$60 romwe giveaway winner announced!
look, doesn’t his eyes look asian when it’s closed? no wonder he’s my son! ;D
I hope everyone had a wonderful 3-day weekend! we went to las vegas over the weekend and had such a great time, pictures to come soon.
but guess who didn’t have a great time, achilles. 🙁 he got neutered and stayed at a boarding facility for the three days that we were gone. are we cruel or what! i guess they like to keep neutered pets for 24/7 after the surgery to supervise so it’s not like we could’ve took him home right after his surgery anyway… right? i still feel a little bad we did that to him. but i feel more bad about neutering him. i just trusted what our pet trainer and the pediatrician told us about the benefits of neutering and didn’t doubt or question it but when the time actually came, i started having second thoughts but by then it was too late. was it the right choice? the best choice for our dog? he would’ve made some really cute puppies and he would’ve been such a wonderful father i think. but now he’ll never know what it’s like to be a father, and was that even our choice to make? and will it interfere with his love life? did we rob him of his manhood? oh, i just have so many questions. i wish i researched more about it, the time came so much faster than i had anticipated and now it’s too late. i feel like i was a bad mother to him, it was such an important decision and i didn’t even study into it. argh.
so i wanted to ask you what your thoughts are on neutering/spaying pets. have you neutered/spayed your pets? why or why not? would you if you had pets?
You made the right choice! From past experiences stud dogs weren't the greatest pets. We neutered our current handsome boy Toby and he's just been mama's boy since 🙂 I love having someone who always wants to snuggle and is completely nonagressive!
We have a purebred Mini Schanuzer girl and when the time came, we spayed her. I had the same questions, "Did I rob my baby of being a mommy?" "Her puppies would have been so cute!" "But if shes spayed, we can't show her professionally." "I really want to see the circle of life, kids would love it…" But in the end the idea of her going through heat (which you have to buy doggie diaper/pads for the blood) we decided in the long run, spaying was better for us and her. I guess it depends on your situation, do you want a pet, or a breed dog. For your daughters, you made a good choice. 🙂
Thank you for neutering your pet.
It was the right choice. Our cat went to heat really young, before we had the chance to spay her, escaped once for five minutes and came back preggers. Basically, the cat version of 16 and pregnant. They don't spay when the animal is in heat, so we had to wait until she wasn't in heat anymore. We didn't discover that she was with kittens until we took her to the appointment to be spayed. So, yeah.
It's really hard to find homes for animals if you're not planning for it.
Spaying and Neutering is the right choice! Both of our boys are rescues, so we really didn't have any choice with that, but just seeing my cousin's situation with having a difficult time finding puppies, I'm grateful not having to deal with that! She has the mom and dad so it was hard dealing with 7 dogs in her home.
I don't know if you were planning on getting a female too, but it would make me sad knowing that my boy's babies were not homed quickly.
Having one female and one male dog that came from the same breeder made it an easy choice for us. Although, I felt the same uneasiness the day of!
You make the best choice! Having had dogs (male/female, some spay/neutered, some not) I have lived with the changes and added risk of not getting it done and feel it is the best thing you can do for them.Being that your dog is male, he could have started to be more aggressive once he was at the age of mating. Having small children and a dog that will mount anything is not good. It is also healthier, cutting down some risks and illness. The pain doesn't last very long for them, some of mine acted as though nothing happened. and there are soo many animals without homes that need a chance. You're concern for his well being shows what a good mama you are.
Until recently I would flip flop on this issue. I came to the conclusion that spaying and neutering animals is the right choice after my visit to Puerto Rico. On my trip I saw first hand how an out of control animal population leads to homeless and malnourished animals. It was heartbreaking to witness. Although this humor maybe a bit crude for some, I think Katherine Heigl is on to something: http://www.ihateballs.com/
Always spay/neuter your pet. There are so many innocent puppies and kittens being put down in shelters every day. Don't contribute to the overpopulation!
…and that's my rant. Sorry 🙂
Always always always spay/neuter your pet. Unless you are planning on showing them there is no reason for them to not be fixed (unless of course for health concerns, ie reaction to anesthesia). There are so many dogs (and cats) in shelters and breeding your dog (while very cute and having potentially cute puppies) would only add to the problem… you never know where your puppy will end up (you may place them in what you think to be a good home, that could down the line change their mind and turn them into the shelter). I think being a responsible pet owner you can't project your feelings (will he miss out on fatherhood, will it interfere with his love life, etc) onto your pet.
It was a good choice to have him neutered! Neutered dogs are generally less aggressive and territorial. Down the line, un-neutered males can have prostate issues, including dribbling the whole day through. Unless it's a show dog no reason no to neuter.
Bob Barker approves. I could send you some gory statistics and websites but I'll spare you.
you definitely made the right choice. unless you bought you specifically to be a stud dog, pets are best when fixed. Trust me, you saved yourself a lot of stinky mess cleaning, and he'll be a lot more of a 'pet' and less of a big macho-man aggressive dog.
I wish we would have spade zoe. We kept thinking we were going have her have puppies because we wanted her to have that opportunity. Then we spoke to a breeder, and she strongly discouraged it because they don't even like thier pups after 6 weeks. Not saying that is the case, but dogs aren't humans, they don't think like we do. He has his family/pack, you and the girls. He will be happy. Dogs I think are too selfish to care about other dogs. They will just see them as compitition
You definitely made the correct choice in choosing to neuter your pet. Not only does it help with behavior and health reasons; as many others have pointed out, it helps with the pet overpopulation problem and the thousands of shelter animals being killed every year. If you think that you are "depriving" him of the opportunity to be a father, that is a human emotion. Dogs, especially male dogs do not find joy in fatherhood. In fact, as a pack animal, most wolves or wild dogs would never mate due to the fact that only the alpha male has that privileged. He is not emotional and does not miss his manhood. There are far too many "backyard breeders" who think their dog will make "cute" puppies. Many don't know that their dog could easily suffer life-threatening injuries in the process (did you know they usually get stuck together for some time?)The only reason you should ever consider breeding your dog is if you are very well informed and doing it with the sole purpose of making the breed better.
Thank you ladies for all your feedback! It seems like I did make the right choice for the good of all dogkind haha. And you are right, there are way too many unwanted animals that get abused or thrown away. 🙁 it makes me so sad. Thanks for opening up my eyes!
Sarah
I just wanted to chime in – even though this isn't what everyone else is saying..
I don't alter any of my dogs, and If I did I would wait until they were at least two (their growth plates are growing until they are two and they need hormones to help them grow strong – even though this is more of a concern for bigger dogs) The health risks to me, are not worth it.
I am not for breeding though, I just keep my animals intact. The only time I tell someone to 'fix' their animal is if they don't think THEY are responsible enough to manage a intact animal. Which most of society isn't, but one again, i'd wait it out as much as possible.
I just wanted to say that, of course there are benefit's to a fixed pet, but there are also risks.. Overpupulation is a sad result of irresponsible people, but don't let it reel you in, as weak bones and joints, and not growing to a dogs full potential is also really sad to see.
First: Achilles is so handsome, wow! I love all the pictures.
Second: I am 100% for spaying/neutering, unless you are planning to show your dog (that they have to be intact is silly to me, but I don't make the rules!), or if you were planning on breeding professionally.
There are risks to everything that we do with our pets. The vaccines we give, the food we feed, the treats we give, and the car rides we take with them all come with varying degrees of risk. The thing we need to do is to make sure the benefit outweighs that risk – and then stick to our choice. Different people, presented with the same facts, will make different decisions. When we make choices, we base them on the information we have available at the time, and no one can fault you for your choice and your opinion on the risk vs. benefit.
I adopted my dog, so she came to me spayed; but, I'd have still spayed her if she hadn't already been. I'd do it for the health benefits (they outweigh the risks to me), and also because I'm in an area with lots of dogs and the responsibility of owners varies from vigilant to negligent. Regardless of how responsible I am, I can't predict what other owners will/won't do, and I don't want to risk adding to the dog population because a neighbors dog runs into my yard and has a go at my dog before I can call her back to me.
Don't feel bad about the neutering procedure. For male dogs it's a much less invasive surgery with a quick recovery time. When my boyfriend adopted his male dog he was neutered several hours before he picked him up. He definitely acts like a boy, so his manhood is still very much in tact!
Isn't he a type of Japanese dog? It's funny, I always thought Japanese dogs LOOKED Asian, hehe. My mum is Japanese, but I've lived in America most of my life.
I've had both "fixed" and non-fixed animals… I can honestly say the fixed ones were more pleasant to deal with 🙂
Aya ♥ Strawberry Koi
Thank you so much for your opinions! Summersun, I can see where you're coming from, thank you! @aya, yes, he is a Japanese dog, maybe that's why hays, which is so funny!
I meant maybe that's why he does look asian, which is so funny!
What type of breed is your dog? I want one 🙂
He is a shiva inu. You should get one, I highly recommend the breed!
I'm definitely *for* spaying/neutering. In my county alone last year, they put 65,000 (that's right, sixty-five thousand) dogs to sleep, and it was largely due to backyard breeders, overbreeding, and people not fixing their pets and then them subsequently becoming pregnant or getting other pets pregnant. I won't even get pets from stores or breeders anymore because I think it's such a problem–too many good dogs and good cats being put to sleep. It's not fair, poor things!
I had the same problem making the decision. But after much research and undersatnding, I decided not to spay my dog. Mainly because it's purely from a human perspective – for conviniences. And… a lot of what if (esp. on strays). They are mostly due to irresponsible owners – not because the dog's not spayed.
I don't mean to make you feel bad, just my little opnion after much consideration. 🙂