We weren't going to get our pup fixed, til he starting marking inside the house. He quit marking after he was fixed. He was 14 months old.

I’d behave to.

We have a male Pekingese that's neutered, still marks when he gets mad at the dog walkers, next door neighbors, rabbits, the ding from the ring camera, slow moving cars.......

He thinks he's 200 pounds and is protecting the castle, but he can't get to the enemy and gets frustrated....he wears a "power" belt to catch the oops.......lol

I had my lab spayed before her first heat. She's 3.5 years old now and shows no adverse changes. She's mellow and smart and goes at it hard during retriever training. I believe she'd run herself to death if I let her, very high energy when it comes to that.

She is my first female, always had male labs all my life. I am pleasantly surprised by the differences.

None of my males were neutered. I have a new male, he's coming up on 12 weeks old. I'm considering having him neutered at some point in the future. Mostly to curb the desire to roam and mark. IDK how it might affect his prey drive/hunting ability though.

I had my male mt. cur neutered, didn't lessen his prey drive one bit. Might have made it stronger even. We had him done at 8 months, hoping to "calm" him down a bit. No real behavioral change at all.

Good to know K Snow. So it didn't curb his marking or roaming?

Never really had an indoor marking issue. Everything outside got peed on. And roaming? He was a cur. Off leash/e-collar and he thought he was hunting. He'd be gone in a flash chasing something.

No, I never had an indoor marking issue either. Now that you mention that I guess that is what's meant. LOL. I was talking about the boys walking around the property every time they go out and peeing on everything including garden plants and and cats that get too close.

The male labs are sneaky, they stand real still and hope you forget about them when you go back inside. Then they're off to see if any of their girlfriends want to fool around. They'll slip off at night too if we don't put their headlights on them (e-collars with LED lights that let us know exactly where they are). They don't usually roam with the headlights on. I think they realize we can see them in the dark.

We had my wifes dog fixed when she had stuck pups nearly killed her ( unplaned thought she was to old had not been in heat in 2 years found out we were wrong ). I honestly didnt think she was going to live but had it done to attempt to save her. She has the same activity but in now over 2x as wide (fat) I bout a litter mate for my wife's mom always just through he was naturally fat looks like a barrel. Now I think its just because they had him cut young.

My daughters male German shepherd is under 2 and will not get fixed. She has been training him forna service dog. He is just about the most obedient dog I have seen in person. Yes there are better I just have not got to be around them.

If you want a fat dog get them fixed. You can also avoid some cancers having female dogs fixed, not have any accidental breading, or deall with heat mess.

Not sure i would get another female dog so would not have to worry about it. I won't fix a male

Wife’s golden doodle went in to be fixed the wife got a call the dog was carrying 2 or 3 pups I can’t recall now. It seems she tied her out and the neighbors dog slipped over and did the deed without her knowing. She cycled but she thought that had passed so you never know.

I don’t think spaying or neutering will lead to obesity unless you’re over-feeding and/or under-exercising your dogs.

The spayed female I was talking about above gets 4 cups of quality food a day and gets at least two rigorous training/fetch sessions a day.

Some days we just play with the frisbee. Ten minutes at that and she is wore out. She is a slender 3 1/2-year-old that is just about the perfect weight for a female labrador.

I stopped feeding scraps to our dogs that solved a lot of issues but I hate wasting food so the cats get the scraps now some goes the birds and neighbors ducks and pea fowl that show up.

Not having dogs begging while you’re eating is very peaceful but then the sad eyes that never end were a pain also now nothing. The pup came from a litter of 9 so she gets half her meals a couple hours apart to keep her from getting sick from pigging out plus she gets the puzzle bowl to slow her down.

All our dogs were fixed, and there was a lot of them over the years, none got fat, or had any other issues....if they get fat it's on you, lol , feed em less and work em hard.

Only had one ever done. The only thing that changed was that she no longer could control her bladder and leaked all the time. She had been an inside/outside dog mostly staying in at night. After that she couldn't stay in the house anymore.

I've read that spaying early can have the side effect of urinary incontinence. Luckily, it hasn't been a problem with my female.

Field trial hounds are required to be "whole", the idea is to promote a better breed of dog. Well and good, but I've always had a problem with that. Some dogs are spectacular in the field and even have excellent conformation, but their personalities suck, and shouldn't be bred. ie: To aggressive, too shy/spooky, won't mind even a little bit. I train my hounds to come to a ref's whistle, EVERTIME, without hesitation. That has saved several dogs on a Rabbit that don't know what a busy road is. That whistle sound will carry a long way on a windy day, and can't be confused with another hunter calling their pack.. And puppies are so much fun to raise up.

Didn't calm my female GSP down a bit or make her any of a less of a bull in a china shop. Neutering didn't calm my males down either. Just makes it easier for them to gain weight. Spaying a female is a good idea if you don't plan on breeding her though. Unbred unspayed females can get pyometra, which is lethal quick.

Activity had nothing to do with my dogs weight gain. She was a nice and trim pregnant young 9 year old. Pupd got stuck spayed. Surviving healed up and blimped up. She still gets the same amount of activity as she did before. Nothing else changed. Her brother my mother in law has has been fat since she had him cut young.


Even smash said it can lead to weight gain causing joint and other health issues. Im also sure its individual animal dependent. But I suspect your dog will be fatter than it would have been in a few years may just take longer.

As far as weight gain, spaying and neutering certainly does remove the hormones that help speed metabolism. Most feeding instructions on pet foods are created for intact males and females and unfortunately people do not reduce the amount of calories their pet is allotted.
Most of my clients do not exercise their pet properly at all. Don’t run their dogs like you guys! They have zero idea about the needs of an animal in most cases and then claim that they don’t have the time when I explain this.

I'll never understand the people who get high energy breeds and then end up giving them away/rehoming because "they don't have the time or energy for them." I have had GSPs all my life (since I was in diapers). During spring and summer months my shorthairs get run 20 to 30 miles a week, plus fetch and swimming sessions. During bird hunting season they run 40 to 60 miles per week. And my 2.5 year old female can still be a pain in the butt around the house at times. The other day she hunted 22 miles according to her Garmin GPS collar. Came home and she was trying to roughhouse with me