere, cesarastudillo.

Tags: dog, dog health, dog sterilization, puppy