# Spaying Females



## sternsolo (Nov 30, 2016)

Trying to choose the right time to spay our 8 month female. Looking for advice.
Thanks


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## harrigab (Aug 21, 2011)

*Re: Spaying Femails*

I'd wait until she was 18 months old at the very least, plenty of threads on here for your perusal if you type "spaying" in the search bar.


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

*Re: Spaying Femails*

I agree. 
There are some studies that maybe another member will be kind enough to post. I'm in the field with the dogs this morning.


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## acwarren (Jan 21, 2017)

I completely agree with the other posts. I've had my male Vizsla almost 7 years. Total sweetheart. The breeder suggested I wait until at least 12 months if not 18 months. My vet at the time was opposed to this viewpoint. The decision was a hard one to make, but I eventually went with the vet's opinion so I could continue taking my dog to play with the other dogs during the day. Within a year or so, he developed storm anxiety which has gotten increasingly worse over the years. IT IS VERY SEVERE. I've repaired many drywalls he's clawed holes in, raced home from work to give him medication for storm anxiety over the years, and had to make decisions about my day to day life based on the weather. He's also quite fearful of loud sounds in general. The dog behaviorist I met told me about a research study conducted by Emory University that found that Vizslas spayed and neutered before a year of age had sound and light sensitivity (so storm anxiety makes perfect sense). I haven't yet found this study but am still looking. In conclusion, I'd absolutely wait until later to have your dog spayed or neutered based on my personal experience. Here's a random site I found that mentioned the behavioral side effects of spaying and neutering too early: http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/three-reasons-to-reconsider-spayneuter/


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

I like to let a dog become a dog, before I consider spay/nueter. Hormones play a role in their development, so I can see loss of hormones playing a equal role.


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## lyra (Nov 2, 2012)

A bit late to this thread so I hope you are still reading!

I've posted quite a bit Ovary Sparing Surgery (OSS) so I won't repeat myself. Here are links that you should find useful:

The only study into the effect of gonadecomisation in Vizslas - http://www.caninesports.com/uploads/1/5/3/1/15319800/vizsla_javma_study.pdf 

A blog discussing the study which explains it layman's terms - http://leemakennels.com/blog/tag/gonadectomised/

One of my own posts - http://www.vizslaforums.com/index.php/topic,28778.msg206562.html#msg206562


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## MCD (May 4, 2013)

Our vet wanted us to spay her at I think 6 months old or some time that was really ridiculous. I kept holding out until at least one heat cycle or until she was 12-18 months old. It was not a subject I wanted to talk about with the vet willingly. At some point Dharma got really skinny and hadn't had a heat cycle yet. Her breeder suggested it was time to have her spayed and I agreed to this. Only knowing that Dharma's mom was late in starting her heat cycles too. Vets can be very strong minded about this subject too. I don't know if cats are different but we got 3 of our 4 cats from the rescues and they came spayed at a really early age like less than 6 months.


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