14 months old.. should I neuter my mal? Health

All the males in my litter except my boy(who I show) were castrated at approx 10 months non of them were effected as far as growth is concerned, and have matured as I would have expected them to do if they had not been castrated, I think a lot of old wives tales surround castration IMO you did right having him done.

Mo

At 10 months they would at least have had the benefit of starting puberty so effects would maybe have been less.

Are all these males now mature or still young (under 4 years old) as if your breed is anything like mine the males continue to mature and become more masculine looking until at least 4 years of age.

The castrated ones continue to look like striplings, except when allowed to get overweight when they look just like overgrown overweight bitches, with no masculinity.

This may not matter to some owners, but many choose males precisely because they look more imposing and male.

Well heres one of the boys he is under 2 years of age in this photo, does he look like his head has'nt developed?



Mo

Well as that is just a profile I don't know, also what about his body. I would not expect him to have matured fully at two years old, and as I said at least he had the benefit of some puberty.

Most vets are pushing for neutering around 6 months.

A study in the USA compared puppies castrated at 7 weeks, those castrated at 7 months and entire dogs (though tellingly no adult castrates).

The found that the external genitalia of the pups neutered at 7 weeks was significantly less developed in the early group compared to the 7 months group, and they had much smaller willies than uncastrated males.

Now dogs may not have size issues like their human male counterparts, but surely is neutering effects the external waterworks equipment, it may also impact on other tissues/organs.

Some of these things may make little difference,but others may have consequences we are not aware of.

I agree he was not fully developed at two and yes he still has some maturing to do, which is happening, being neutered has not effected this up to date, I think there is a decent argument on both sides of the fence regarding the benefits/non benifits of neutering, and to be honest the vets I have met dont push for neutering too early, but they dont think its a bad thing either my personal opinion is any pet quality I breed I would require them neutered/spayed before 18months , I have found that all my dogs no matter what breed I have had at the time, once they get to the 18mths-24months they can become so hormone driven that they can be difficult. this can take a toll on the relationship between the dog and its owner, obviously if I have bred these dogs I want as few problems in the dogs new home as possible and reduce the chance that the dog get returned as the dogs are under contract to be returned to me at any time in their life should the owner not be able to keep it. obviously neutering does not stop ALL behavioural problems that may arise but it does help in the hormone related ones. on a side note just on observation working at a large rescue center, I have noticed, and although this is not PROVEN and just my observations, many of the dogs that come through the rescue are dogs that are between 8 months and two years of age and MANY are not castrated/speyed the most used reason for giving up the dog "can't control the dog"?

as for opening poster their dog was 14months old and IMO they did the right thing for many reasons.

Mo