[ladyjane]

Originally Posted by Lorraine

Actually there are health benefits to neutering a male. They are much more suseptibe to testicular cancer. urinary tract problems, prostate gland issues and hard to figure out why, but rectal cancer. I had a grooming client intact shih Tzu male years ago ended up with rectal cancer. Owner never had him neutered as he was never a problem unneutered. When he came up with rectal cancer, her vet then told her it is more prevalent for intact males to end up with rectal cancer.
As for early neutering to prevent marking territory it should not be a problem if you don't have intact females around coming into heat. Scraping feet after pottying or whatever reason is a dog behaviour in both males and females, altered or not. Some dogs do that some don't, i have seen it in either sex altered or not.
I recommend to anyone buying a puppy from me that is less than 6 months old to wait until 7-8 months and get any retained baby teeth removed at the same time as the spay/neuter.