Age to neuter

Colonel Underpants is 9. We chose not to neuter him (long story, pm me if interested), and it's been no problem. He doesn't mark inside, only outside -- and not very much. When he's on leash, he's perfect.
 
We neutered Oreo after he was a year old, to allow his growth plates to close as much as possible. He was never aggressive.
 
The only other reason to have a male neutered I guess is due to the potential for testicular cancer. My vet originally gave me the standard speech about all the reasons to have your dog neutered (e.g. roaming, marking, aggressiveness, too many dogs in the world, cancer, etc.), and the only one of those reasons that I thought was completely valid without first knowing the personality and behavior of the dog in question, was the cancer potential. All the others depend upon having some prior specific knowledge about the dog and owner IMHO. I think vets are just schooled to give this lecture to everyone when they bring in a puppy for the first time (other than breeders), and they don't consider that many of the reasons they cite may not be applicable to that particular puppy. Heck, at that point nobody knows what kind of personality the puppy is going to have when it's grown.

I'm not going to have my new puppy neutered either unless some specific issue crops up as he matures that would warrant it, because as I noted above, in hindsight I think Baron would have been better off had I not done it unless his prostate issues couldn't have been addressed in any other way.
 
Cancer from a retained testicle can be a higher risk.... but it’s not going to happen overnight. I wouldn’t be worried to wait till six months or even a year. Your puppy is still very young and there is time for that testicle to drop yet. I’d give him to six months and it just may come down.
 
ghggp said:
I ask my vet today about when to do Liam. He said 6 months... I kinda balked... I said how about a year... he said fine...
I fixed Laddie at 6 months and he never really coated up like my others that were done later...
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The old thinking used to be to have all your dogs done at 6 months, both boys and girls. Current protocol has changed, and although many people (and vets) still recommend spaying at 6 months, research has shown that it's better to wait until the dog has reached adulthood and is more developed. For girls, that's after their first heat cycle and for boys, between 12 and 18 months.

Gloria, it's very true that spaying early reduces the coat. We spayed Barkley at 6 months and he's never had the coat his littermates have....even those who were spayed later.
 
SheltieLuver said:
Cancer from a retained testicle can be a higher risk.... but it’s not going to happen overnight. I wouldn’t be worried to wait till six months or even a year. Your puppy is still very young and there is time for that testicle to drop yet. I’d give him to six months and it just may come down.
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Thank you, I plan to wait past the 6 months.
 
Thank you all for your thoughts and advice. It all helps. For some unknown reason, Shelties are very few in Sonoma County. I had to travel out of state for my prior two. Vets don't know much about them, groomers are clueless, so I very much appreciate this forum.
 
Came across an interesting study recently that examined the death records of over 40,000 dogs for a 20 year period which found that sterilised dogs lived longer, overall male life expectancy increased by 13.8% and females by 26.3%. Doesn't necessarily help with age to neuter, but still very interesting findings.

Here's the article for anyone interested in reading it - Hoffman, Creevy and Promislow (2013), Reproductive capability is associated with lifespan and cause of death in companion dogs, https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0061082
 
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