Every female we had from rescue orgs had of course been spayed, & their incontinence grew into much more than just a nuisance, the Rott was so bad in her last year of life that she had to be in a kennel all night (in the house) and she would be soaked head to tail in urine.

That was it for us, we will never spay any of our females again.

Also, we have yet to actually meet a Vet willing to admit this is an issue. It would be quit refreshing to meet one that had the dog (& owners) interest in mind instead of the income they receive.

There are behavioural issues associated with neutering – increased excitability and activity in males, increased territoriality, nuisance barking and tendency to bite in females.

There’s cognitive dysfunction. Osteoporosis. The growth plate abnormalities you describe.

My three dogs are neutered – one came that way, the two Griffs came here intact but I was asked to neuter them by my friend the breeder, so I did. One was 2.5 when I got him, the other 7 mths and had the surgery at just over a year.

Of course, an obvious benefit to me is that nobody can steal my boys and put them in a mill.

Most of the experienced breeders I know, especially of large breeds which are slower to mature, recommend waiting until they’ve reached adulthood so they get the protection from hormones.

Here’s an idea from a friend who runs a rehoming operation.

She chips the dog in her name. When the new owners present evidence of sterilization, she transfers the ownership to them. She’s mostly involved with adults, no particular type, but I thought it was a clever idea.

It’s a tough call. I’d imagine most owners would want to get a bitch neutered. I would. Dogs, not such a big deal.

Caveat’s last blog post..COMMITTEE TRANSCRIPT, DAY 5, ANIMAL WELFARE ACT 2008

We firmly believe in allowing the dog to mature before alteration. We waited until the girls were almost three… Targ was three.. ChaDich was never altered because he could always manage his testosterone. (we used to be a one dog house).

With our Bullmastiffs, we WANTED that estrogen to develop those bones…

Long story short… we are putting you back on our list of places we’d love to get a Frenchie from if we ever get to that point..

I’ve often wondered if the stats on cancer etc would be different if they look at raw fed, holistically raised dogs only.

Fuzzy Logic’s last blog post..The Weekend of Stupidity

BTW, both your blog and your photography are excellent. You should check out Spotted Dog Farm – http://spotteddogfarm.blogspot.com/ . I think you might like it, or at least find it as heartbreaking as I do.