Neutering dogs

[Spidey66]

I went to a Meet Up group yesterday for dog owners in a local wood. One of the group had a cute Minature Schnauzer, male dog of 18 months. Most of the time he was fine but he kept going after a female dog to the point they had to go to a different part of the woods. They weren't the owners of the dog and were just looking after it for the day. The Schnauzer still kept running away looking for this particular dog. We all went for a drink after and he was still going for her.

The Schnauzer owner acknowledged they had not had their dog had not been neutered despite no plans to breed from it, and the ones looking after the other dog admitted they thought she was about to come into season. As they weren't the owners, they weren't sure about the owners plans. The Schnauzer owner said he wouldn't do to his dog what he wouldn't do to himself and that was his reasoning!

Our dog is female and on the vets advice had her done after her first season. When she was on season she was a nightmare, couldn't let her off the lead and had to warn any owners coming near her in case they had an unneutered dog,

Unless you're planning to breed, why the hell would you not neuter your dog??

NB vet does recommend bitches to be spayed.

Menopause is dreadful. Why would I put my dog into menopause at barely six months old and force her to spend her life like that? It’s just wrong.

I have 2 males, 1 female. I had the female spayed after first season as I was concerned about prometra as a friends bitch had recently had it. The middle male I was not going to get done. Risk of prostate or testicle cancer was too low against the negative impact, but he suffered from paraphimosis so had to have the snip at 11 months. Youngest is still entire, but I will snip him once fully grown probably. If he remains as calm as he is there won't be a need.

I lost a bitch to pyo - she was very elderly and was a rescued working dog who had also been overbred. She also had mammary tumours and went through a lot. I wish her old owner had spayed her when he retired her.
I would generally spay a bitch unless breeding or showing but only at the appropriate age. I hate the trend for early spays/neuters - it's just wrong.

There is no one solution to do you neuter or not for all male dogs. There are so many risks and benefits of both neutering and not neutering and they vary with breed.
In certain breeds some cancers are more common in neutered males.

The frontier study which looked at 40,000 dogs is a good place to start but it only looks at 35 breeds and is a US based population.