Benefits of Spaying/Neutering Your Dog

Spaying and neutering your pets ca be a hotly debated topic. But there are very real benefits to stopping your dog being able to reproduce – here are a few!

Reduced Cancer & Illness Risks – Obviously, removing a part of the body means that you’re also removing the cancers that can develop in them. The removal of the ovaries in female dogs, and testicles in male dogs removes the risk of them getting ovarian and testicular cancer. This is nothing but a good thing!

Not just that, but female dogs who are spayed when they are young the procedure reduces the risk of developing mammary (breast) cancer too!

Spaying Removes risk of uterine infection. In female dogs an infection of the womb (called a pyometra) is a serious risk. The vast majority of cases have to be treated surgically, and the infection can be fatal. Spaying completely removes the risk of your dog developing a pyometra.

For males, castration significantly reduces the risk of developing prostate disease.

Reduces Roaming -  Animals in heat or looking for a mate are more likely to wander off, roam or run away looking for a mate.

Female dogs, whilst in season, may act strangely by trying to run away in search for a mate so will need to be kept away from male dogs.

An intact male will do just about anything to find a mate, including finding creative ways escape from the house. Once he's free to roam, he risks injury in traffic and fights with other male animals.

Less roaming will reduce the risk of your dog being in a road traffic accident getting lost or fighting with other animals.

Better Behaviour - Unneutered dogs are more likely to mark their territory by spraying strong-smelling urine all over the house. Your dog might be less likely to mount other dogs, people and inanimate objects after he’s neutered. Some aggression problems may also be avoided by early neutering.

Neutering improves the overall behaviour of your dog. It can encourage calmer and more predictable behaviour in dogs

Your Girl Won’t Go Into Heat - Female dogs usually come into season for about 3 weeks, twice a year. Around this time they can get pregnant and normally will produce a bloody discharge. Neutering avoids the inconvenience and mess of having seasons.

Spaying removes the risk of phantom pregnancy. While not life-threatening, a phantom pregnancy can alter your dog's behaviour, and an ongoing or recurrent phantom pregnancy may need vet help to stop as well as potentially leading to other medical problems.

Unwanted Puppies – One of the most obvious benefits of spaying and neutering your dogs is to stop the possibility of unwanted puppies. An unwanted pregnancy can be a large emotional and financial worry, with the added stress of having to find homes for the puppies some breeds can have over ten in a litter and the most ever reported in the UK was 24!

Neutering your dog to remove the risk of unwanted pregnancy is a great step towards helping us keep the number of rescue dogs as low as we possibly can.

Please do bear in mind that everything in this post is strictly advisory and has been gathered from various reputable sources from the internet. We're not vets, and you should always seek professional advice if you ever have concerns.

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