We had our maremma girl spayed at seven months before her first heat, with no ill effect. When I asked my vet three weeks ago, when it would be a good time to neuter Loki, he said seven months. With our maremma boy, we waited until he was fifteen months old. We will probably have Loki done at around a year old. 15.5 weeks is way to young, I think. Ignore that rude woman. It is none of her business.

Thanks everyone, been doing some reading and honestly after only 30 minutes of looking have decided to go with my gut and not have it done this early. The cost of spaying around here isn't that bad anyway, i'll just fork over the 175.00 when she's older. Although at times i do think of not having her fixed and simply dealing with heat cycles as i do partially blame part of ginnie's weight issues due to her spay as almost immediately afterwards she quickly gained some weight that i have never been able to take off of her even after diets and exercise. And the last thing i want is another overweight golden.

Chewy, who was spayed at 7 months, was always thin, never weighed more than 65 pounds. Plus, she was "free fed." Think it depends on the dog. Golda, our first Golden, was thin also.

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Dave

When you spay or neuter you are told to feed less in order to keep your dog from gaining weight because since hormones are no longer there, your dogs metabolism is lower. Do I agree with it...no but sadly some dogs need to eat even half of what they were eating before just to keep from gaining weight. Thankfully I do not have one of those dogs.

You could just keep her intact, but have to be pretty **** responsible to make sure no accidental litters happen...or a partial spay which allows the dog to come into heat (and keep needed hormones) but cannot get pregnant because there is not uterus.

http://www.belfield.com/pdfs/Partial_Spay.pdf

Yeah, my old vet really pushed for spaying at 6 months. When Nana was almost six months, they called to leave a voicemail to tell me it was time to spay, despite me reminding my vet over and over that I was going to wait. I still don't know if I'm waiting 8 months or past first heat yet, but anyways... whatever you do, just make sure it's your decision and not the vet's on just this one matter.

That said, I think a lot of vets also push for spaying because the average pet owner doesn't know the proper precautions to owning a dog in heat/intact, and they also want to avoid the puppy situation that may come afterwards.

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Personally, I would wait but I'm not working with a tight budget. 15 1/2 weeks = almost 4 mos. I've had both my females spay done at 6 months, not really all that much older and they both lived long, healthy lives (Nikki died at 12 yrs. Maggie at 13.5 yrs.)

My friend's mini Goldendoodle (I wrote about in the 'other pet' section) came home at 8 weeks already spayed. The breeder's DH is a vet and routinely does this with their litters.

I am in no way pushing early spay (or neuter).

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**Fraulein "Maggie" Louise 8/2/95 - 7/20/09**
*At Rainbow Bridge but Forever in Our Hearts*

Continue to wait until 7-8 months or a year if you think you can handle a girl in season. That means no time outside unsupervised, always on leash, no neighborhood walks for several weeks.

http://www.weebly.com/uploads/2/0/2/..._retreiver.pdf


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I waited till about 7 months to get my dog spayed. Working with a tight budget i ended up going with the humane society, and actually ended up getting it free. i just donated the $20 deposit. Even so it would have been under $100. I would look to see what the price is other times in the year at the humane society if price is a concern. Since where i live they are trying hard to control the pet population they ended up having free spays/neutering depending on your zip code. I just took my pup to our regular vet for a check up after about 7-10 days, since she was getting a vaccination shot then so they could check the incision and healing. ( dissolvable stitches were used)

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Tayla's owner had her spayed at slightly less than 4 months as she just had her stitches out when we picked her up and she was a little over 4 months. I sorry that he did that because it's just too young and I'm always going to wonder what issues she will have because of that. I'd never have it done before 8 months.

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Barb, Rick and Tayla (STAR Puppy)



Cheyenne (CGC) and Jesse (CGC) who will be always loved and never forgotten.

"Although at times i do think of not having her fixed and simply dealing with heat cycles as i do partially blame part of ginnie's weight issues due to her spay as almost immediately afterwards she quickly gained some weight that i have never been able to take off of her even after diets and exercise"

I am all for waiting for a dog/pup to be mature before neuter or spay. In fact with a neuter I am all for not doing it at all unless there is a medical problem that arises. With a female that is not in a responsible breeding program it is important to spay them as there are possible life threatening risks by keeping her intact. I am sorry you weren't able to solve the problem of your golden being overweight by diet and exercise. This does usually solve the problem. I would think there must have been another reason that wasn't found for her problem.

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