Lately I’ve been seeing a commercial promoting the spay and neuter of pets at four months. The tagline is “Prevent More. Fix at month four.” and is run by the Utah based non-profit organization Best Friends Animal Society. I know everyone has a different opinion on when to have the procedure and I almost brought Elsa in at six months under the pressure from our vet. Ultimately though I decided to wait until Elsa was fully grown and had a few heat cycles. She just had her third and I’m thinking we will bring her in either early in the new year or just before her 2nd birthday in May. While I do believe in the benefits of “fixing” a dog I also think it’s important to allow your dog’s body to mature as it would naturally. What’s more, I think the notion that in order to prevent your dog from A.) becoming pregnant or B.) suffering the health horrors of an in tact pet, namely ovarian or breast cancer in bitches or testicular cancer in dogs, it should be done as early as four months is a little hysterical and not much different from teaching abstinence only birth control to teens. I’m not here to preach though, I’m just trying promote the education of pet parents rather than instilling fear in them. I’m sure if my vet at the time knew how well I would handle Elsa’s heat cycles she would not have been so quick to push spaying at six months. It isn’t easy though and I’ll be the first to say that some people are just too stupid or too lazy or too mess-phobic to deal with the reality of owning an in tact pet. Be honest with yourself though, do your research, and don’t jump to do something simply because a commercial told you so.
Of course, sassy pants does attract many more suitors just before her *time*
But classy lady that she is, she spies them and trots off on her own.
**These guys were only playing and Elsa was not hurt or violated by any of them. We are very careful about when and where we take her during her heat cycles.
my dogs are cooler than me. 
Elsa is such a cutie!!!! Here where I live in Ont. Canada nobody here even thinks of neutering/spaying till the dog is at least 6 months old. Though after a talk with my vet, and him loving to go to the dog park where he met various other dogs, sometimes not spayed or neutered it made me do it at about 7 months. I always thought myself, this process seemed like it would be more appropriate when the dog has finished developing, but everyone and everything about this topic I seemed to come in contact with seemed to think the latter, hence it was done.
Yeah there is so much conflicting information out there it’s really a decision that each individual needs to make. That’s why I hate to see commercials that pressure people into doing it at a certain time.
Still scrolling and just loving your stories and photography. Well you know my feeling on why spaying after the growth plates close already ;).
Yup I remember what you said about how agile Becky is and I really took that into consideration. It’s true of Elsa too, she is smaller than a lot of the Cavs we come across but fast as a whip.