On 11/6/2010 10:37 AM, sighthounds & siberians wrote:
On Sat, 06 Nov 2010 10:26:25 -0400, Sharon Delarose
wrote:

In ,
sighthounds& wrote:

You answered a question I'd been wondering about, that your group does
the deed before adopting them out. I like that. The dog gets a
responsible person to care for him/her during and after. The new owner
gets one less issue to deal with. The vets get one less to worry about
the owner care. It's an all around win. Nice!

You aren't looking at the other side of this. The county pound spays
cats and dogs when they are only weeks old. This is harmful to do
because they need those hormones to grow correctly. It has been observed
that dogs spayed young get hurt more often at competitions for instance.

I'm not sure if you're addressing Carol or me, but I think I am
looking at the other side of this. I am aware of the adverse effects
of early spay/neuter, but I'm also aware that many of these animals,
if not spayed/neutered before adoption, will be allowed to produce
more animals that will be unwanted. It is a complex problem, and if
the solution is simply not letting certain people have dogs, the end
result will be many more dogs being euthanized. It's easy for me,
because the dogs coming into my rescue are all adults older than 22
months. If I turn people down because I don't feel they're quite up
to snuff, none of the dogs in my rescue are going to be euthanized.
But that's not the way it is at many shelters/pounds.

Actually I think she was addressing me, being the post at the top of
this :-)

Your attribution was there because Carol didn't trim it.

I've never been in a position to have to decide what age to
spay. Mine either came to me already spayed, or were adopted from an
organization that required that I do it within a time period as part of
the adoption agreement. So this question has never been one I've had to
answer.

And that's probably the case for most people.

It's a good discussion for the many readers who do have the choice of
when. Pros and cons and so forth. It goes beyond the issue of heat,
pregnancy, monthlies, and so forth and into health, growth, risks, etc.
I'd venture a guess that a lot of folks aren't aware of the debate.

Dogs don't have monthlies.

I do think a lot of people aren't aware that there can be adverse
effects to spaying/neutering, period.


That's because vets don't tell them. Most vets around here still keep
with old outdated suggestions, don't educate themselves once out of
veterinarian school and really don't want to know. They still tell
people things like neutering will calm a dog down which is rarely true.

On 11/6/2010 1:23 PM, cshenk wrote:
"Char" wrote
Sharon Delarose wrote:

I believe that people who can't handle keeping a dog inside and safe
while in heat just shouldn't be allowed to have dogs. The dog should
not have to suffer the negative effects of that spay/neuter just to
cure human stupidity.

I agree that early spay/neuter isnt good.

the owner care. It's an all around win. Nice!

You aren't looking at the other side of this. The county pound spays
cats and dogs when they are only weeks old. This is harmful to do
because they need those hormones to grow correctly. It has been
observed that dogs spayed young get hurt more often at competitions
for instance.

Although with the exception of Cash and Sammy (Sammy neuthers at
possibly age 1), my experience is with cats, this is true to them. The
age is a bit different but let them grow up a bit first.

Sharon (and most others who take a rescue) don't have that many options
in the USA. You have to sign a legal agreement first before allowed to
adopt a rescue. Part of that is spay/neuter if not already done, at a
rather young age to my mind.

Many not only want the rescue neutered but insist that all dogs in the
house be too. I feel it's none of their business what I do with my dogs,
especially since I don't allow them to breed.

My parents wanted to adopt a dog a couple years ago and the rules for
their local rescues were so crazy they were not able to adopt even
though previous dogs were treated better than us kids in some ways,
spoiled rotten.

They had a certain breed in mind and finally found a local breeder but
got caught up in their vet's bullshit and had the dog spayed while just
weeks old. I have gotten them to use a different vet but they don't take
advantage of their more holistic services and won't change foods to
something healthier even though the dog does have symptoms like itching
and being overweight that can be attributed to them feeding her kibble.

"Char" wrote
cshenk wrote:

Although with the exception of Cash and Sammy (Sammy neuters at
possibly age 1), my experience is with cats, this is true to them. The
age is a bit different but let them grow up a bit first.

Sharon (and most others who take a rescue) don't have that many options
in the USA. You have to sign a legal agreement first before allowed to
adopt a rescue. Part of that is spay/neuter if not already done, at a
rather young age to my mind.

Many not only want the rescue neutered but insist that all dogs in the
house be too. I feel it's none of their business what I do with my dogs,
especially since I don't allow them to breed.

Wow! I didn't know they wanted the other pets neutered too! It's possible
my local places ask for that but then, it's a non issue as the only
unneutered pets here are my fish (grin).

My parents wanted to adopt a dog a couple years ago and the rules for
their local rescues were so crazy they were not able to adopt even though
previous dogs were treated better than us kids in some ways, spoiled
rotten.

I thought it a bit odd that they wanted to check my house, but when they did
it was just a sensible warning check on some issues about how we had the
wood stacked that made a natural 'stair' for a dog to climb up and escape
from. We've since relocated the woodpile.

They had a certain breed in mind and finally found a local breeder but got
caught up in their vet's bullshit and had the dog spayed while just weeks
old. I have gotten them to use a different vet but they don't take
advantage of their more holistic services and won't change foods to
something healthier even though the dog does have symptoms like itching
and being overweight that can be attributed to them feeding her kibble.

Well, I know early spay/neuter in cats can be very bad. I see no reason to
assume it's better for dogs.

Meantime, my dogs are porked out and 'chomping' (hope I used the right term)
on the bones. Sammy probably isn't getting more than a decent tooth
cleaning but he's happy trying.

We've got them both trained that true raw meaty bones may not be carried
about the house. Sammy is not perfect about it yet, having a tendancy to
want to wander about with half a chicken wing showing as he thoughtfully
'chomps' but he's easily corrected.