Castration - small breed dog

[heatseeker14]

I nearly had my miniature cockapoo castrated when he was a very young puppy. I asked for views on here and general consensus was against early castration, so I decided to wait until he was older.
I have started to think about booking him in for the op now he is nearly 9 months old. I know that he can’t have the op at the moment because it is not emergency surgery, but I’m interested in your views on this subject again.
If you have had your dog castrated, please can you tell me the following:
How old he was when he was castrated.
His breed and size (toy/small etc).
Any changes you noticed positive or negative (coat change/behavioural).
How long he took to recover from the op.
If he has forgiven you. 😉
TIA

Why have a boy dog castrated unless there are medical reasons? Humping and other adolescent behaviour will stop as he grows up. Castration can have very detrimental effects on nervous dogs and does not ‘calm down’ dogs. They grow up and stop acting like puppies whether neutered or not.
Neutering young puppies affects their growth and can cause joint problems.

I had my westie done early, as the vet advised. Still the chilled out boy he was before, just as every dog I've had before has been when done. If you don't intend to breed, with a small dog, thats it's full physical size, I don't think it makes any difference to the personality they become.

I quite agree Hovverry

Hi Hovvery, I want to have my pup neutered to avoid him fathering puppies. I know other people have said you just need solid recall to avoid this, but it would worry me that he would run off to find a female. I just don’t want to risk it.
I’m not worried about it making my pup nervous because thankfully he is very confident and nothing has bothered him so far. I wouldn’t book him in for the op if he was a nervous dog.
Thanks Topdogs2019 for your reply. I have read that neutering early doesn’t carry the same risk for small/toy dogs in terms of growth.

I had my dog castrated as he goes to daycare and a lot of dog walkers, daycare and kennels won't take unneutered dogs or will only walk them individually so for us it made sense to do this ASAP.

We consulted our vet and went through the pros and cons. They were very honest that guidance had changed and they recommended it when the joints and bones had finished growing as well as advising not to do it if there were any behavioural issues such as fear of dogs or people until that behaviour had been addressed.

Hi @BiteyShark what age did you end up Neutering then? The daycare we’ve signed our pup up to says he must be neutered once he’s 6 months old or they won’t take him. So we thought it must be safe to do so then or they surely couldn’t push people into it! However if it’s too early we will have to hire a dog walker or sort something out with work. (We’ll already be home 4-5 days it’s daycare for the other 2-3)

Josie we did it at 10.5 months of age.

Our actual daycare doesn't stipulate anything about castration. However, some of the ones we have used for back up holiday cover have and when looking about I noticed quite a few that did.