Dog Owner Chat V. 5

[payno.]

@Hewitt

the dog I have, Mexi she’s a golden weenie, her sister who had the puppies is golden weenie and the daddy was a deist (: I didn’t think of Boxer at all!

[eleutheromania]

@Hewitt; Better to alter at 2 or later if you plan to. IVDD studies are showing that dogs altered before 2 are the majority of ivdd cases. Loki is going on five and still intact. also, you’ll need to watch weight closely after altering, they get overweight fast. loki didn’t fully stop maturing until 2 and has stayed at a constant 18lbs

I finally got piper to run with SO here and omg. she ran the majority of the mile. though only because i was running with loki ahead of him and piper. guess she needs someone in front to motivate.

[nvsebleed]

i just wanted to make my first post here about my service dog who i love to pieces. his name is pip and he's a 4.8lb yorkshire terrier! he was trained by doggie do good and myself and is a medical alert/response and psychiatric service dog. if y'all have any questions regarding service animals in the US feel free to ask on this forum or pm me (though i really don't check my messages all that often). he has quite literally saved my life multiple times and prevented serious harm by alerting me to my medical issues before they happen and going and getting help when medical issues happen and i'm alone or hurt

[mierose]

@Hewitt; Better to alter at 2 or later if you plan to. IVDD studies are showing that dogs altered before 2 are the majority of ivdd cases. Loki is going on five and still intact. also, you’ll need to watch weight closely after altering, they get overweight fast. loki didn’t fully stop maturing until 2 and has stayed at a constant 18lbs

I finally got piper to run with SO here and omg. she ran the majority of the mile. though only because i was running with loki ahead of him and piper. guess she needs someone in front to motivate.

Is the weight thing fact? I’ve never seen it in any of the dogs I’ve owned and worked with, just curious. Also yes, though there are health benefits, please always be mindful that waiting to alter a dog is a HUGE responsibility. It does sometimes limit the activities you can do and when, and you have to monitor them closely and be particular about playmates. Be careful! I prefer to alter sooner rather than later, but that’s just preference as my dogs have always been very active and participate in a lot of play groups.

[eleutheromania]

@Hewitt; Better to alter at 2 or later if you plan to. IVDD studies are showing that dogs altered before 2 are the majority of ivdd cases. Loki is going on five and still intact. also, you’ll need to watch weight closely after altering, they get overweight fast. loki didn’t fully stop maturing until 2 and has stayed at a constant 18lbs

I finally got piper to run with SO here and omg. she ran the majority of the mile. though only because i was running with loki ahead of him and piper. guess she needs someone in front to motivate.

Is the weight thing fact? I’ve never seen it in any of the dogs I’ve owned and worked with, just curious. Also yes, though there are health benefits, please always be mindful that waiting to alter a dog is a HUGE responsibility. It does sometimes limit the activities you can do and when, and you have to monitor them closely and be particular about playmates. Be careful! I prefer to alter sooner rather than later, but that’s just preference as my dogs have always been very active and participate in a lot of play groups.

If you're in enough groups, weight is a major issue with this breed, i'm not speaking for other breeds. People think they are supposed to be round and not slim. Most of the time, people have gotten them altered and are now having issues with weight because they don't know to measure food etc and adjust because the dog is gaining weight now. We've never had issues with altering and weight but we also measure food accordingly. It is a case by case issue especally with those that free feed.

[Kenjaku]

Thanks, Eleu. I work at a daycare and would love to bring Barnaby back to play, but the cutoff date for unaltered dogs is 6mo at work. Definitely too early but I was wondering if 1-1.5yr would be okay. Best to just wait the full 2 if I'm going to go that far.

Pediatric neuters are more often than not very detrimental to a dog's health, and I'd prefer to put it off as long as possible. It's really not hard to be a responsible owner and keep your dog unaltered. If he lived with me full time and I didn't want to bring him to work, I'd keep him unaltered his whole life likely. (Barring some kind of cancer or issue that his hormones were exacerbating somehow.) I can 100% tell which dogs at work were pediatric neuters vs later life neuters by look alone. The only time I generally excuse a pediatric alter is when a dog is from a shelter. Generally the shelters have their hands tied in wanting to keep population down and most places I've seen that allow adoption pre-alter have contracts that state you *must* alter, but generally it isn't followed (ruining the program for everyone). It's a necessary evil in that situation because they can't be picky in who dogs are going to - responsible owners or not.

Also - Pip's super cute! I'd love to have an alert dog for my diabetes and seizures some day. It's just not feasible medical equipment for my financial situation as-is, however.

[mierose]

Thanks, Eleu. I work at a daycare and would love to bring Barnaby back to play, but the cutoff date for unaltered dogs is 6mo at work. Definitely too early but I was wondering if 1-1.5yr would be okay. Best to just wait the full 2 if I'm going to go that far.

Pediatric neuters are more often than not very detrimental to a dog's health, and I'd prefer to put it off as long as possible. It's really not hard to be a responsible owner and keep your dog unaltered. If he lived with me full time and I didn't want to bring him to work, I'd keep him unaltered his whole life likely. (Barring some kind of cancer or issue that his hormones were exacerbating somehow.) I can 100% tell which dogs at work were pediatric neuters vs later life neuters by look alone. The only time I generally excuse a pediatric alter is when a dog is from a shelter. Generally the shelters have their hands tied in wanting to keep population down and most places I've seen that allow adoption pre-alter have contracts that state you *must* alter, but generally it isn't followed (ruining the program for everyone). It's a necessary evil in that situation because they can't be picky in who dogs are going to - responsible owners or not.

Also - Pip's super cute! I'd love to have an alert dog for my diabetes and seizures some day. It's just not feasible medical equipment for my financial situation as-is, however.

I hear that. I’ve been working with rescues and shelters for quite a few years, and it used to be that we’d adopt out an animal with a contract that required the owner to come back in a few months for a spay/neuter. Unfortunately not enough owners brought them back, so now we have to do the surgery before they can go home, which often means pediatric spays as we don’t have the space or resources to keep an animal for those extra months. I foster orphaned kittens as well, and the rescues and shelters in my area are required to spay right at 3 pounds for kittens. Kahlua was spayed at 6 months partly due to the contract with her rescue, and partly because most of the puppy training and play groups in my area require it, which is why I often lean towards pediatric spays with my dogs. We take part in a lot of play groups and training, and are an all rescue/shelter animal family. The irresponsibility of several owners has made this necessary, as upsetting as it may be.

[juicebox!]

yesterday, bear and i woke up at five am and headed to a local dog show. it turned out pretty big as a lot of people came from not local to come and show! which was cool cus i recognized a couple of them.

bear is a service dog and he didn’t show because he is not breed standard for a labrador. but we did get a lot of compliments. i also got informed about rally and got to watch an agility trial so i hope either of these can be in our future.

bear was absoloutely amazing. when we got there, he was pulling and a bit excited. it took a while before he was chill and not too excited, haha. we sat by the ring because our chairs got stolen and there were no other chairs left. he didn’t make any noise as the dogs ran past probably a foot away from him. during one of the shows, the dog spun around and started barking at bear. he perked his ears up and that was all. some dogs in kennels would start growling and barking at him as we walked past and he ignored them completely. he made some friends with two finnish lapphund puppies. he ignored dogs that were right next to him, ignored dogs barking and running around, etc. he alerted to a panic attack and i was able to get to a safe place as well, that is one alert task we have struggled with for over a year and he finally understands it so i was super happy!

at the end, i really wanted to see the belgian tervurens which are my favorite breed. i handed him to a friend so i could pet one of the veteran show dogs that was a belgian tervuren. bear didn’t throw a fit, he just sat there with my friend.

he is such a solid good boy and, of course, he got dog cookies when we got home!

[Taiger Lilly]

@mierose
Here's a study on altered dogs and weight gain
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23822081

Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—Gonadectomized dogs had a greater risk of being overweight than did sexually intact dogs, but this risk was not influenced by age at gonadectomy. Opportunities exist for veterinarians to provide counseling during the first years after gonadectomy to help dogs maintain a healthy weight.

[mierose]

@mierose
Here's a study on altered dogs and weight gain
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23822081

Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—Gonadectomized dogs had a greater risk of being overweight than did sexually intact dogs, but this risk was not influenced by age at gonadectomy. Opportunities exist for veterinarians to provide counseling during the first years after gonadectomy to help dogs maintain a healthy weight.

Interesting, thank you. I suppose it's then the owner's responsibility to feed correctly and exercise the dog. In my personal opinion, I feel balancing a diet + exercising a dog is easier than making sure an intact dog doesn't breed or impregnate another dog, as intact or not, that's just part of owning a dog. Also, you have to rely on the responsibility of other owners. However, that's just me personally.