how long can I wait to decide to spay or neuter?

lauramay03 · 03-30-2007, 12:30 AM

Hello. We recently adopted an 8 month old pure staffie girl and we can't decide what to do. We will be calling to make an apointment with the vet and discuss this with him but in the mean time I could use some advise. Her temperment seems wonderful so far (only had her for 1 week) and she is wonderful with our son. I'd hate to miss the opprotunity to have pups later. We had a german shepard that was fixed when we got him and we would have loved to extend the blood line if temperment normally is passed down the line. He was the best dog ever! thanks in advance for any advise, we are just starting to research all of this.

briteday · 03-30-2007, 01:34 PM

Spay now! I work at a shelter and 30-40% of our dogs are staffies and pits. We don't need any more. I would only suggest breeding a dog if you were an experienced breeder and wanted to continue a show dog lineage. Stop now. You have no idea of how expensive it is to breed a dog. And then you have to find homes for all of them. Just don't do it.

Appreciate the fact that she is a wonderful dog for your household and don't try to populate the world with any more dogs. Besides, allowing her to go thru a heat cycle will increase her chances of breast and ovarian cancer. And pregnancies don't always go as planned.

Curbside Prophet · 03-30-2007, 02:11 PM

TO BREED OR NOT TO BREED – THAT IS THE QUESTION

I concur, spaying your dog would be the honorable thing to do now. Good luck!

Shalva · 03-30-2007, 03:04 PM

being a nice dog is not a good enough reason to breed..... there are many many wonderful staffies and pits in the shelters and rescues.... there should be other reasons to determine whether adding their genes to the genetic pool is a good idea.... Make your dog prove that he/she is worth breeding.... compete in some way.... have a third neutral party evaluate your dog (a dog show judge) ..... and then if you decide to breed your dog be sure you know why.... how is your dog helping the breed as a whole.... you won't make any money off of breeding if you do it right .... so there has to be another reason to breed.... and that is because you love the breed and want to help solve some of the problems of your breed.

I do breed, I have goldens and flat coats.... well my dogs are nice.... sure.... but that is not a good enough reason to breed.... most goldens are nice.... and alot of those nice goldens are sitting in rescues and shelters.... so I work on improving the breed.... healthwise, structurally, temperment.... working ability all of those things.....

being nice is not enough go to the shelters and sadly you will find alot of nice fantastic wonderful beautiful dogs.....
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alexnpeteysmom · 03-30-2007, 05:08 PM

Temperment is not a reason to breed.

Responsible breeders will ONLY breed a dog with champion pedigree. Being purebred means nothing, and being a nice dog means nothing. 99% of purebred dogs are NOT candidates for breeding.

lovemygreys · 03-30-2007, 05:09 PM

Spay her ASAP!! Please! As someone mentioned earlier, being a "nice dog" is no reason to breed. There are too many "nice dogs" dying in shelters every day in this country.

Not only is it expensive to breed a dog and find homes for puppies - which you will be responsible for for their ENTIRE lives...not just until they are sold...but whelping puppies can be dangerous for the bitch. Yes, bitches sometimes die in the process of giving birth...please don't take the chance.

There are also health benefits to spaying, including avoiding the life threatening condition of pyometria.

edited to answer the original question of how long can you wait....Really, you can wait as long as you want. I think younger dogs have an easier time recovering from surgery, so I think younger is better in most cases. However, our (now 15 year old) greyhound, Erin, was spayed at 12 years old when she came into an adoption program.