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Originally Posted by Britster  I am neither here nor there with the issue myself. I feel like that there are pretty much equal pros/cons on both sides and I personally will likely always have my pets fixed (at an appropriate age) because 1) I'm lazy and 2) dog balls   , I think they're ugly. And I will likely always have males. But I likely won't until 10 months++.
It keeps being mentioned that Gail has a motive or a bias, but I don't see how Ladyjane's position should be viewed upon differently, you obviously have a bias as well working in rescue. You see unfathomable things and very stupid dog owners. It's understandable that you would view this differently. But there's a whole 'nother world of dog ownership out there, i.e. dog sports for example. When you are raising/training an athlete, of sorts, there's lots of reasons you want to keep those hormones as well as delaying or never fixing. Go hang around an agility class for a while and you will see a ton of responsible owners who wish to keep their dog intact, and these are not your average joe schmo who are just going to let their dog get bred to any dog. This is not a black and white issue and I think we all need to remember and attempt to see the entire dog community from different perspectives. |
I admitted this superficial feeling of mine to someone in private. It's not completely superficial. I think part of it is that I so strongly support neutering for pets that the sight throws me back.
I understand what you are saying about people with sporting dogs, and this might apply to some with working dogs too. Likely much more responsible about everything than the average pet person. I would be interested in knowing what percentage of them are neutered, and what percentage of the pet population do they make up? With a sporting dog in particular, I'm guessing they are well bred or selected carefully, otherwise they would not advance in their sports.
So far, my neutered boys' legs and hips appear to be in great shape. Spines good too. Muscle tone very good. This is all without the benefit of off leash running outdoors. I bet they would be even better if we had a safe place.
I believe from reading YT for several years, the majority of cases of LP are initially diagnosed very early, before spay/neuter. Wonder how much we would learn about genetic (poor breeding) produced ortho problems if all Yorkie puppies were thoroughly screened before spay/neuter.