A 2020 study in Frontiers of Veterinary Science found the age at which we neuter our dogs—with neuter meaning “surgically sterilize” the dog so he or she cannot reproduce—may affect the dog’s lifetime health. This study cited large-dog joint health, the risk of developing cancer, and female urinary incontinence as possible problems from spaying or neutering too early in the dog’s life. That said, the researchers found it ultimately depends upon the breed of the dog: “Guidelines that avoid increasing the risks of a dog acquiring these joint disorders or cancers are laid out for neutering ages on a breed-by-breed and sex basis,” according to the researchers. In other words, there is no “one age fits all” when it comes to neutering or spaying.

An earlier study published in The Journal of the American Veterinary Association also found that the age of neutering or spaying may affect the dog’s joint health—again for large dogs—saying, “In general, large- and giant-breed dogs were more likely than other dogs to have HD (hip dysplasia), CCLD (cranial cruciate ligament deficiency), or both” due to early neutering. Some veterinarians advise waiting until 24 months of age for giant-breed dogs.

And, of course, cancer risk in Golden Retrievers is a well-known concern, with a lifetime study funded by the Morris Animal Foundation. The chance of cancer in female Goldens is so high it almost makes the issue more of “should we spay” rather than deciding what age to spay.

It’s Hormones, Baby

What’s this all about, really? Hormones. Whether your dog is male or female, the hormones testosterone and estrogen matter to your dog’s physical and, possibly, mental development. These hormones are made in the testicles or ovaries of your dog, so if you remove these organs, the hormone production stops.

For example, estrogen helps with muscle tone in the urethra, which is why some female dogs develop urinary incontinence. And testosterone can cause abnormal prostate overgrowth in an intact male dog and impact rectal function, possibly blocking the path of feces through the rectum and requiring emergency surgery. One good reason for a late spay, but a looming concern for a late neuter. And, of course, if you have a canine athlete, these hormones help develop muscle growth and, possibly, even drive in your dog.

When to Spay Your Female Dog

The decision on when to spay your female dog is not easy. Discuss with your veterinarian what you want to do with the dog and your ability to handle a heat cycle (male dogs will seek her out and she will want to “meet” them!). While vets don’t have crystal balls, they are familiar with the research on these issues and have a much wider base of experience than you probably do.

In general, if you have a small female dog (under 40 lbs. projected adult weight), you have more leeway in choosing when to spay because smaller dogs seem less affected by all these health concerns than larger dogs. If you want to avoid her having a heat cycle, many veterinarians will spay her at 6 months of age. Research, as of yet, shows no problem with this decision.

If you have a larger female dog, you need to weigh the developmental risks of an early spay—as shown by research—against dealing with a heat cycle. At about 1 year of age, most veterinarians will advise you that it’s acceptable to spay as your dog is fully grown at that age, making the lack of hormone production less likely to be a problem. That could be only one or two heat cycles to endure.

It’s important to know, however, that the risk of mammary tumors increases in unspayed female dogs. That’s because intact female dogs have fully developed mammary tissue. A dog spayed prior to sexual maturity (around 6 months old) is at a reduced risk of mammary cancer because the spay removes the ovaries, which produce the estrogen that is significant to the full development of the mammary glands, according to Cornell DogWatch.

The Veterinary Society of Surgical Oncology (VSSO) says mammary tumors in female dogs account for 42% of all diagnosed tumors, with a lifetime risk of 23% to 34%. “Compare that to women, who have a 12.4% lifetime risk according to Susan G. Komen, an American breast cancer organization,” says Cornell DogWatch.

“At a cellular level, mammary tumors in dogs and cats are very similar to human breast cancer tumors,” says Dr. Scott Coonrod, the Judy Wilpon Professor of Cancer Biology and director of the Baker Institute for Animal Health. “And they may occur in pets even more often than they do in humans.”

When to Neuter Your Male Dog

The decision on when to neuter your dog again may depend upon what you’re going to do with the dog and your ability to handle an intact dog. As with female dogs, smaller breeds are less affected by the study results, which show larger dogs have more problems. With a big dog, your veterinarian may advise you to wait till 12 to 24 months of age to neuter your dog and ensure skeletal growth is finished. However, if you are having any temperament/aggression issues with your male dog, early neutering may be wise. Testosterone is linked to aggression.

How Much Does It Cost to Spay or Neuter Your Dog?

Not surprisingly, the cost of a spay or neuter is a regional thing. Prices in metropolitan areas can surpass $500 for a spay and $250 for neutering (castrating). If you’re working through a rescue or animal shelter, not only will they require that the dog is spayed or neutered, but they will often have low-cost plans to help control the births of unwanted puppies.

The post When to Spay vs. Neuter Your Dog appeared first on Whole Dog Journal.

Comfort a dog in heat by giving your dog a little extra attention during her heat cycle. Make sure she continues to eat but don’t force her to eat more than she wants. Let her sleep if she needs it and keep noisy distractions to a minimum.

Once her heat cycle has started, your dog will begin spotting blood from her vulva. She may spend a lot of time licking her vulva to keep that area clean. Dogs with thick fur may require your assistance with keeping the fur around the vulva free of discharge.

You can help support her by making sure that her bedding is always clean. Consider laying an absorbent pad (like a pee pad) on top of her bedding to absorb discharge from her vulva. Dogs who experience moderate to heavy discharge may benefit from wearing a sanitary diaper until the amount of discharge begins to decrease.

How to prevent unwanted pregnancy during your dog’s heat cycle

A dog’s heat cycle typically lasts about two to three weeks. There are two phases to a dog’s heat cycle. Intact male dogs will be attracted to her during both phases, but she will become receptive to mating and can become pregnant during the second phase.

If you do not want your dog to become pregnant, do not leave her unattended outside during the second phase of her heat cycle. Avoid off-leash walks and dog parks. And most importantly, do not let her out in the fenced-in yard without direct supervision. A fence is no match for an intact male dog who wants to mate with your female dog!

Since her outdoor activities will likely be curtailed during her heat cycle to prevent mating, she will need additional indoor activities to keep her occupied. Consider getting her an interactive puzzle toy to provide her with both mental stimulation and physical activity. Play indoor games of fetch or hide training treats inside boxes or blocks that she can search for and find.

The best way to provide comfort to a dog in heat is to not have her go through a heat cycle at all! Having your dog spayed eliminates the risk of developing pyometra (a life-threatening infection of the uterus) and minimizes the risk of developing mammary cancer. Talk to your veterinarian about the best time to spay your dog.

The post How to Comfort a Dog in Heat appeared first on Whole Dog Journal.

If you have a small breed dog or a mixed-breed dog less than 42 pounds, the timing of spay has not been linked to any of these diseases. Additionally, small dogs are not prone to developing spay incontinence (hormone-associated urinary incontinence after spay), which is also mainly large breed dog problem. What all this means that if you have a small dog, you can have her spayed whenever you want. (The exception is if you have a Shih Tzu. In one study, Shih Tzhs had a significantly higher risk of cancer if spayed before 1 year of age, so you’re better off waiting until she is 2.) Most veterinarians will spay small dogs as early as 6 months of age, before they have a heat cycle.

Large Dog Spays

The general recommendation for large breed dogs is to wait until at least 12 months to spay, as many of these breeds have shown an increased incidence of joint disorders and cancers if spayed earlier. This is especially true for Golden Retrievers, Viszlas, and Rottweilers. Cancer is so prevalent in Golden Retrievers, and so much higher in spayed Golden Retrievers, that some experts suggest not spaying Golden Retrievers at all. Spaying large breed females later also reduces the risk of hormone-associated urinary incontinence.

Overall, there are more pros than cons to spaying your female dog if she is not intended for breeding. Spaying means no messy heats, no unwanted pregnancies, less chance of breast cancer, no chance of ovarian or uterine cancer, and no chance of uterine infection (pyometra), which is a very common surgical emergency in older, intact (not spayed) female dogs.

When to Spay a Dog After a Heat Cycle

Remember that dogs come into heat approximately every six months. So, if you’re planning on having your dog spayed later, schedule the surgery so it is around two to three months after a heat. This allows time for everything to quiet down inside and the blood vessels that became enlarged during heat to get smaller, making the surgery a little safer and less complicated than when she is in heat.

The post The Best Age to Spay Your Dog appeared first on Whole Dog Journal.

Decades ago, most shelter workers and veterinarians – and many professional dog trainers, too – believed that gonadectomy (surgical removal of the testes in males or ovaries in females) would not just help prevent the birth of unwanted puppies, but also help alter the behavior of dogs.

It was widely believed that some of the dog behaviors that humans least appreciate (such as aggression, roaming, humping, and more) could be prevented or resolved through spay/neuter surgery.

Today, though, we have the advantage of more and better research into canine behavior. We also have more experience with a population of dogs that possesses the historically highest percentage of spayed/neutered individuals ever (an estimated 70% to 85% of the dogs in the U.S. have experienced a gonadectomy). This combination has led to a reexamination of many beliefs about canine behavior, and many that were regarded as gospel in the 1970s and ’80s are being revealed as myths. We now know that the behavioral benefits – to us! – of canine sterilization are very limited and should not be treated as a panacea for canine behaviors that many owners find problematic.

Dog Behaviors That Humans Tend to Dislike

Dogs are a charismatic, intelligent, social species. They have willingly joined us in our lives, and in return for their companionship and service, we’ve given them privileged spots in our society, homes, couches, and even beds. Despite this closeness, there are many natural and normal behaviors that dogs exhibit that we tend to dislike, including:

• Aggression (toward other dogs or humans)
• Barking
• Excessive excitability
• Humping
• Pulling on leash
• Roaming
• Urine-marking

Somewhere along the way, many of these canine behaviors came to be blamed on the hormones that circulate in reproductively intact dogs – particularly male dogs. This was not such a stretch, since humans have long castrated male horses and cattle in order to make them more docile.

In the 1970s, as America woke up to the problem of pet overpopulation and the senseless killing of “surplus” dogs, shelter workers and veterinarians alike began to promote spay/neuter surgery in a population-control effort. As spay and neutering became more common, it began to be regarded and promoted as potentially helpful for reducing some of those behaviors that many owners found inconvenient or distasteful. This multi-benefit sales pitch helped convince owners to “de-sex” their dogs, though it was perhaps oversold based on anecdotal reports from owners, trainers, or vets who found altered animals easier to deal with.

Canine Behavior Research

Anecdotal evidence can often convince people that something is true well before scientists have a chance to test the popular assumptions for accuracy. Some of the most commonly held assumptions about dog behaviors that can be altered or improved (from the human standpoint) through surgical gonadectomy have to do with canine aggression. Many dog owners believe some variation of the following statements:

• Dogs should be spayed or neutered because sex hormones cause unnecessary stress and aggression.
• Many aggression problems may be avoided by early neutering.
• Male dogs display hormonally influenced aggression toward each other. Neutering eliminates much of this behavior.

The problem is, that studies conducted by behavior scientists contradict all of these statements, which now must be considered as persistent but untrue myths.

Behavior scientists in both clinical and research settings have done some of this work. But the development and analysis of large populational surveys have also enabled researchers to address some of the most stubbornly held myths about dog behavior. Two tools that were developed to measure behavior and “behavior problems” in dogs have proven to be particularly useful for this purpose.

The first is the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ), a standardized behavioral evaluation tool developed and validated by Yuying Hsu and Dr. James Serpell at the University of Pennsylvania in 2003. C-BARQ is an owner-completed survey that has been available for public access online since 2005. Today, the C-BARQ database contains detailed behavioral evaluations for more than 50,000 pet dogs, comprising more than 300 different breeds and cross-breeds. The survey contains 100 questions about an array of dog behaviors that have been grouped into categories such as aggression, fear, and anxiety.

Another researcher, Dr. Parvene Farhoody, analyzed a set of the C-BARQ data involving some 10,839 dogs in her master’s thesis for Hunter College in 2010.

The results of these two studies were supported by the later findings of a 2018 study from a research team headed by Paul McGreevy of the Sydney School of Veterinary Science at the University of Sydney (Australia), with another 9,938 dogs.

All of these studies were in agreement: Sterilized (spayed or neutered) dogs are more likely to show an increase in aggressive behaviors as a result of spaying and neutering, rather than the long-touted decrease. The amount of the increase varied depending on the type of aggression presented (toward the owner, toward strangers, toward other dogs, etc.), ranging from about a 20% increase to more than twice the level of aggression observed in unsterilized dogs.

According to the data, neutered male dogs are more likely to be aggressive toward intact males than intact males interacting with other intact males. And female dogs spayed later in life are less likely to show an increase in aggression than females who were spayed at a young age.

Other Canine Behavior Myths Busted

There are other, less specific myths about the effects of canine spay/neuter practices that have been called into question through the analysis of the C-BARQ data, including:

• Spaying and neutering make pets better, more affectionate companions.
• Unsterilized animals often exhibit more behavior and temperament problems than do those who have been spayed or neutered.

In fact, the UPenn researchers found a roughly 31% increase in fearfulness for both genders after sterilization, a 33% increase in touch sensitivity, and an 8% increase in excitability. This seems to belie the argument that spaying and neutering make for better, more affectionate companions. While we must always remember that correlation doesn’t necessarily mean causation, these are, indeed, significant correlations.

It would be worth considering other correlations, such as the age of the dog at the time of surgery. How many dogs are perhaps sterilized during an adolescent fear period, which might contribute to an increase in fearfulness and touch sensitivity? How might the proliferation of puppy mill puppies born to mothers housed in stressful environments contribute to a greater likelihood of the development of fear, touch sensitivity, and excitability following spay/neuter surgery?

On the bright side, neutering does appear to reduce urine-marking behavior and decreases roaming behavior by intact males pursuing females in season.

Still Good Reasons for Spay/Neuter

Gonadectomy prevents the proliferation of puppies for whom there may not be homes, and the widespread prevalence of the practice has definitely helped to reduce the senseless, “accidental” production of unwanted puppies and the deaths of healthy, adoptable dogs by many millions annually. Just don’t think spaying or neutering your dog is going to prevent or solve all of his or her behaviors that you find problematic. Statistical analysis of a huge population of spayed and neutered dogs says that it won’t.

The post Does Spaying or Neutering Change Dog Behavior? appeared first on Whole Dog Journal.

When I adopted Saber as a 2-year-old, I was told he was neutered, and he certainly appeared to lack testicles. However, a thorough review of his medical records, obtained from his previous owner, revealed that Saber had undergone neutering surgery, but only one testicle was found and removed; he still possessed a single, “hidden” testicle!

Cryptorchidism (from the Greek crypto, meaning hidden, and orkhis or orchid, meaning testicles) is the medical term for the condition that occurs when one or both testicles of a male dog fail to descend into the scrotum. It’s not an extremely common condition; various sources offer an incidence of between less than 1 percent and 10 percent.

It’s also variable as to whether it affects one testicle or two. When one testicle fails to drop, the condition is described as unilateral cryptorchidism; if neither descends, the dog has bilateral cryptorchidism. Many people mistakenly refer to unilateral cryptorchidism (which is more common) as being monorchid, which is incorrect. Monorchidism refers to the complete absence of a second testicle – only one ever developed – and it’s so rare, we’ve yet to find a vet who has ever seen a monorchid dog!

“There’s always a second testicle,” says Suzi Milder, DVM, of Chatsworth Veterinary Center in Chatsworth, California. It may be difficult to locate, but if the dog is being neutered, Dr. Milder says, “It’s the responsibility of veterinarians to find it and remove it.” Sometimes, this is quite a challenge, as was the case with Saber. The veterinarian who performed his first neuter surgery tried, but failed to find Saber’s second testicle. Fortunately, this was noted in Saber’s medical records, which I received from his previous owner a month or so after I adopted him.

I was lucky to learn about Saber’s condition; had he been a previously stray dog without medical records, I wouldn’t have known that I needed to schedule a second surgery to complete Saber’s neutering. (I’ll explain why I went to the considerable trouble to do so in a minute.)

Testicle Development in Dogs

How does it happen that testicular descent fails to occur in some cases? As the canine fetus develops, the testicles are formed in the abdomen, near the kidneys. Usually, as the puppy grows – initially, in utero, and then, after his birth – his testicles are gradually pulled from the abdomen, through the inguinal canal (a passageway through the abdominal wall), and into the scrotum by the gubernaculum, a ligamentous cord connecting the testes to the scrotum. Typically, the testes pass through the inguinal canal within a week or two after birth, and reach their final scrotal position by 6 to 8 weeks of age.

However, in some cases, the gubernaculum isn’t formed properly, or doesn’t function properly, and the testicle stays in the abdomen, Dr. Milder explains. “It can be anywhere – up by the kidney, in the canal along the pathway, or even in the subcutaneous tissue next to the scrotum.”

The right testicle is retained more often than the left, due to its more forward-starting position in the abdomen. Retained testicles are smaller than scrotal testicles, and abdominally retained testicles are smaller than inguinally retained testicles.

Dr. Milder says it’s even possible to have a late bloomer, where one or both testicles don’t reach the scrotum until up to six months old. If a testicle hasn’t “dropped” into the scrotum by six months of age, Dr. Milder and many of her colleagues say, it most likely won’t.

Cryptorchidism is genetic; it’s caused by an autosomal recessive gene that can be inherited by offspring. Research shows several breeds commonly known to be affected, including Standard Poodles, Boxers, German Shepherds, Weimaraners, English Bulldogs, Shetland Sheepdogs, and many of the toy breeds, such as Chihuahuas, Miniature Dachshunds, Pomeranians, Miniature Poodles, Maltese, and Yorkshire Terriers.

“There’s definitely a higher prevalence of cryptorchidism in small and toy-breed dogs,” confirms Brooke Neece, DVM, of Columbus, Ohio. “In larger dogs, there is a higher prevalence in the brachycephalic breeds such as Boxers and English Bulldogs.”

© Joel Mills

Problems Associated with Cryptorchidism

Poor Saber. As if one neuter surgery wasn’t enough, when I learned he had a retained testicle, I planned a second surgery. Why go to all that trouble? Because cryptorchidism carries significant health risks.

Most seriously, dogs with cryptorchidism can develop torsion, an extremely painful condition where the testicle twists upon itself, inhibiting blood flow. The testicle swells as it becomes engorged with blood. This condition typically presents with abdominal pain and evidence of a firm mass in the stomach. The pain can be so severe it causes the dog to go into shock. Immediate removal of the testicle is required to provide relief.

used through Wikimedia Commons

Dogs with cryptorchidism are also at a higher risk of developing testicular cancer later in life. According to a fact sheet provided by the William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at the University of California, Davis, testicular cancer is the second most common cancer in older male dogs, and the risk among dogs with cryptorchidism increases by about 13 percent. While the incidence of testicular cancer is fairly low in the United States, due to the prevalence of neutering, an Italian study of 232 dogs (post-mortem) showed 27 percent had one or more testicular tumors.

The most common testicular tumors are Sertoli cell tumors, interstitial cell tumors, and seminomas. According to Daniel Denger, DVM, a board-certified veterinary surgeon with Animal Surgical Center in Flint, Michigan, metastasis occurs in about 10 to 20 percent of testicular tumors.

However, even when metastasis has not occurred, Milder says certain tumors can cause plenty of other problems, from mild to life-threatening. For example, Sertoli tumors produce estrogen and similar hormones, which can cause skin and coat problems, and even wipe out a dog’s bone marrow. While removal of the testicle or testicles is often curative, as with many things, an ounce of prevention can be worth a pound of cure.

“In my head, whether the tumor is malignant or benign, it would be much easier to perform major abdominal surgery to remove a retained testicle on a healthy, younger dog, than on a dog who is experiencing health problems because of a tumor,” Dr. Milder says. “Waiting can make things a lot more complicated and risky for the patient. It’s not a good answer to say, ‘I’ll wait until he’s sick,’ because then you’re adding a whole new layer of complications.”

Dogs with cryptorchidism typically display the same hormonally driven behaviors as dogs with descended testicles. They are often especially interested in intact females, and are capable of impregnating them in some cases. (When testicles remain in the body cavity, the increased temperature negatively impacts sperm viability. Dogs with bilateral cryptorchidism are almost always sterile or infertile, but some dogs who are unilaterally cryptorchid may have viable sperm.) In cases when a dog’s neutering history is unknown – even when the dog appears outwardly neutered – and the dog exhibits the libido or other hormonally driven behaviors typical of intact male dogs, the possibility of a remaining, retained testicle should be considered.

Finding the Dog’s Lost Ball

While most vets feel six months is the age of “last call” for testicular descent, some make a case for watching and waiting much longer. “Classically, by the time a dog reaches six months of age, if he does not have two scrotal testicles, he is considered a cryptorchid . . . but, realistically, with the vast differences in age at puberty between breeds, this is probably not a reasonable expectation,” says Cheryl Lopate, DVM, of Reproductive Revolutions in Aurora, Oregon, a diplomate of the American College of Theriogenologists.

“Based on the average age of puberty for any given breed, one would expect to have both testes in the scrotum within two months of attaining puberty to be considered normal. This means that for large and giant breed dogs, testicular descent may not be complete until well over a year of age. Small- and medium-breed dogs should still be considered cryptorchid if two testes are not in the scrotum by six to eight months of age,” Dr. Lopate says.

In recent decades, veterinarians have typically recommended that male dogs who are not going to be used in a breeding program are neutered around six months of age; this recommendation stems from a desire to prevent unwanted reproduction (population control). But because the condition can be passed down to a dog’s offspring, most veterinarians recommend that even purebred dogs with cryptorchidism who were otherwise destined for a breeding career to be neutered. This is partly due to the fact that research suggests dogs with cryptorchidism are more likely to have other congenital problems as well.

“Because we would like to, ideally, eliminate this negative trait, I recommend neutering between six to 12 months so there’s not a chance of an accidental breeding where it’s passed on,” Dr. Milder says. “From a responsibility standpoint, the best thing to do is neuter sooner rather than later.”

However, when owners are confident they can prevent accidental breeding, and when they wish to maximize potential health benefits associated with neutering at a slightly older age, some vets are comfortable waiting until as late as four or five years old.

Finding an undescended testicle can be tricky, as it can go off-course at any point along its intended path. Dr. Neece says testicles in the inguinal (groin) area can often be felt with careful palpation. They typically can’t be felt in heavier dogs, nor can they be felt when in the abdomen. An ultrasound by a highly skilled technician will sometimes reveal the location, but is not always successful, since retained testis can be tucked away behind other anatomy.

When the retained testicle’s location is known, surgical removal is similar to spaying a female, in that an incision is made in the abdomen. If the location is unknown, surgery is exploratory. Some veterinarians, including Dr. Neece, prefer to start near the bladder, by the inguinal ring. “In my experience, I have found more abdominally retained testicles further down in the abdomen,” she says. If a retained testicle cannot be found in the vicinity of the bladder, a second incision is made higher in the abdomen, closer to the kidneys, where the testicles begin their development.

Beyond the typical risks associated with any surgical event, Dr. Neece says the most likely complications associated with neutering a dog with cryptorchidism are bruising and seromas (swelling caused by temporary fluid build-up at the surgical site). “You often have to dig around a little, in a small area, to find the testicle,” she says.

Re-Neutering is Worth It

Nobody like subjecting her dog to surgery – especially for a second time, as was the case with my dog! And there’s always the occasional piece of anecdotal evidence suggesting that dogs with cryptorchidism can live to a ripe old age without surgical intervention or complications. For me, however, the combination of my vet’s recommendation to re-neuter Saber by age four, the gnawing fear of cancer, and some unwanted, hormonally driven behavior (insatiable sniffing), solidified my decision to pursue the second surgery – which was successful. (And, I’m pleased to report the excess sniffing stopped almost immediately; I wouldn’t have believed it could happen so quickly, had I not witnessed the remarkable change.)

“It’s important for dog owners to understand that cryptorchidism is a real and potentially serious issue,” Dr. Neece says. “These dogs should absolutely not be used as breeding dogs. When dealt with at a young age (or, we would add, at an age deemed appropriate for your situation, by your vet), the prognosis is great and there aren’t any long-term effects of cryptorchidism.”

Dr. Milder agrees. “I’ve seen what can happen when cryptorchidism is untreated (torsion, tumors). It’s tragic and so preventable. One time is too many for me,” she says.

Stephanie Colman is a writer and dog trainer in Los Angeles.

The post Retained Testicles Can Be Dangerous for Dogs appeared first on Whole Dog Journal.

I can still remember the day, more than a decade ago, when I first realized with horror that our Scottish Terrier, Dubhy (pronounced “Duffy”), was marking in the house. We were trying to sell our Tennessee home at the time, which made the indoor leg-lifting behavior doubly disturbing. Homes with urine stains and odors don’t show particularly well. Dubhy was young, just over a year old. I wrote off the amber-colored stains I found on the heater vent to not-quite-finished housetraining, redoubled my management efforts, and stepped up the “potty outside” routine. It didn’t help. I began to question my professional dog-trainer credentials. Personally faced with persistent indoor marking, one of the more frustrating challenges dog owners encounter, I was not succeeding at resolving it.

Leg-lifting is a natural, normal behavior for dogs, especially (although not exclusively) for males. Of course, like lots of other natural, normal dog behaviors, it’s unacceptable to most owners. Fortunately, most male dogs learn pretty quickly that humans, for some unfathomable reason, don’t appreciate their efforts to tell the world that the house, and all items within in it, are the property of the dog and his family. “Keep your paws off!” he is saying to the world.

Indoor marking is also often a function of stress. Dogs who are anxious about their environment are more likely to mark indoors than those who are relaxed and calm. Stress-related marking is harder to modify than the simple “This is my stuff” leg-lifting. Dubhy was a calm, easygoing, laid-back dude. The idea of stress-induced marking didn’t even enter my mind.

Only after several years had passed did I realize that Dubhy’s indoor marking coincided precisely with the start of his dog-reactive behavior. The dog reactivity emerged as the result of a pair of roaming Labradors Retrievers (who lived a mile away) who repeatedly breached their underground shock fence, visited our yard, and fought through our fence with our indomitable Scottie. I eventually realized well after the fact that the two behaviors were connected. Duh. The stress of the two intruding Labradors set off Dubhy’s marking.

Neutering Usually Stops Urine Marking

In Dubhy’s case, my initial analysis of incomplete housetraining, although incorrect, was not entirely off base. Indoor marking often begins in adolescent males because it is a natural behavior. Those “easy” cases often respond well to standard housetraining protocols: increasing the dog’s management to reduce his opportunity to mark, taking him outdoors to potty far more frequently, reinforcing appropriate elimination outside, and interrupting any leg lifts you happen to see with a reminder: “Oops! Outside!”
Of course, housetraining and/or behavior-modification efforts need to be accompanied by a good clean-up program using an enzymatic cleaner, to eliminate any lingering odor of urine (which invites the dog to mark again). It’s also important to rule out or treat any urinary-tract infections as possible contributors to inappropriate elimination. And don’t forget neutering!

According to Dr. Nicholas Dodman, veterinary behaviorist at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, about 60 percent of intact male dogs will stop urine-marking within weeks or months if they are neutered. Other sources claim as high as a 90 percent success rate post-neutering.

Suffice it to say that neutering is a good first step if your dog reverts back to peeing in the house. This is at least in part because intact male dogs will mark everything in response to the scent of a female in season somewhere in the area, and in part because testosterone in general contributes to the motivation to make a “this is mine” statement. Marking by female dogs will also usually resolve with spaying. Of course, the older the dog and the longer your dog has been practicing the marking behavior, the less likely it is that sterilization alone will fix the problem.

Dubhy, however, was neutered some five months before he started marking. That clearly wasn’t the answer to our dilemma. Nor did our return to a basic housetraining protocol stop his behavior.

Stress Generally Causes Dogs to Mark the House

The 10 to 40 percent of dogs who don’t stop their marking after neutering and remedial housetraining efforts are probably, like Dubhy, marking because of stress. In some cases, identifying stressors and removing them can eliminate marking. There are a variety of different strategies for removing stressors. The more stress you can remove, the more likely it is the marking will cease. Other than his reactive aggression toward other dogs, however, Dubhy was a pretty laid-back, mellow guy. We had talked to the neighbors on several occasions about keeping their wandering Labrador Retrievers at home, but Dubhy really didn’t seem to have a whole lot of additional stress in his life.

Exercise is an excellent stress reducer that can help your indoor-marker feel less compelled to lift his leg in your living room. Vigorous off-leash aerobic outings can work wonders with a variety of behavioral issues, as can force-free training routines that require a dog to think, and that tire him mentally. Products such as Adaptil (plug-in pheromone diffuser) can also be effective in decreasing stress levels for some dogs, as can calming massage, aromatherapy, and musical products from Through a Dog’s Ear (see “5 Things to Do if Your Dog Needs Cage Rest,” (August 2014).

How to Manage Urine Marking Indoors

Dr. Dodman suggests that dogs who persistently mark indoors and don’t respond to neutering and housetraining protocols almost always need anti-anxiety medication to resolve the problem. Indeed, pharmaceutical intervention can be quite successful, especially when combined with an ongoing behavior modification program.
Many dog owners prefer to avoid medication if possible, and choose, instead, to use a belly band for their indoor male markers (diapers are necessary for females). This is a reasonable solution to a vexing problem, if the dog accepts the device easily. If the dog can routinely Houdini his way out of the band, or is clearly distressed by wearing it, then it’s not a viable option and medication is a better choice.

We opted for management with Dubhy. He happily accepted his belly band, lined with a sanitary pad, and stood quietly when I told him it was time to put his pants on. Delivering a treat after applying the belly band helped keep him happy about the procedure. He would still mark into the band, so I had to change it as needed to prevent urine burns on his sensitive, bare abdomen.

Our earlier housetraining effort had at least succeeded in convincing Dubhy not to mark in our presence, so he could go pants-free when the family relaxed together evenings in the living room, and for sleep-time overnight in our bedroom. We used baby gates and closed doors to keep him in view. It was only for his unsupervised house-time that the band was required. Sure, I occasionally grumbled internally about the inconvenience of replacing pads and laundering belly bands, and groused out loud when he occasionally managed to pee out from under the band and I had to do clean-up duty, but it allowed us to have a peaceful life with our boy who might otherwise have been the source of much angst over the years.

We lost our beloved Dubhy a few months ago to lymphoma – a nasty and aggressive cancer. We miss him a lot. I’d give anything to have the privilege of putting belly bands on him again.

Ways to Approach Your Dog’s Pee-Inducing Stressors

I utilize five strategies for dealing with stressors. When I’m working with a client whose dog has stress-related behavior issues such as marking, aggression, or generalized anxiety, we list as many stressors as we can think of, assign one or more strategies to each stressor, and agree on which ones we will actively work on. Removing stressors doesn’t necessarily make the unwanted behavior go away, but it does make your behavior-modification efforts much more likely to be successful.

Here are the strategies:

1. Get rid of it

Get rid of anything aversive that causes unnecessary pain or stress, including shock collars, choke chains, and prong collars, and penny cans or throw chains. Even head halters, considered by some trainers to be positive training tools, are aversive to many dogs.

2. Manage your dog’s exposure to the stressors

If your dog isn’t fond of small children and there are none in your life (and he doesn’t encounter them regularly in your neighborhood), you can manage him (as I did) the one time each year your sister comes to visit with your young niece and nephew, by keeping him in another part of the house when the kids are awake and about.

3. Change his association to the stressors

Convince him that something that stresses him is actually very wonderful by pairing it consistently with something else wonderful. If your dog is stressed by men with beards, you can convince him that men with beards always make chicken happen by having a bearded man appear, and feeding your dog bits of chicken, over and over and over again, until he wants furry-faced men to appear so he can have more chicken. The key to successful counter-conditioning, as this process is called, is to always keep the dog below threshold; you want him a little aware of and worried about the aversive stimulus, but not quaking in fear or barking and lunging. (See “Counter-Conditioning,” below.)

4. Teach him a new behavior around the stressors

Perhaps your dog becomes highly aroused by visitors coming to the door. He’s not fearful or aggressive, but the high arousal is a stressor. You can teach him that the doorbell is his cue to run and get in his crate, where he’ll receive a stuffed Kong or other doggie delectable (see “Unwanted Barking at the Front Door,” February 2010). Or you can teach him that visitors will toss toys for him to chase if he sits politely when the door opens.

5. Live with the stressors

You don’t have to actively do something about every stressor in your dog’s world; every dog can tolerate some level of stress and a few stressors. Just try to do something about the ones that are easy to manage or remove from his environment, and be conscious that when he’s being exposed to the ones that you can’t do much about (say, sounds of construction coming from the building project next door), he may be more likely to exhibit urine-marking or other stress-related behaviors at that time.

Counter-Conditioning Urine Marking

Counter-conditioning involves changing your dog’s association with a scary or arousing stimulus from negative to positive. The easiest way to give most dogs a positive association is with very high-value, really yummy treats. I like to use white meat from chicken – canned, baked, or boiled, since most dogs love chicken and it’s a low-fat food.

Here’s how the process works:

1. Determine the distance at which your dog can be in the presence of the stimulus and be alert or wary but not extremely fearful or aroused. This is called the threshold distance.

2. With you holding your dog on leash, have a helper present the stimulus at threshold distance X. The instant your dog sees the stimulus, start feeding him bits of chicken, non-stop.

3. After several seconds, have the helper remove the stimulus, and stop feeding chicken.

4. Keep repeating steps 1-3 until the presentation of the stimulus at that distance consistently causes your dog to look at you with a happy smile and a “Yay! Where’s my chicken?” expression. This is a conditioned emotional response (CER) – your dog’s association with the stimulus at threshold distance X is now positive instead of negative.

5. Now you need to increase the intensity of the stimulus. You can do that by decreasing distance to X minus Y; by increasing movement of the stimulus at distance X (a child walking, skipping, or swinging her arms); by increasing number of stimuli (two or three children, instead of one); increasing the visual “threat” (a tall man instead of a short one, or a man with a beard instead of a clean-shaven one); or by increasing volume (if it’s a stimulus that makes noise, such as a vacuum cleaner). I’d suggest decreasing distance first in small increments by moving the dog closer to the location where the stimulus will appear, achieving his new CER at each new distance, until he is happy to be very near to the non-moving stimulus, perhaps even sniffing or targeting to it.

6. Return to distance X and increase the intensity of your stimulus (move the vacuum a little; have two children instead of one; have the man put on a hat, or a backpack), gradually decreasing distance and attaining CERs along the way, until your dog is delighted to have the moderately intense stimulus in close proximity.

7. Now, back to distance X, increase intensity again, by having your helper turn the vacuum on briefly, feed treats the instant it’s on, then turn it off, and stop the treats. (Or turn up the volume, or add more children, etc.)

8. Repeat until you have the CER, then gradually increase the length of time you have your dog in the presence of the increased-intensity stimulus, until he’s happy (but not aroused) to have it present continuously.

9. Begin decreasing distance in small increments, moving the dog closer to the stimulus, obtaining his new CER consistently at each new distance.

10. When your dog is happy to have the higher-intensity stimulus close to him, you’re ready for the final phase. Return to distance X and obtain his new CER there, with a full-intensity stimulus – a running, moving vacuum; multiple children laughing and playing; a tall man with a beard wearing a hat, sunglasses, and a backpack. Then gradually decrease distance until your dog is happy to be in the presence of your full-intensity stimulus. He now thinks the stimulus is a very good thing, as a reliable predictor of very yummy treats. In the case of a human stimulus, you can gradually work up to actual interaction with the human(s) at this stage, by having the person(s) drop treats as they walk by, then letting him take treats from their fingers – without direct eye contact, and eventually working up to normal interaction.

Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, is WDJ’s Training Editor. She lives in Fairplay, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center, where she offers dog-training classes and courses for trainers.

The post Ways to Combat Your Dog’s Indoor Urine-Marking appeared first on Whole Dog Journal.

We’d all love to see a procedure that can easily and permanently sterilize a male dog without side effects or complications. Historically, surgery has been the most commonly used option in the U.S. Contained in the syringe I held was an exciting new product, Zeuterin, which permanently sterilizes male dogs (between the ages of three and 10 months) without surgery. Will “zeutering” prove to be a better option? I was attending a training session to learn more.

Zeuterin is comprised of zinc gluconate and arginine, and is injected with a needle into the center of each of a young dog’s testicles. The compound diffuses in all directions in the testes, causing permanent and irreversible fibrosis in the testicle, rendering the dog incapable of producing any new sperm. Once the sperm currently in the testicles have been cleared (over the course of several weeks), the dog is sterile.

The needle used for the procedure is a very small one, and the procedure is remarkably painless. The dog does not have to be anesthetized. In theory, a calm dog being “zeutered” by an experienced veterinarian could even receive the injection without sedation. In practice, though, sedation is a very good idea: if the dog moves during the procedure there could be side effects, and dogs who have been subjected to the treatment should receive a small “Z” tattoo on the groin area to identify them as zeutered – and tattoos definitely require sedation.

After the injection, the dog’s testicles may briefly swell. Usually, they then atrophy, so that eventually they will be smaller that before, or sometimes, not even easily visible.
For dogs whose testicles do remain visible, though, there can be some confusion about whether they’re intact or not. This is the point of the “Z” tattoo, of course – and the company that manufactures the compound also sells “I’m Zeutered!” T-shirts for owners who want to prevent glares from the canine-testicle-averse passers-by at the dog park.

“Zeuter” vs. Neuter

The zeutering procedure has some obvious benefits. General anesthesia always carries a small risk, so avoiding it is unquestionably a good thing. And if you can avoid removing a dog’s organs, why wouldn’t you?

But, as with every medical procedure, there can be side effects to Zeuterin. Some dogs can be in pain afterward, for several days up to a week, and some dogs may vomit.
Occasionally, if the compound isn’t injected just so – if some of it erroneously comes into contact with the scrotal skin (rather than being injected properly into the center of the testes), the skin of the testicles can become irritated and ulcerate. In bad cases, a dog may have to go under the knife after all, to have his entire scrotum removed in a more invasive procedure than a simple castration would have been.

Of course, surgery poses the risk of complications as well, such as infections of the surgical site, or swelling of the empty scrotum with fluid (known as a seroma).
There is another significant difference between surgical neutering and zeutering, though, and it has to do with testosterone. The procedure you choose for your next male puppy may well be determined by how you feel about that hormone!

The Pros and Cons of Testosterone in Dogs

One of the most interesting things about this product is that it reduces testosterone levels in dogs who have had the procedure by only about 50 percent. Traditional surgical castration reduces the dog’s testosterone level to almost zero. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Testosterone is associated with some really obnoxious canine behaviors: mounting, marking, roaming, and some types of aggression. Veterinarians have traditionally recommended castration for dogs whose owners who want to reduce these behaviors.
The jury is still out on whether a 50 percent testosterone reduction will reduce those behaviors as well as castration does – but then, the jury still hasn’t ruled on how effective surgical castration (and its attendant near-total testosterone reduction) is for helping to eliminate the “problem” behaviors in male dogs, either. That said, if you’re thinking about sterilizing an animal specifically because of problem behaviors, I’d take the safest route and go with 100 percent testosterone reduction (surgery).

Be aware that there is a growing number of veterinarians and dog owners who believe that the health benefits of testosterone outweigh its potential for negative effects on the dog’s behavior. It’s a hot debate; some studies have found a correlation between neutering and the development later in life of certain kinds of cancer (specifically osteosarcoma, hemangiosarcoma, and prostate cancer), as well as an increased risk of tearing the cranial cruciate ligament (CCL). Note that while a CCL tear is not life-threatening, it is certainly expensive to fix.

On the other hand, neutering has also been correlated with a longer life, despite the risk of cancer, and a reduced chance of death by infection.

Warning: the studies regarding the pros and cons of neutering are very difficult to interpret! And many of the effects that are seen may be the result of different levels of healthcare provided by different owners. As just one example, it’s possible that dogs who are not neutered are just as likely to develop cancer, but less likely to be diagnosed with cancer. This could happen if owners who can’t afford to neuter their dogs are also unable to afford veterinary care as their dogs age.

There may be other reasons that neutering correlates with an increased risk of cancer and CCL tears; and, of course, improved management and access to veterinary care is almost certainly why neutering correlates with longer life expectancies. (By the way, I’m not implying that responsible breeders fail to provide their dogs with good veterinary care, only that responsible breeders are a minority among those who don’t neuter their dogs.) Testosterone is a powerful hormone; it’s possible that a lifetime of exposure to it has beneficial and detrimental effects on dogs. Amazingly, we still don’t know enough about it. And because zeutering is so new, we know even less about its long-term health effects than we do about surgical neutering.

Choosing For Your Dog

So in the end, should you neuter your dog, zeuter him, or leave him intact and manage him carefully? There are a lot of factors to consider, and the right decision will vary from situation to situation.

If behavioral changes are your biggest concern, your best bet is always to choose an animal who is well suited to your lifestyle and to invest time into a good training program. However, neutering may help, as may zeutering.

More and more owners say that the health benefits offered by testosterone are their priority, and so they are leaving their male dogs intact. They should be aware that the intended benefits remain the topic of much discussion and study and few conclusions.
If your veterinarian offers zeutering, ask about her experience with the product and the procedure; personally, I would have a dog zeutered only by someone who is familiar with the procedure. When the product has been on the market for a decade or two, experience will tell us a lot – and who knows, there may be other options by then.

The History of Zeuterin

The drug now called Zeuterin(TM) was briefly on the market a decade ago. Then called Neutersol, the drug was sold to veterinarians with little training or support. Many dogs suffered adverse reactions (such as inflamed testicles, which then required a far more invasive surgery than a conventional castration). The resulting poor reputation of the drug led to the 2005 death of the company then making and marketing the product, about two years after the product’s introduction.

Ark Sciences, of Irvington, New York, was founded in 2007 by Joe Tosini, an original investor in Neutersol. Tosini believes strongly in the product’s promise, but says that it was rolled out incorrectly. Under Tosini, Ark Sciences bought the rights to Neutersol, and built a team of advisors to help him resubmit the product for FDA approval (which it achieved in August 2012) and to relaunch the product with a vastly improved strategy. Ark Sciences requires veterinarians who want to provide zeutering services to their clients to complete a five-hour course – encompassing a two-hour online course, and three hours of hands-on training (which includes injecting the drug into several dogs).

Ark Sciences has also limited its recommendations for the procedure to dogs between three and 10 months of age who have two fully descended testicles in the scrotum, healthy scrotal skin, and no testicular abnormalities, such as pre-existing fibrosis, tumors, or transmissible venereal tumors (TVT).

According to the company’s online FAQs: “While adverse reactions requiring medical treatment occurred in only 1.1% of the dogs, there were minor reactions observed in 6.3% of dogs during the FDA study. Local reactions included testicular swelling (normal reaction to the injection), pain (dogs may resist sitting or may sit with both hind legs open), biting and licking at the scrotum, swelling of the prepuce and irritation, dermatitis, ulceration, infection, dryness or bruising of the scrotum. Systemic reactions included an increase in the white blood cell count, vomiting, anorexia (loss of appetite), lethargy (tiredness or abnormal attitude), and diarrhea.

“Most reactions were seen within the first seven days after the injection. Over 93% of dogs did not show any signs of post procedure pain. When pain was detected, it was most commonly seen in the first two days. No pain management medications were used in the study. Vomiting was most commonly seen on the day of the injection (within one minute and four hours after the injection). It is recommended to withhold food for 12 hours prior to injection to help prevent vomiting, which occurred in 4% of dogs. Your dog’s testicles may remain slightly enlarged but non-painful for a few months after the injection. Proper injection technique and owner observation post-injection is critical to avoid any potential undesirable side effects.”

Other Nonsurgical Contraception Innovations for Dogs

Zeuterin is a major new product, but there are other products under development that may eventually offer additional options for non-surgical contraception. The two main approaches are chemical contraception, such as Zeuterin or hormonal birth control, and immunocontraception, which actually uses the body’s own immune system against part of the reproductive system.

For example, GonaCon is a vaccine that teaches the immune system to target GnRH, the “master hormone” of reproduction. This product has been tested in cats and deer, and usually lasts for several years. Unfortunately, early versions had unacceptable side effects in dogs. It doesn’t provide 100 percent reliable contraception, so while it’s useful for feral animals, it’s not yet ready for use in companion animals.

Another immunocontraceptive that has been used with some success in wild horses is a vaccine for females that works against the zona pellucida, the coating around the egg. This vaccine has been tested in cats with poor results. It hasn’t yet been used in dogs.

Some types of hormonal birth control, such as deslorelin, can be implanted into male or female dogs to provide long term but reversible contraception. Like GonaCon, deslorelin targets GnRH, at the top of the reproductive system. This product is marketed for ferrets and horses, and is not commonly used in dogs. Additionally, as with any hormonal birth control, it can have side effects.

Because surgical spays and neuters are so well accepted in the U.S., there is not a lot of pressure to find alternatives in dogs. Most research is targeted at populations that cannot easily be reached with surgery, such as feral cats and horses, and wild deer. There is some interest in finding non-surgical solutions for feral dogs in other countries, but very little funding for such research.

For more information, keep an eye on the Alliance for Contraception in Dogs & Cats. This non-profit organization helpfully provides detailed analyses of various products that are available and will keep you up to date about any news in this very interesting and underserved field.

Jessica Hekman, DVM, MS completed her shelter medicine internship at the University of Florida’s Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program in 2013. She is now studying the genetics of dog behavior in Illinois, where she lives with her husband and three dogs. You can learn more about Dr. Hekman at her blog, dogzombie.blogspot.com, a blog about dog brains and behavior (and sometimes shelter medicine), or follow her on Twitter @dogzombieblog.

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1. Female dogs bleed when they come into heat.

Female dogs do not get menstrual periods like humans, as some people mistakenly believe; they come into “heat,” or “season,” once or twice a year – the three to four days in their cycle when their unfertilized eggs ripen. (Though both biological processes involve bleeding, it’s inaccurate to compare a woman’s monthly cycle, which is an infertile time, to the heat in the female dog, which is quite the opposite. Dogs get pregnant while bleeding.) Some dogs cycle every six months; more primitive breeds, such as Basenjis or Tibetan Mastiffs, come into heat only once a year.

Get more facts on dogs in heat at Dogster.com.

2. Female dogs can only get pregnant when they’re in heat.

A dog will begin her heat cycle after about 6 months of age. Some females will show physical signs of readiness – their discharge will lighten in color, and they will “flag,” or lift their tail up and to the side. Others will show no behavioral changes; still others will “stand” and accept a suitor at any time in their cycle, even days before or after they are fertile. If you cannot be absolutely certain of identifying the signs of heat in your female, and securing her during this time, spay her. Intact males are frighteningly persistent in reaching the object of their desires; they will hurl themselves through glass windows, and might even attempt (and succeed) at breeding a female through the wires of a crate.

3. Unneutered male dogs can get forceful.

You cannot leave a female in heat unattended for one moment outside, not even in a fenced yard. Whether or not she is in that narrow window of time when she can get pregnant, she might attract a male, and they might breed anyway. There is no way to predict how a male dog will act when a nearby female is in heat. Though dogs have been mating for millennia, it is not a process that is without risk of physical harm to one or both dogs.

4. Unspayed female dogs will attract stray males – from miles away.

If there are stray dogs where you live, walking a female in heat is asking for trouble. Ideally, have a secure, fenced area where your female can do her business, always supervised by you. If you must take her out in public to walk her, carry an umbrella that you can open to ward off unwelcome males, but know that you still might not be able to keep them apart.

5. Unspayed females need to wear sanitary pads while in heat.

Dogs stay in heat about three weeks, but the female will neither bleed heavily nor bleed every day. Nonetheless, to protect your carpets and furniture, it is smart to invest in “bitch’s britches,” which are dog-proportioned panties that can be fitted with a disposable sanitary napkin.

6. You cannot keep intact males and females in the same house.

If you have an unneutered male dog in your household, and you want to let your female go through one or more heat cycles before spaying her, the smartest and safest thing is to remove one of them for the duration of the female’s heat. It is difficult to describe the stress, restlessness, and sheer loss of sanity that a male dog can exhibit in the face of a female in standing season. It will be close to unbearable for you, to say nothing of him. Plan a vacation for one of them, ideally the male. (And if you plan to use a boarding kennel, females in heat will be too big a disruption there in the event other unneutered dogs are there, too.)

7. You cannot spay a dog while she is in heat.

Once your female has started her heat, don’t change course. Many veterinarians are reluctant to spay females in the middle of estrus; the uterus, preparing for pregnancy, is very vascular, and the risk of internal bleeding is higher. Instead, schedule spay surgery at a hormonally “quiet” time, ideally midway between heats. Depending on the individual dog, unneutered males can be trained through consistency and positive reinforcement not to urine-mark in the house. Ditto for discouraging “humping.” Do not tolerate these behaviors at any time.

8. Unneutered male dogs are always fertile.

As with unspayed females, unneutered male dog behavior must be under your control and supervision at all times. It is the height of irresponsibility to allow them to wander. Unlike females, unneutered males can procreate all the time, and they can create a neighborhood population explosion in no time at all.

9. Intact dogs are less welcomed in public.

Remember that in the larger world outside your door, intact dogs are the minority. By choosing to have an unneutered male (in particular, because he is visually easy to identify), you restrict your options and access to different environments, including dog runs and doggie day care. You will likely be required to explain and defend your decision not to neuter your dog; be prepared, be polite, and have a very thick skin.

The post Keeping Your Dog Intact appeared first on Whole Dog Journal.

“I’m a rescuer, so I’m not objective,” she says honestly. “The main thing in our lives is always going to be population control. A dog that’s spayed early may have a problem or two down the line, but that is a dog that’s not going to have puppies, and that is what we as rescuers are charged with. For good or bad, right or wrong, I’m okay with that.”

And so are many other people who work or volunteer in shelters or rescue groups, or who are committed to adopting only dogs from rescue; while there might be health risks associated with early spay/neuter, they are unlikely to abandon any helpful strategy in curbing overpopulation.

Kristen Head of Westville, New Jersey, adopted her collie/shepherd-mix from a shelter when he was three months old and already neutered. Delaying spay/neuter “is some-thing that I definitely have read and thought about, but with Kobe there was no option, because the shelter wouldn’t adopt any dog who wasn’t altered,” she says. “I would prefer the option of having the spay/neuter conversation with my vet before

I did it, but I definitely would always rescue” – even if it meant not having the option of delaying or foregoing sterilization surgery.

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I belong to a tribe that is somewhat beleaguered these days: I breed and show purebred dogs. I screen my homes carefully. I have long legal contracts that require any dog of my breeding to be returned to me if he or she is no longer wanted, regardless of reason or age or health condition. And, of course, I require that all puppies that I sell as companions be spayed and neutered.

But in recent years, my attitude on that last score has begun to change, in large part due to new information about the potential for adverse effects of spay and neuter surgeries. My contracts still require those lovely and loved companions to be altered, and in more than a decade I have never had any reproduce (at least as far as I know!). But the details regarding when I want spay/neuter surgery done on my puppies have changed, and likely will continue to evolve.

Broaching the subject of delayed spay/neuter – and in the case of some males, perhaps not neutering at all – is the doggie equivalent of discussing Clinton versus Trump at the Christmas dinner table, which gives me pause, because I let that happen last month, with predictably disastrous results. It has the potential of making people angry, threatened, bewildered, regretful – maybe even a combination of all those. That’s not my intent.

What I want to do, though, is open up dialogue on a subject that for a long time has been presented as black and white.

While no one questions the importance of spay/neuter as a tool to stem animal overpopulation, the questions on the table are: Does one size fit all? Should committed, responsible people review the facts and scientific literature to make an individualized decision for their particular dog? Is it always necessary to remove testes in a male dog and ovaries in a female dog in order to render them sterile, or are there other options? What are the real risks of keeping a dog intact for some period of time, balanced against a growing body of evidence showing that early spay/neuter might be implicated in a number of orthopedic, oncological, and even behavioral problems?

So many questions, and unfortunately, no clear-cut answers.

A Spay/NeuterHistory Lesson

The American embrace of spay/neuter evolved in concert with human population trends. The post-World War II “baby boom” and economic expansion saw families increasingly bringing dogs and cats into their households – and the animals reproduced even more prolifically than the families themselves.

As cities (and later, rural communities) began to employ and then depend on animal shelters to deal with stray and unwanted pets, the population of animals concentrated in those facilities, leading to routine killing of excess dogs and cats. Spay/neuter was embraced enthusiastically by shelter workers and rescue volunteers alike as an effective tool for helping control the population of unwanted animals and reducing euthanasia. By the 1970s, the veterinary culture had also embraced surgical sterilization for population control.

This is in contrast to attitudes elsewhere in the world, particularly in many parts of Europe, where unaltered dogs are common. In Norway, it is illegal to spay or neuter a dog without a valid medical reason. The rationale is that it is morally wrong to surgically alter a dog for human whim or convenience, which puts spay/neuter on a par with ear cropping and tail docking.

Over the decades, as animal sheltering has increased in visibility and animal rescue has become more popular, spay/neuter has hardened into an almost militant social policy. Today, it’s widely a cultural norm for dogs to lack any physical signs of sexual maturation. I’ve had puppy buyers balk at the idea of a female’s silhouette being made “unsightly” by visible nipples, and I had a co-worker who almost threw up at the idea of testicles on a male dog. “Rubbing on my couch – ugh!” she proclaimed.

And, oftentimes, what we don’t know, we fear. “The average person has never seen a dog in heat, never seen dogs mating, never watched a female give birth, never watched her raise her puppies,” one veterinarian reminded me.

Spay/Neuter from a Medical Perspective

Population control – specifically, as a tool to reduce the mass killing in our nation’s animal shelters – has always been the overarching goal of spay/neuter campaigns. Other benefits of sterilization surgery have been enthusiastically promoted by veterinarians and the shelter community alike.

For example, spaying prevents pyometra, which affects a full quarter of all intact females by age 10. And in males, neutering removes the possibility of testicular cancer as well as reduces the risk of prostate enlargement and infection later in life. Neutering is also believed to reduce hormone-related behaviors such as leg lifting, humping, and male-on-male aggression.

The universal recommendation that dogs and cats of both genders undergo sterilization surgery at six months of age came from the handy benchmark of the average age that most females come into heat. Those involved in animal sheltering have been the most vocal proponents of even earlier sterilization, now commonly referred to as pediatric spay/neuter. Shelter medicine experts point out that pediatric spay/neuter surgical procedures are easier and faster; and with shorter surgery and anesthesia times, the incidence of postoperative complications is low, and recovery very quick.

Prior to widespread acceptance of this practice, shelters often allowed adoption of intact pets, and held a deposit from pet adopters, returning the money only when the owner showed proof that the pet had been sterilized. However, some owners failed to comply, giving up the deposits, and others complied only after the pet had an accidental litter. Pediatric surgery closed this loophole; indisputably, the biggest benefit of pediatric spay/neuter is populational. With this tool, shelters can prevent every animal leaving the shelter from ever reproducing.

Shelter workers and veterinarians who offer pediatric spay/neuter are understandably fans of the practice, citing those quick recovery times for young animals. The biggest long-term health benefit of pediatric sterilization, however, is usually identified as the prevention of mammary cancer in females.

Questioning the Spay/Neuter Status Quo

As with a number of other canine healthcare practices, in recent years, the conventions of spay/neuter surgery are being questioned by some canine health experts and dogs owners – particularly those with a “holistic dog” mind set, many of whom are accustomed to questioning the status quo.

Most of these owners also research what is in their dogs’ food and their veterinarians’ vaccine syringes; they want to do what’s healthiest, what’s most natural, for their dogs, even if it challenges – or upends – the conventional wisdom. But this topic could be the third rail of dogdom: the assumption that we should automatically and unquestionably spay and neuter all our companion dogs.

Some of these owners, influenced by the opinions of a few canine health experts, are beginning to question the validity of many long-held beliefs about the medical and behavioral benefits of spay/neuter. A growing number (particularly those in performance eventing, who are closely attuned to changes and weaknesses in their dogs’ bodies) are contemplating delayed spay/neuter, and – increasingly, in the case of males – even dispensing with it altogether.

One of the most vocal opponents to today’s spay/neuter conventions is Chris Zink, DVM, PhD, DACVP, DACVSMR, of Ellicott City, Maryland. Dr. Zink’s interest in the subject was promoted by her work with performance dogs, who compete in high-impact, physically demanding sports like agility. Many, if not most, of these dogs are sterilized.

In 2005, Dr. Zink first published an article, “Early Spay-Neuter Considerations for the Canine Athlete,” which lists studies that highlight the risks of early spay/neuter. One orthopedic issue she mentions (and one that I have seen time and again) is the elongated “look” that results from prematurely shutting off the sex hormones that govern the closing of the growth plates. These longer, lighter limbs, and narrow chests and skulls aren’t just a cosmetic concern: A 2002 study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention showed that this lengthening of the long bones creates a significantly higher risk of osteosarcoma, or bone cancer, in dogs altered at younger than one year.

The list of problems that Dr. Zink associates with early spay/neuter continues: greater risk of hemangiosarcoma, mast cell cancer, lymphoma, and bladder cancer; higher incidence of hip dysplasia in dogs spayed or neutered at six months of age; significantly higher prevalence of cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) injury; heightened risk of urinary incontinence in females that are spayed early, as well as some cases in males; greater likelihood of hypothyroidism in spayed and neutered dogs; higher incidence of infectious diseases in dogs spayed and neutered at 24 weeks or less; higher incidence of adverse reactions to vaccines in altered dogs; and increased risk of prostate cancer in neutered males.

It’s a long list, and it grows as Dr. Zink adds other studies that support the view that on balance, early spay/neuter is “not more healthy” than waiting until a dog is sexually mature before he or she is altered.

Health is not the only area where Dr. Zink questions the benefits of early spay/neuter; she is currently co-authoring a study that analyzes how spay/neuter affected 26 different behavioral components in 15,000 dogs. “The fact of the matter is, spay or neuter doesn’t improve their behavior in any way,” she says. “[Intact dogs] are not more aggressive to dogs or strangers.”

To say Dr. Zink’s position on the importance of avoiding early spay/neuter is controversial is perhaps an understatement; it does, after all, contradict the position held by most general-practice veterinarians. Critiques and rebuttals to each of her bullet points are all over the Internet; one person who read an early draft of this article called her a “zealot.” And for every study she cites, a Google search will undoubtedly turn up another that says the opposite.

But to me, that just reinforces the importance of keeping an open mind: With so many differing viewpoints, how do we know who is right? “It doesn’t matter if we all don’t do the ‘right’ thing,” goes one of my favorite lines about following the lemmings when you breed dogs. “It just matters that we don’t all do the same thing.” I think that applies to early spay/neuter, too.

My Personal Approach

When I changed my attitudes about annual vaccination and about feeding raw versus kibble, it was easy to get caught up in the battle of facts and statistics that both sides drummed up. In the end, the tool I used to make my decisions about “what is best” for my dogs was common sense. I stepped back and asked: Does it make sense to feed a dog a diet of processed foods whose protein sources are not fit for human consumption? Does it make sense to overload a dog’s immune system with yearly vaccines for some diseases that are not prevalent or ultimately life-threatening?

And for early spay/neuter, I asked myself: Does it make sense to think that you can remove a puppy’s major reproductive organs – and all the hormones that go with it – and not expect there to be some biological ramifications? For me, what has been missing from the spay/neuter discussion has been the question of holism, which can’t be answered by citing JAVMA papers or orchestrating double-blind studies.

Myrna Milani, DVM, of TippingPoint Animal Behavior Consulting Services in Charlestown, New Hampshire, thinks back to the zeal with which she approached spay/neuter during the 1970s. “I could have won the Golden Gonad Award – there wasn’t a pair of testicles or ovaries that was safe from me,” she says. “Then I woke up one day and thought, ‘My God, what have I done?’ As a woman who went through puberty, who menstruated, who had sex, who had children, who was going through menopause, how in the world could I have been so naïve as to say that all ovaries did was affect reproduction? That they did not affect the entire body?

“Dogs are like us: We have testosterone and estrogen receptors all over our bodies – they are in our brains, lungs, bones . . . They affect learning, they affect memory,” Dr. Milani says. If we remove the organs that produce most of the body’s testosterone and estrogen before those hormones have an opportunity to exert their influence on the dog, we’re going to have to deal with the consequences down the road, she warns.

Risks and Solutions: Spaying Females

The two biggest health benefits cited for spaying females before their first heat is reduced risk of mammary-cancer rates and the elimination of pyometra. Personally, unless a female is being used for breeding, I can’t find a justification for keeping her unspayed indefinitely. For me, the question is not whether to spay, but when to.

In terms of my own puppy buyers, I have encouraged them to allow their female puppies to go through one heat cycle before spaying – provided they know what they are getting into (see “Keeping Intact Dogs“) and can house a female pup securely for that three-week period. Though there are no studies to confirm this, anecdotal evidence suggests that allowing the body to go through a heat allows the genitalia to mature normally, avoiding or resolving inverted vulvas that can lead to incontinence. It also permits the maturation of estrogen receptors, which might also play a role in incontinence, a known risk of spay surgery, and beyond.

A study published in the Journal of the National Institutes of Cancer in 1969, “Factors Influencing Canine Mammary Cancer Development and Post-Surgical Survival Rates,” is the most commonly cited reference regarding the correlation between spaying and mammary cancer in dogs. It says that females spayed before their first heat have an almost zero chance of developing mammary cancer; after the first heat, that risk rises to 8 percent, and 26 percent after the second heat. Beyond that point, the study says, the protective aspect of spaying (as regards mammary cancer) is negligible.

Though that study is almost universally quoted when supporting early spay, it’s also been criticized as poorly designed. Even so, I always thought that an 8 percent increased risk of mammary cancer was a chance was worth taking, if allowing the dog to mature sexually helped prevent other issues such as other cancers and various orthopedic concerns. Mammary cancer isn’t the only thing female dogs can die from; it is one concern among many.

Since our experience colors things, my attitude also likely has to do with the fact that I have not had much experience with mammary cancer in my intact females or those of fellow breeders. That is not to say that it won’t happen – and as soon as you say, “Not me!” it usually does – but for the moment, cancers like lymphoma and hemangiosarcoma are anecdotally more prevalent, even among the retired breeding bitches I know.

Both Dr. Zink and Dr. Milani think that in the case of females, spaying after the second heat (which is likely to be more regular and normal than the first heat) is ideal. Milani points to a 1991 study in the American Journal of Epidemiology that showed that the risk of mammary cancer was significantly reduced in females who were spayed at or before 2½ years old, and who had been thin at nine to 12 months of age.

When it comes time to do the spay surgery at whatever age, Dr. Zink advocates removing just the uterus and leaving the ovaries intact. In this way, there is no risk of pyometra, the female will not go into heat and be attractive to males, she cannot get pregnant – and she retains her hormone-producing ovaries. She cautions, however, that the veterinarian performing the surgery needs to be sure that the entire uterus is removed, because dogs can develop stump pyometras, which are just as life-threatening.

While performing a tubal ligation, or “tube tying,” is certainly an option, it is somewhat impractical, as removal of the uterus at a later date still would be necessary to eliminate the risk of pyometra.

What are the proven risks or benefits of removing a dog’s uterus but leaving the ovaries intact? No one can say for sure; it simply has not been done enough. Would those hormone-producing ovaries continue to raise the risk for mammary cancer? Or, conversely, being unable to “communicate” with the uterus that they know is supposed to be there, would the ovaries eventually stop working, as they do with women after hysterectomies? Again, no one knows for sure.

Alternative Solutions: Neutering Males

In many respects, delaying neutering in males is a little easier: The health ramifications, while still present, are not as dire as for females.

Testicular cancer is still a concern, but is easily detectable, Dr. Zink says. “You just watch for it by examining the testicles regularly. If you see one testicle is larger, it usually means there’s a tumor there, but it is almost always benign. However, at that point you would have the testicles removed.”

A bigger problem, in my experience, is prostatitis in intact males, especially older ones who are sexually stimulated by intact females in the household. If a prostate infection develops, and leads to an abscess, it can be difficult to diagnose. I almost lost an unneutered older male to an abscess that had thankfully not yet gone into sepsis -but I have friends with dogs who were not as lucky.

Because of health considerations, my puppy contracts currently ask that male puppies not be neutered before 12 months, and ideally at 18 months. Some people are willing to wait, but most aren’t, and that’s okay with me; I tell them to hang on for as long as they can.

However, if their male dog will be taken to visit dog parks on a regular basis, then I tell them to neuter before he really begins to elicit a response from the neutered adult males there – usually by 10 months of age. If not, one day when his hormonal signature becomes a threat, the neutered dogs will go for him (though he will be blamed, because he is the intact one), and his happy-go-lucky attitude toward other dogs might change forever. And that’s just not worth an extra couple of months of testosterone in my book.

The people who have my males are responsible caretakers who don’t permit them to roam and who don’t have unspayed females in the household. Frankly, I’m okay with ultra-responsible people leaving these males dogs intact as Mother Nature made them, for life. But for males who are at risk of being inadvertently bred – or whose breeders require in their contracts that they be sterilized – Dr. Zink recommends vasectomy. This renders the male unable to reproduce, but allows him to continue to produce testosterone.

While a male with a vasectomy won’t be able to sire puppies, he likely will have difficulty fitting into some social situations, such as dog parks. A vasectomized dog still has his testicles and appears to be entire, and “lots of dog parks won’t let you bring a dog in if it is intact,” warns Dr. Zink. And because such dogs still produce testosterone, “and neutered dogs tend to be aggressive toward intact dogs” (not, as many believe, the other way around) the snipped males at the run will be just as snarky, because their noses will alert them to a vasectomized dog’s unchanged testosterone levels.

As for dogs with retained testicles, “a study has been done that showed for every 100 dogs with retained testicles who live to be 10, 12 of them will get cancer of the testicle, though it is almost always benign,” Dr. Zink says. Because this does not happen until the dog is older – around age seven or later – she recommends keeping dogs with retained testicles intact until they are three or four, then removing the retained testicle and vasectomizing the other.

Obstacles and Social Acceptance of Keeping Intact Dogs

Of course, most shelters and rescues require spay/neuter surgery on every dog they place, and adopters are rarely permitted to dictate the timing of the surgery (though, presumably, most never ask). For many who rescue and rehome dogs, this entire discussion is moot; they are understandably more committed to saving unwanted dogs’ lives than optimizing the lives of dogs obtained at puppyhood from a breeder.

Among my fellow breeders, the idea of delaying spay/neuter is no longer a hot button. Not everyone does it, but pretty much everyone respects your right to take a different approach – as long as the owners are responsible, and capable of preventing their animals from accidental breedings and of providing the scrupulous medical care and attention needed to detect signs of health problems, such as mammary or testicular cancer, that can occur in intact dogs and those who were sterilized later in life.

And that brings us to the uncomfortable realization that spay/neuter also has much to do with issues of socio-economics and class. Cultural attitudes, knowledge base and lifestyle can vary dramatically, depending on where you live. That isn’t to say that one category of owner is “better” than the other, just that they are different, and they come with different risk levels. Many rescuers or breeders feel their adopters or puppy people can’t handle the very serious responsibility of deferring spay/neuter to a later date. Still others see the subject as a Pandora’s box: If social attitudes soften and spay/neuter loses its sense of urgency, could it set back all the hard work done by committed rescuers?

Cultural attitudes aside, there is a pragmatic problem to taking an alternative approach to spay/neuter, such as removing only the female’s uterus or performing a vasectomy on a male dog: many vets are not open to it. Author, blogger, and veterinarian Patty Khuly, of Sunset Animal Clinic in Miami, Florida, says she gets a few emails a week asking for help in finding a vet capable of and willing to perform the alternative procedures. Dr. Khuly responds by advising the emailers how to talk to their vets. “I tell them to explain that [the procedures] are described in surgery textbooks. Be thoughtful about why you want it done. Say, ‘I know you think this is weird, but I have thought about it quite a bit. There are vets doing it across country, though there are not many of them. I’ve been told it’s easier to do than a [conventional] spay/neuter.’ The vet might be curious enough to attempt it.”

While conventional spay/neuter practices and schedules will likely be the norm for the foreseeable future, as with every other important decision that you must make about your dog’s care and feeding, it’s important to inform yourself about the advantages and disadvantages of early, adult, or no spay/neuter surgery – and then make a decision that is right for you and your individual dog. Once that choice is made – no matter what choice it is – take responsibility for the consequences.

Denise Flaim of Revodana Ridgebacks in Long Island, New York, shares her home with three intact Ridgebacks, three 8-year-old children, and a very patient husband.

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Spay is the term used for neutering a female dog. As I was taught in veterinary school, the medical jargon for spaying is ovariohysterectomy (OVH). “Ovario” refers to ovaries, “hyster” refers to uterus, and “ectomy” means removal of. In other words, spaying the traditional way involves surgical removal of the uterus and both ovaries. The objectives of the spay surgery are to render the dog infertile, eliminate the mess and behavioral issues associated with a female dog in heat, and prevent diseases that may afflict the uterus and ovaries later in life.

Thanks to some innovative veterinarians, we now know that ovariectomy (OVE) – removal of just the ovaries, leaving the uterus in place – accomplishes these objectives just as effectively as does the OVH. And, here’s the icing on the cake: removal of the ovaries alone results in fewer complications when compared to removal of the ovaries and uterus combined.

Female Canine Anatomy

Here’s a simple short course in canine female reproductive anatomy and physiology that will help explain why leaving the uterus behind makes sense. The shape of the uterus resembles the capital letter “Y.” The body of the uterus is the stem and the two uterine horns represent the top bars of the “Y.” An ovary is connected to the free end of each uterine horn by a delicate structure called a fallopian tube (transports the egg from the ovary into the uterus).

While the uterus has only one purpose (housing developing fetuses), the ovaries are multitaskers. They are the source of eggs of course and, in conjunction with hormones released by the pituitary gland, ovarian hormones dictate when the female comes into heat and becomes receptive to the male, when she goes out of heat, when she ovulates, and when her uterus is amenable to relaxing and stretching to house developing fetuses.

After the ovaries (and the hormones they produce) have been removed from the body, the uterus remains inert. The dog no longer shows symptoms of heat, nor can she conceive. Additionally, any chance of developing ovarian cystic disease or cancer is eliminated.

Better Outcomes with OVE

What happens when we leave the uterus behind? Isn’t it subject to becoming diseased later in life? Actually, the incidence of uterine disease in dogs whose ovaries have been removed is exceptionally low. Pyometra (pus within the uterus), is the most common uterine disorder in unspayed dogs, and typically necessitates emergency surgery to remove the uterus.

Without the influence of progesterone, a hormone produced by the ovaries, pyometra does not naturally occur. The incidence of uterine cancer is extremely low in dogs (0.4 percent of all canine tumors) – hardly a worry, and studies have shown that the frequency of adult onset urinary incontinence (urine leakage) is the same whether or not the uterus is removed during the spay procedure.

If you are not already convinced that the “new spay is the better way,” consider the following complications that can be mitigated or avoided all together when the uterus remains unscathed:

• Compared to an OVH, an OVE requires less time in the operating room. This translates into decreased likelihood of anesthetic complications.
• Removal of the uterus requires that the surgeon perform more difficult ligations (tying off of large blood vessels and surrounding tissues with suture material before making cuts to release the organs from the body). A uterine body ligation that isn’t tied quite tightly enough can result in excessive bleeding into the abdominal cavity and may necessitate blood transfusions and/or a second surgery to stop the bleeding.
• The ureters (thin delicate tubes that transport urine from each kidney to the bladder) run adjacent to the body of the uterus. If a surgeon is not being extremely careful, it is possible to ligate and obstruct a ureter in the course of removing the uterus. This devastating complication requires a second corrective surgery; however, damage to the affected ureter and adjoining kidney may be irreversible.
• Removal of the uterus occasionally results in the development of a “stump granuloma” – a localized inflammatory process that develops within the small portion of uterus that is left behind. When this occurs a second “clean up surgery” is typically required.
• We know that the degree of post-operative patient discomfort correlates with the degree of surgical trauma. No question, of the two surgical options the OVH creates more trauma.

European veterinarians have been performing OVEs rather than OVHs for years. In fact, the bulk of the research supporting the benefits of leaving the uterus behind has been conducted in Europe.

Slowly, veterinarians in the United States are catching on, and some veterinary schools are now preferentially teaching OVE rather than OVH techniques to their students.

What should you do if you are planning to have your dog spayed? Talk with your veterinarian about this article. Perhaps OVE surgery is already his or her first choice. If not, perhaps your vet will be willing to take a fresh look at performing this old-fashioned surgery.

Nancy Kay, DVM, is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) and recipient of the  American Animal Hospital Association 2009 Animal Welfare and Humane Ethics Award. She is also author of Speaking for Spot: Be the Advocate Your Dog Needs to Live a Happy, Healthy, Longer Life, and a staff internist at VCA Animal Care Center in Rohnert Park, California.

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