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Spaying or Neutering your dog

Spaying Your Dog

Spaying offers several advantages. The most important advantages are health related. It has been proven that as the female dog gets older, there is a significant incidence of breast cancer and uterine infections if she has not been spayed. Spaying before she has any heat periods will virtually eliminate the chance of either. When they are spayed before their first heat, dogs experience an incidence of developing mammary tumors dropping below 1 in 200. If they are allowed to go through a single heat, their chances of developing mammary tumors rise to 1 in 40; permitting them to go through a second heat cycle raises their chances of developing mammary tumors to 1 in 25. If you do not plan to breed your dog, we strongly recommend that she be spayed before her first heat period. This can be done as early as 4 to 6 months of age.

The female's heat periods result in about 2-3 weeks of vaginal bleeding. This can be quite annoying if your dog is kept indoors. Male dogs are attracted from blocks away and, in fact, seem to come out of the woodwork. They seem to go over, around, and through many doors or fences. Your dog will have a heat period about every six months.

Spaying is the removal of the uterus and the ovaries. Therefore, heat periods no longer occur. In many cases, despite your best efforts, the female will become pregnant; spaying prevents unplanned litters of puppies.

Neutering Your Dog

Neutering your dog offers several advantages. Male dogs are attracted to a female dog in heat and will climb over or go through fences to find her. Male dogs are more aggressive and more likely to fight, especially with other male dogs. Additionally, they are more likely to demonstrate possessive and dominant traits, which may become behavioral if neutering is performed later in life. Physically, as dogs age, the prostate gland frequently enlarges and causes difficulty urinating and defecating. Neutering will solve, or greatly help, all of these problems that come with owning a male dog. We recommend performing this surgery before your dog reaches one year old.