OK, new topic...

HORMONES!!! LOL!! (can you tell I have a pack of intact dogs at the moment?!)

I've been training, keeping and breeding dogs for close to 40 years now... I'm STILL learning. Our current "pack" consists of Red, a purebred Border Collie bitch who is 4 years old, Dixie, an English Shepherd bitch who is 18 months, and Prince, Red's son who is also 18 months, and hasn't been neutered- yet.

He will be!! Mostly because he's not intended for breeding, and because the problems of having an intact male on the place while you have breeding females (NOT meant for him to breed) can get very interesting!

So... if you've only had spayed and neutered dogs, you might be shocked at how very different they can be if they are intact. As always, every dog is different- some are a bigger PITA than others- but they ALL will be strongly influenced by their hormonal changes.

The craziest issue we've had this year was Dixie going into a false pregnancy- TWICE! She was in heat at Christmas time, and Prince got to her VERY briefly (I broke them up within 30 seconds pouring a bucket of water over them... and hubby got a lecture about turning a dog in heat outside even if you don't see the male around! LOL!). She began to show every sign of pregnancy within 3 weeks... but thankfully, it turned out to be a false pregnancy.

She came back into heat in April, and this time, it got weird. We were sure she wasn't pregnant... and she didn't go into a full blown false pregnancy... until Red had her litter of pups! That put Dixie into "pregnancy mode"... and she went absolutely berserk. I could NOT figure out what her problem was, but she spent pretty much 24 hours a day howling and crawling into my lap, telling me to "fix it"... but I had NO idea what "it" was!! 63 days after she was in heat (which would have been her 'due date' if she was bred), she STOLE RED's PUPS!! By then, they were three weeks old, and Red gets tired of them pretty quickly. So, Dixie took them over... and oh, my!! She is MUCH more protective of the pups than Red ever is.

Along with the other expected changes, Dixie decided that all barn cats were a danger to the pups; she went from being very protective of all cats to nearly killing several of them.

The pups are now 6 weeks old, and Dixie still is nursing them- she climbs over a 5 foot wall to get to them!

Anyway... the basic personality changes in her were pretty startling... and she didn't even HAVE puppies of her own.

Also, Prince chewed his way through chainlink fencing twice to get to her... and he also ripped the entire door frame off the house trying to get into the kitchen to get to her!! This is the sort of behavior that people really don't think about when they decide to keep their dogs intact!

There are good health reasons to spay or neuter, but I strongly recommend to buyers of our pups that they wait until they're a year old before having it done, IF they are sure that they can handle a heat if a female matures a little young. If they don't have the facilities or ability to deal with it (and it is a giant PITA), then spaying at 8 months is better than having an unwanted litter of pups from a dog which is still a pup herself.

(the reason to wait until after 12 months is so "secondary sex characteristics", including pelvic development in females, and some of the "masculine" features in males develop... animals neutered very young often develop physical issues because of it... especially urinary tract problems, "leaking", etc. By neutering around 12 months, you get the advantage of the physical maturity, but they're still pretty much a "puppy" in psychological terms, so "bad habits" influenced by hormones aren't yet a problem...)

Male dogs can develop several problems, including testicular cancer. Those are fairly low risks, although they do exist. But a far bigger risk is the danger to the dog when he's focused solely on getting to a female... I've seen them try to jump through windows, etc... and getting hit on the road is a real danger.

Females have all the risks of pregnancy, of course (and while it seems that every mongrel in the world manages to have pups without any trouble at all, Murphy's Law is alive and well, and there are multiple issues that CAN happen which can lead to dead pups, or a dead mother dog). But intact females are also at risk for several cancers... mammary, uterine, ovarian. Also, they will cycle most of their life (no real "menopause" in dogs!), but once they're 6 years old, the risks really jump if they get pregnant. They also can be prone to pyometra if they continually cycle but don't get pregnant... that can be a medical emergency in a dog, and requires immediate spaying (if you're lucky enough to keep them alive long enough to survive the surgery)

So, there are good reasons to have any non-breeding dog spayed or neutered, aside from the "avoiding unwanted pups" issue.

But if you decide not to, you need to realize that you can see major behavioral and psychological changes over time, as their various hormones ebb and flow. It's not under their control (obviously), and they're usually fairly subtle, but *in certain dogs*, they may be a lot more obvious and even potentially dangerous. A dominant male who wants to get to a female in heat may not obey you- or he may actually physically challenge you. A female in season (or coming in or going out) may be cranky or touchy... even one who is wonderful with kids may lose patience during that time.

In intact dogs, you need to be aware of these possible changes, and be ready to deal with them.

Summerthyme