Will I survive ??? Neutering questions !

[Roxanne]

Ok, I am REALLY trying to follow Laura's advice and wait until Colby is 12-14 months old to get him neutered .........but my sweet innocent baby boy has become a horn dog overnight !!!!! I really thought that he may be errrrr gay ...... because he wasnt doing anything naughty until he hit 8-8 1/2 months ! I guess thats the "time" but never owning a male before I just didnt know Anyway ........ he has been caught humping or trying to hump the girls a couple of times . They tell him where to go though which is good and he has started marking a little bit . and the little **** jumped up on my bed last night and peed/marked on my comforter !!!!!

Any advice from those who have gone thru this ? If I do wait ( and I really really really want to wait ) will he stop this once he is neutered ? If I give in ........will he still develop that beautiful head ? I have just started to see his head maturing and getting that beautiful adult boxing out look ......I guess because his hormones are kicking in right ? I dont want to stop that but I dont want him getting into bad habits either ..... what do I do ?????????

Any experiences from early( 6-12 months) VS Later Neutering ( after 12 months ) you may have I am very interested in knowing

THanks !!

[Cathy Moon]

Hi Roxanne,
Wow, nobody told me anything about males' heads!

We had Geordie neutered at 6 months, and he has never lifted his leg or marked anything. He sometimes humps on India, who was raised from puppyhood with him and used to sometimes hump him when playing. Once we noticed he was actually getting aroused, so we took him to the vet; our vet said to re-direct Geordie to prevent the behavior from becoming a habit.

Anyways, here are a few pictures of Geordie at age 2 (neutered at 6 months):

He may not be a total hunk , but he doesn't look like a girl either!

[Roxanne]

Well, I think he *is* a TOTAL HUNK !!! and his head is gorgeous BTW and no he does NOT look like a girl !

I may be wrong, but I thought I read somewhere that neutering early supresses the secondary sex characteristics whis include broadening of the head ...or maybe I am confused and I didnt read this at all ??? I do know that the Ragamuffin ( a purebred cat ) breeders DO feel this way about their breed and also suggest waiting until about 8 -10 months old to neuter them so that they look like a male ( broader head) rather than retaining a smaller ....more "female" type of head . Now I could be totally wrong about the Cavaliers ..just thought I read that somewhere ???? Its obviously not true in the case of studly Geordie !!!

[Cathy Moon]

Since I don't show or breed, I don't know anything about it! I would trust that Laura knows, since she is very experienced.

I have seen one or two male cav show puppies who have big masculine heads - thought maybe it was the lines they were bred from (Crisdig, Ottermouth?)

[cecily]

This is an interesting topic... we will certainly be neutering Rio but we have heard conflicting accounts about getting it done BEFORE she goes into her first heat and leaving it until after. Any suggestions??

BTW Geordie is GORGEOUS. I'm sure there are some disappointed girls out there somewhere

[cecily]

This is an interesting topic... we will certainly be neutering Rio but we have heard conflicting accounts about getting it done BEFORE she goes into her first heat and leaving it until after. Any suggestions??

BTW Geordie is GORGEOUS. I'm sure there are some disappointed girls out there somewhere

[RoyalT Cavaliers]

I love Geordie he is BOOOOTIFUL!! I am on my way to get him.. LOL
Gosh I love his head..

[LauraD]

Hi Roxanne,
Well I'm no expert and certainly don't have a wealth of knowledge, but I thought I would include our experience to the responses you will get.
We neutered Riley at 6 months old. Since he was 12 weeks old, he would "mount" any dog smaller than him, male or female. As he got older it got worse, to the point where he didn't even want to play with the other dogs, just seek out any dog that would allow this behavior even for a few moments (or until i would tell him NO and get him off the other dog). It was like he was obsessed, it was a one track mind kind of thing whenever he was around other dogs. Highly embarrassing!
I talked to experienced breeders and looked up tons of information about neutering and what age to do it long before we even got Riley. The experienced breeders seemed to feel that you should not neuter until after 12 months old, they felt it affected the dogs growth if you do it any sooner. Well, with Riley's "mounting" issue and our need to board him and do daycare (both of which required neutering after a dog reaches 6 mths.) we decided to neuter him at 6 mths.
His behavior since the neuter has greatly improved. No mounting at all, much more interest in playing with other dogs. He seems a little calmer than before (he is still a spitfire by all means, but a bit calmer now) and I don't think he seems any less boyish in looks. Nor do I feel that his growth is out of line. He is not a small boy, neither were his parents so I didn't really expect it, although I know that is not the only indicator of a dog's size.
If i could have waited until after 12 mths. I probably would have, however, given his behavior and the daycare/boarding issue it wasn't going to work that way for us. I don't regret neutering earlier, in fact I'm quite glad that we did it then. He recovered very quickly and it all worked out fine.
He was not going to have that perfect Cavalier show dog look anyway, but it doesn't matter to us. We love him the way he is. He is now 9 1/2 mths. old and weighs 16 pounds. I think he looks like a boy. Good luck with your decision, do whatever you think is best for you and Colby.


(It was a bright day so he is squinting even though i shaded him, usually his eyes look bigger )

[Cathy Moon]

This is an interesting topic... we will certainly be neutering Rio but we have heard conflicting accounts about getting it done BEFORE she goes into her first heat and leaving it until after. Any suggestions??

Here's a link to female spay information:
http://www.cavaliertalk.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2194
If Rio does go into heat before she is spayed, you will need to discuss with your vet how long you must wait after her heat cycle to have her spayed - to prevent false pregnancy problems.

We had India spayed before her first heat. Chocolate is a retired show/breeding girl, so she was not spayed until age 4. If possible, I will always have my females spayed before first heat to get maximum protection.

[Karlin]

On females: there's no health advantage to having a dog go through a first heat and there are definite health benefits to spaying before she does -- hence most vets will recommend spaying before the first heat (It is absolutely not true that any female neeeds to go through a first heat!). You will need to wait 3 months or so after her heat if she goes into it and also keep her inside for several weeks while she goes thru it.

On males -- personally I think it is pretty hard for most pet owners to wait for most boys to go past age one before neutering. It is possible to train a dog to stop or at least minimise these unwanted behaviours but it is not always easy to do when the dog isn't neutered, and many people find it very awkward to deal with these behaviours in an intact male during the process of training simply because they can be so public and enthusiastic in dogs going into the equivalent of puberty. Also, the longer you wait to neuter, the less likely (to some extent) that neutering will address the behaviour. And it doesn't always address these things anyway. Hence training should be your first line of 'defense' while you (quickly) weigh up how important it is to you to wait to neuter. The difference is so slight in appearance that I don't think 99% of pet owners are going to see much difference in appearance between a dog neutered at 6 or 9 months or at one. I don't think many people would look at Leo in particular and not think he looks every inch a mature male yet he was neutered at 10 months. I sure don't see much difference between Leo and the older intact males that come in to me thru rescue (except every single intact male has tried to mark inside my house -- every single one...).

As for Jaspar, neutered at 8 months -- he is maybe slightly longer legged but he is also excellent at agility and very athletic, which Leo, with a cobbier build, is not. I have no idea if his build is the result of neutering but if anything the slightly longer legs benefit the activity he loves more than anything so I cannot possibly see this is a negative in any way.

With Jaspar it was also like a switch was thrown when he turned 8 months -- up til then he was very puppyish; after that, he was ready to start marking and humping.

I think that now, I would be ready to try managing a male until past age one, intact -- but I found this daunting at the time and working in rescue I find it is possibly the number one challenge for male dog owners and a leading reason why dogs get left into the pound.