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Mary Mazzeri

Carpentersville, IL

847-426-5089

Serving the Chicago region in the Fox Valley area since 1970

Group Classes

Private instruction

Behavior Modification

Board & Train 

  IACP Certified Dog Trainer/Instructor CDT

Neuter or Not - Is That The Question?

A lot is said about neutering, most of it nonsense. Different dogs react in different ways, but here’s what neutering usually does and doesn’t do. It helps your dog live longer; lessens the probability of certain physical ailments (some as serious as cancer); reduces overall medical costs; influences some aggression; increases owner importance to the dog by reducing the significance of outside stimuli; stabilizes behavior and biochemistry by eliminating hormonal swings; and influences hormonally related behaviors like digging, escaping, fence jumping, breeding, fighting, false pregnancies, endometriosis; mounting or humping, and urine marking. These are major points; behavior that is biochemically motivated is very resistant to change. Training, punishment, even behavioral therapy may not effect them to a satisfactory degree. Imagine willing or training yourself out of going through puberty. What neutering does not do is also important. Ordinarily, it does not cause major personality changes; make dogs less protective or automatically cause obesity. Neutered or not, overfed and under-worked dogs get fat.

There’s a big difference between aggression and protection. Aggression is active, offensive and negative. Protection is passive, defensive and beneficial. Neutering effects aggression, not protection. If a dog needed hormones to defend itself, any bitch would let you beat her with a stick. Want to try that with my neutered female? It’ll earn you a new nickname, Lefty.

In some cases neutering is not only beneficial but required. Undescended testicles retained in the abdomen are prone to cancer, so neuter males with undescended testicles. If your female has brucellosis, pyometra, irregular cycles or other reproductive problems, spaying may be clinically indicated.

Some people object because neutering is ‘unnatural’ without being able to define ‘natural’ for dogs. When you change circumstances (by domestication) you also change ‘natural’. Natural for a wolf is not the same as for a Beagle. You wouldn’t neuter a dog and release it into the wild. It wouldn’t last long and its death would be rough. It’s just as ‘unnatural’ to bring a dog into your home and expect it to live in a domestic environment intact, biochemically prepared to kill food and fight predators. You’re going to ‘punish’ it for what its hormones make it do. Is that fun and ‘natural’?

Others say neutering is unnecessary because their dog is never loose outdoors. We usually call such dogs ‘parents’. There is little chance anyone can watch a determined dog so closely that it cannot breed-and biochemistry provides a lot of incentive and determination. Dogs have been known to eat through doors and breed through fences. Even if closely supervised, it is less frustrating for the dog to be altered.

“But my dog is so brilliant and beautiful, I owe it to the world to breed it!” Sound familiar? Even if your dog is a sweet, gorgeous genius, its offspring may not be. Neutering is beneficial, so if your dog is that great, do what’s best for it. A dog should be more important than ego, pups or the dollars that the naïve think they may bring.

Many people don’t know that a litter can have more than one sire. You may breed your female to a chosen male and two days later the neighborhood mix, Rover can also accommodate her. When the litter is born, you can’t understand why half are purebred and half are mutts. The responsible breeder-fancier spends years studying their breed and has many medical tests run to verify healthy bone structure, eye health, system blood work ups etc. and knows their dogs genetic pedigrees for many generations. They are willing to clean up after 2-16 puppies several times every day for seven or more weeks. They carefully screen potential homes to be sure the people are right for each puppy. They are knowledgeable about their breed and are willing to mentor their puppy buyers and remain an informational resource to them. They are willing to take back puppies that they have placed in homes even when those puppies are now adults and the owners have divorces or died or couldn’t keep the dog for whatever reason etc. You only need visit the local shelter to see how many pups wind up there- even purebreds.

Potential downsides are surgical risk, anesthetic reaction and occasional loss of female bladder tone (usually easily remedied). These are minimal given today’s veterinary competence and minor compared to a dog dying at a shelter or being hit by a car after escaping your yard due to a hormonal frenzy.

Early neutering helps address the terrible dog overpopulation in this country. Millions of dogs must be destroyed annually due to lack of homes. Every intact dog represents a potential breeding machine. Why risk having to kill more dogs when neutering is better for your dog in the first place? Your dog relies on you to provide for its welfare. Get the facts. Spay or neuter.[1]