Gundog Training Forum

The vets must be shuddering; what a lost of income if this thing takes off. All my past dogs were altered after 6 months. Presently, my 27 month old, male springer is less aggressive than my 8 year old male lab. The former is intact, the latter was done at 14 months.

This is a modern fad. When I started it was fairly common to have bitches spayed, purely for the owner’s convenience because they couldn’t be arsed with the mess and responsibility of an intact female, but you never had dogs ‘done’. Now they’re booking them in as soon as you take a new dog pup to the vet. But besides the matter of the emotional development of the dog there’s also now a compelling body of research supporting that it adversely affects a pups physical development, especially if done too young. It’s not really an intervention that should be entered into so lightly.

Naj

To me as I get older it is like so many other things. Lots of people having views who genuinely believe you are an irresponsible owner if you keep a dog entire as they have been told so themselves and have no experience!!

I dont know about the medical or emotional development side of the argument but personally i think it is wrong to spey a bitch or neuter a dog unless it's for a medical condition. I also remain unconvinced about the benefits of speying a bitch for preventative medical reasons.

Ips, having been a veterinary nurse I have seen many bitches who have suffered from not being spayed!

Jelinga wrote: ↑Sat Oct 05, 2019 8:44 am Ips, having been a veterinary nurse I have seen many bitches who have suffered from not being spayed!

Hi jelinga
What would you say is the percentage of illness / no illness that can be prevented by spaying. Hope that makes sense i cant think of another way of saying it

I always planned on having my Springer done, always said if he ever needs to go under the knife I'll get him snipped as well. Hes now 8 1/2 and still not done. Hes just had tplo surgery and I couldn't bring myself to remove his balls too!

I dont see the point now. I get fed up of hearing vets say 'getting him done will calm him down'.

Does anyone buy spaniels and genuinely expect them to be calm

As far as speying bitches, obviously removing parts of them prevents those parts from having problems but if it's so common surely the fix isnt to spay? Surely there is a bigger issue at hand here?

I honestly don't know Ips, but I would prefer to have my bitch spayed rather than risk pyometra and mammary tumours.

Jelinga wrote: ↑Sun Oct 06, 2019 8:16 pm I honestly don't know Ips, but I would prefer to have my bitch spayed rather than risk pyometra and mammary tumours.

With respect this is exactly my issue with vets telling me i should get her spayed. I would have to hear documented evidence that spaying is going to be 100% a good idea before i would go down the route of what i consider unnecessary surgery. Surgery to stop a condition occuring versus surgery to remedy a condition ????