My pup will be spayed after her first cycle she’s 8 months old and still hyper and kind of a moose when she’s excited and a lot of things seem to excite her. LOL Does that really calm them down some after having the procedure or is that just a tale?

Based on my last 3 dogs, pure lies. LOL.

Definitely helps with hormone driven behaviors but not entirely. Still quite young and will need a lot of mental and physical stimulation to stop being so hyper. Any reason you’re waiting for her to have a heat cycle? If you spay prior to first heat you can pretty much eliminate the risk of mammary carcinoma in the future

That’s what I was wondering.

I've always had my dogs spayed and it never seemed to change their character. GSP, beagle and labs.

The theory is the cycle is needed to balance the hormones for the future development/ balance ?

From what I found on line smaller breeds before they cycle (6) months but larger breeds more towards maturity ? She’s 40+ pounds now.

What breed?

A little bit of everything and yes theres some sheep dog somewhere in there.

I'm thinkin' a fair amount of Beagle too! LOL

Just had this discussion with our vet couple weeks back. Spay or not spay. Wife lost her 13 year old teddy bear to a uterus infection. Vet said old dogs just don't know that they shouldn't come in heat anymore.
We have never spayed any of our dogs and have only had one male. He was fixed because he had health issue early.
Im currently struggling with whether I want to spayed my pup. She has not had her first heat cycle yet. She will be coming up on a year old here in October. My son had his lab spayed after first heat cycle. Been saying dad just do it you won't be sorry. No dealing with dog making mess around the house. No having to watch every where you go when their hot. No acting stupid when your trying to hunt and dogs acting up. So from a handling point of view spayed or neutered dog shouldn't have that distraction to deal with. I think its become common practice with service dogs and search and rescue dogs. As far as when to have them fixed there is now some debate about that. Seem their is different age for different breeds.
Im thinking seen as I dont intend to breed my dog. Im probably going to have her spayed.
What I talked about the with my vet about that. Was how spayed and neutered dogs to me seemed to alway get heavier. He agreed that lots of people think their doing good by fixing their dog to extend their life. Then they dont run the or work them and they become over weight. Leading to whole different bunch health issues.
I know my son's lab is heavier than she should be. We haven't treated her any different that the past dogs.
I don't know.

MTCW

Mac

No it does not calm them down only age.

Unless you can't prevent her from getting pregnant, while she's in heat, I don't recommend getting her spayed. Spaying and neutering dogs makes them somewhat like the people most of don't like, that are sexually ambiguous. It generally kills a lot of a dog's drive. Males develop less muscle. Females are more masculine.

Keith

There are definitely new studies that show holding off on spaying can help with development and even help to prevent future incontinence issues.
I see a lot of folks who like to hold off on neutering and spaying larger breed dogs to help with muscle development. Which is important in protecting their ligaments.
I honestly don’t know what choice I would make if I were to get another young dog.
If it was a male I may not neuter it at all.
A female I would be afraid not to at some point , as the risk of pyometra listed above

Not knowing the correct answer, I can only say what our vet recommended.......

We have a small dog, 13lbs full grown. When she was a pup we asked about this and she (the vet) wanted us to get her fixed before her first cycle.
I don't know the reasoning.

That what my internet search said smaller dogs before they cycle before 6 months and larger dogs later first year or more so after they cycle.

Might be some pit in there she has the neck of a rut buck.

Thanks elsmasho..
This is what I was trying to get at with my post. Some new thinking on the subject.

Mac

My family has had female labs, spayed and not. Mine have been the not. The nots were a pita during heat cycles but stayed more athletic longer into their life.

I will add, spayed or not they would all live to about 11 after being hunted hard, from ruffed grouse to fetching goldeneye in icy November water.

I take her out for zoomies to burn off energy plus the has a golden doodle thats young and dumb so they entertain one another it’s good for them. The outside cats are her biggest distraction they make it tough to keep her attention. I took her to MO a few weeks ago and she was a different dog very focused less stupid.

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

I like my mutts worse dog I ever had was a pure breed black lab that was very aggressive over breeding issue probably snapping at people and jumping through windows just a huge risk. Best dog I ever had a mutt that was an amazing companion he knew what I was thinking.

Only ever owned male hunting dogs until my current dog.
Males were never spayed. Some social issues with a couple of them.
Not sure if it ever was not a concern in the back of my mind..
Doubt if knife job would calm it any. Also felt the minute they got out of my sight .
It reverted back. In the hunting world we called them Gators.
My current dog is a female 35 lb treeing feist.
Only female I've owned.
I spayed at around 6 months per vets recommendation.

Didn't want puppies.
Didn't want to deal with heat cycles during the hunting season.
Cheaper license fees.
Not sure about causing weight gains.
But she became a butterball.
First and only female I've ever owned.
Don't think I could part with her.
She's family now.
Also the most satisfying hunting companion I've ever owned.

You have license fees on dog, and on top of that they are more if the dog is not fixed!! Glad I dont live up there.

Many cities and counties in Idaho require a dog to be licensed but the state doesn't. Montana also requires it per the state. When I lived in Oregon, it was required by the city, not sure about the state. I have never licensed a dog. Until no cats are running at large I won't.

It's required to license a dog here, I don't know anyone that does, ...

Providence Farms;
I believe everything you stated is correct .
But you better not mention anything that ,Meows.
Not too astonishing, considering this is the first City in the nation to require a School Tax.
The list goes on.