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Originally Posted by ladyjane  I must say I got a tad bit confused by the behavioral stuff....I am definitely interested in some of the above mentioned....especially Orthopedic issues. My understanding is that ortho issues commonly show in larger breeds, but not smaller?? Would like your input on those studies. Also, your takeaway on this behavioral thing....
What stood out to me on the behavioral one is the part about females and the part about holding off on spays with aggressive female puppies. Funny that it didn't change the male aggression.
Correct me if I am wrong, but my take away on all of this is that there isn't anything really concrete that would suggest people avoid altering a male or female pup.... AND, that the reason to do it should not be affected by the belief that it will change certain behaviors. ??? I hope this makes sense. I have seen people advise early neutering as a way to prevent male pups from marking and/or hiking legs ... I would never guarantee that to a person since I have seen pups that were altered still mark their territory.
I alter pups for one main reason: I want to avoid health issues. Of course I also have zero desire to breed. Yes, rescue alters them to prevent breeding.....but, they also are looking at overall health of their pups. |
My takeaway on the behavior part is that studies do show that female dogs are (at least at a statistically significant level) more aggressive than unspayed dogs. However, the author notes that the people who published those studies didn't take into account the possibility that the dogs that were spayed already had previously existing behavioral issues. Therefore, he issued caution in interpreting those results and basically said that more studies need to be done to be sure. You mention spaying for the overall health of the dog. What knocked me over (and something I alluded to in my summary if the paper) is the section on Lifespan. I'll quote from that below, because it's very very important, and rather shocking (I'll address orthopedic issues in my next post):
Lifespan
Overall, gonadectomy appears to be associated with an increase in lifespan. This has great importance for veterinary medicine, whereby euthanasia is considered when quality of life is substantially compromised and cannot be expected to reasonably improve. A retrospective study that included data from the VMDB found that neutering was strongly associated with an increased lifespan (life expectancy of spayed females was increased by 26.3%, and that of castrated males was increased by 13.8%). Although gonadectomy increased the risk of death attributable to neoplasia (except for mammary gland neoplasia, which had a significantly lower prevalence) and immune-mediated disease, it decreased the risk of death attributable to other causes, including infectious disease and trauma. Similarly, analysis of patient data evaluated in a 2013 report that included data from primary care veterinary hospitals revealed that spayed dogs typically lived 23% longer and neutered dogs lived 18% longer than did sexually intact female and male dogs, respectively. That report also revealed that sexually intact dogs were more than twice as likely as gonadectomized dogs to be hit by a car or bitten by another animal. Results of a survey of owners of > 3,000 British dogs indicated that spayed females lived significantly longer than did males and sexually intact females.