De-Bollocking timing?

[OoozingCervix]

What is the best age to castrate? For a rather large breed?

BigPuppy is 7 months and still very babyish. He doesn't cock his leg yet even. He's quite bouncy but not overly so.

So timing? Opinions?

I had mine de-bollocked about three weeks ago. He's 11months. The vet seemed to think this was the ideal time. He's been cocking his leg for about three months though, & he's a small breed (border terrier X).

Current vet advice seems to be to leave it as late as possible. Something to do with hormones supporting bone growth/strength.

One of my clients did have their chocolate lab done fairly early - about a year - as his rampaging hormones were making everyone's life a misery, including his own, but most of the other male dogs have either been left alone or not done until age 2 or 3.

I did it at 7 months but again a small BT who was already cocking his leg (every 30 secs!)

My boy was about 7 months
He still does not cock his leg (ever)

Is de bollocking too early the reason he doesn't ??

We thought it was because we have a female dog and he is copying her

Forgot to say he is 18 months old now and a staffie

Patch has never yet cocked his leg, he's almost 2 and a staff x. He's entire because he's quite a nervous dog.

Our collie was done at 6-7m. It did massively reduce him humping. I booked his op after he jizzed on the carpet He cocks his leg most of the time, but then so does our neutered female terrier mutt

He doesn't hump and is rather nervous and scared of everything.

A good number of vets at the practice I work in don't actually recommend routine castration of dogs, only for those who actually have a behaviour problem - it may help with humping, straying after bitches, certain types of aggression etc. but these can also be learnt behaviours. The health benefits aren't huge, obviously removes the risk of testicular cancer and reduces the risk of prostate cancer but that's about it. They tend to recommend that nervous dogs are left entire and large breeds are left as late as possible as hormones are involved in closing off growth plates or somesuch.

Spaying of bitches is totally different and most would recommend it be done routinely and as early as possible.

With a breed as large as yours it's often advised to wait until he's fully grown.

If you neuter too young the growth plates in his legs won't have closed. This results in a taller dog and also upsets the proportions between upper and lower leg, causing changes in angulation and increased potential for cruciate ligament injuries. It also means that he would be at increased risk of developing problems such a hip dysplasia in later life.

One study in particular has found that early neutering seems to increase the prevalence of cruciate damage, hip dysplasia and lymphosarcoma. Whereas late neutering increases the risk of hemangiosarcoma and mast cell tumours.

Info here and here.

Studies have now shown that neutering does not reduce the risk of prostate cancer. One study demonstrated that prostate cancer is more prevalent in neutered dogs, another similar study found the risk of occurrence was the same regardless of whether the dog is neutered or entire.

In addition, studies have shown that early neutering of nervous dogs can actually worsen the problem. People often feel that fear aggression can be fixed by neutering, when in fact neutering removes the hormones which are involved in serotonin uptake, calming anxiety and helping support dogs that are sensitive and nervous in certain situations. Removing those hormones in these dogs is likely to make the situation worse, not better.

Some dogs that suffer from nerves or fearfulness can develop much worse symptoms after neutering, as well as being much harder to work with or treat for the problem than they were prior to neutering.

Neutering does however significantly reduce the risk of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia, which is present in 80% plus of entire males over the age of 5, is easy to miss and really uncomfortable/painful for the dog. I have had a dog with this condition myself. In his case it was cystic and extremely painful and he was passing a lot of blood. It required a lot of expensive treatment over a period of a couple of months and once the symptoms were under control he was neutered, his prostate shrank down and he was fine from then on.

All in all it's a bit of a minefield and something best discussed with your vet before making a decision as to when or even if it's right for your dog.

My boy is 7 1/2 months. He's just started to cock his leg (and boy does he try to get that leg as high as possible, it's rather comical!)

In my mind I'm aiming to get him castrated between 10 and 12 months, but I'm going to base it as much on temperament as possible - he's currently fairly puppy-ish/submissive; when he meets other dogs he licks around their muzzle and play-bows. If that doesn't change, then he'll be off to the vets for his 1st birthday (so cruel!) but if his behaviour does start to become undesirable then I'll way up the pros and cons.

He's a fairly small dog, about 11kg. With a bigger breed I'd probably look at 12-15 months, maybe longer.