Neutering in dogs can take place any time after 6 months of age, but we recommend waiting until at least 1 year of age or 18 months for very large breeds. This is to allow complete bone growth and development. Castration in males removes both testicles via a single incision between their penis and scrotum.
Neutering earlier reduces the risk of sexual behaviours and marking becoming learned behaviours and continuing throughout life. Neutering is especially important if your dog has one or more undescended testicles because they have a very high risk of becoming cancerous.
It is a common misconception that cocking their leg to urinate will be affected by neutering, this commonly is present by the age of 12 months, whether they are neutered or not. The later in life dogs are neutered the less likely it is that the scrotum will shrink to a barely noticeable size.
Advantages:
- Prevents testicular cancer, twisting or trauma.
- Reduces the risk of prostate problems such as enlargement or prostatic cysts.
- Reduces RTA’s (Road Traffic Accidents) because they don’t have the urge to find bitches in season.
- Aggression towards other dogs and people is typically reduced.
- Unwanted mating
- Increased attention span, those hormonal urges can be very distracting!
Disadvantages:
- The scrotum can take some time to shrink up and if castrated late it can remain somewhat pendulous.
- Obesity is more common, this is because the energy requirement reduces by approx.. 25% post neutering so owners have to reduce calorie intake to account for this either but cutting down the amount of food given, or preferably change to a neutered dog or light diet.
- Coat quality is often coarser and drier.
- Prevents any future breeding.
- General surgical risks.
- In large breeds castration may be linked with an increased risk of some cancers.
- Early neutering of some large breed dogs can also increase the risk of joint problems
