Spaying and neutering your pet will provide health, behavior, and other benefits. But you should always learn about any procedures before they are performed.If you are not ready to care for the prenatal, birthing, and rearing of pups, you will be glad to hear that spaying is a relatively quick and easy process. Thanks to modern medicine and veterinary practices, spaying has become a routine procedure that rarely has any drawbacks. As with most surgical operations, it involves putting your dog under anesthesia, which always has some risks involved that should be taken into consideration. This is especially important when the procedure involves young or old dogs or dogs of breeds that are sensitive to anesthesia such as Greyhounds.

When spaying your female dog, the veterinarian will make an incision in her abdomen. From there, the vet will take out her entire uterus and ovaries, therefore preventing any conception.

“Spaying prevents the bitch from coming into season and eliminates the problems of cystic ovaries, false pregnancies, pyometra, irregular heat cycles and the need to keep her confined during estrus. Spaying before the first heat greatly reduces the frequency of mammary tumors. Finally, with a spayed female there is no inconvenient heat to go through twice a year.” Dog Owner’s Home Veterinary Handbook 3^rd Edition

When she is not spayed, you will have to ward off all unwanted male visitors. This may seem like an easy task, but male dogs have been known to climb or dig under fences, run through screen doors, and chew through leads to get to females and are very hard to dissuade.

As for dealing with heat cycles, some dogs are messier than others, leaving spots around the house. You may not know she has come into heat till you find these marks. It’s recommended that you have her spayed before you have this experience, that way you can also give her the added benefit of greatly reducing the chance of mammary tumors, which are commonly found in unaltered dogs.

It’s also important to note that females do not need to go through pregnancy in order to “calm down” or “make a better pet” this simply comes with age and depends on the breed of dog she is. Some owners even find that pregnancy makes their female aggressive and after the pups are gone most dogs resume with their previous behaviors as if nothing ever happened.

Spaying and neutering may, however be linked to decreasing their need for calories. To make sure your pet does not gain weight, simply adjust their feeding portions to the appropriate amount. You may find that nothing has changed too, since it seems to vary from dog to dog.

The main reason to neuter your male dog is to keep your dog from adding to the pet overpopulation problem. Males will roam far and wide to find females, especially those females who are in heat. The chances of your dog getting in contact with a female are quite large even if you live in a rural area; you’d be surprised how far a dog can travel in a short amount of time.

They may also be more aggressive and territorial if left intact. Meeting other dogs when walking your dog on a leash may prove to be harder with an unaltered male. They tend to pick more fights, however neutering your dog will not prevent all dog fights, if your dog is aggressive you will have to work to train and socialize him in addition to neutering.

Neutering is much less complicated to perform than spaying. The veterinarian will simply make an incision and remove both testicles. The scrotum will remain intact for a couple of days till reabsorbed into the body. The dog can usually go home the same day of the operation.

It is important to note that neutering does not alter your dogs’ basic instincts. If you have a herding, hunting, or protection dog, neutering will not make him any less a working dog. If your dog does show a decrease in working ability, it is more likely that you need to just go over your training.

It’s also good to note that Prostate cancer is rare in dogs and is not due to testosterone levels. Neutering does not protect against this cancer nor does it eliminate the symptoms afterwards. However, neutering is linked to greatly reducing the risk of prostate enlargement and perianal adenomas.

Testicular tumors are rare in descended testicles. Only a small percentage of sertoli and seminoma tumors are malignant. Most dogs affected are over six (median being 10) years of age and are in undescended testicles. If your dog has undescended testicles, he should be neutered promptly. Dog Owner’s Home Veterinary Handbook 3^rd Edition