# Best Age for Neutering



## Cavedog

My puppy has just turned 5 months old. I have gotten conflicting advice on when he should be neutered. 

My breeder says I should wait at least until he is 1 year old or he could end up looking more like a female. My vet says 9 months is the right age. My previous dog, a Lab who had a different vet, was neutered at 6 months.

This is my first Vizsla. What has been the experience of people in this group?

Bruce


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## Dubyajay

My vet said the same, that most dogs don't gain male features until around a year old and that neutering them beforehand will compromise the features from coming out.


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## Crazy Kian

Our breeder told us 12 months.
Our vet told us 6 months.
At 10 months our V tried to hump my girlfriend's arm , she called me at work and made me call the vet that day to have the procedure done :-[
He was neutered at 10 months. ;D


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## maxxie

Hi, I work at a vets in Sth Oxfordshire in England and even in our area, it varies from vets to vets, but ours will not consider doing a castration or spaying until they are a year old. This is because their growth plates are not fully formed until then and would not grow to their full potential if done earlier, especially the larger the dog. Bitches we do 3 months after their first season, but again a year is used as a guide. Smaller dogs can be done earlier if need be, due to dominant behaviour or extreme humping but this would need to be agreed with the vet and used as a last resort, rather than the norm. Smaller dogs do mature earlier than the larger breeds so again if there is a problem we would see it before making a judgement call. We would always try to get clients to use training first, as they seem to think that castration will cure all evils but it does take about 8 weeks for the testosterone levels to reduce and any improvement to be seen. However, if excessive humping or aggressiveness has become a behaviour by this time, clients will still need to train the behaviour out of the animal and this comes as a shock to them sometimes. I have a nine month old Viz and he is booked in for his castration in December, his Christmas present! He as yet has not tried to hump another animal although he has done an Elvis the pelvis thrust a couple of times when standing a few paces away from another dog, which is funny. I just give him a jab on his back shoulder joint to distract him and on we go. This prevents it becoming a repeated performance or the norm. When he was about 4 months old, he tried the same with one of his teddies and again I just gave him a jab to distract him and gave him another toy to play with and he did not do it again. I hope this helps.


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## doglover

I'm in the same boat. Breeder said 18 months. Vet saud 6 months. Clyde is 16 months and still intact. Honestly, I would have had him fixed already but my husband says that "it is just not right." He is not aggressive at all though. Only down side would be his energy level and his skinny little body. I still have a hard time convincing him to eat and keeping weight on him is tough.


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## BamBam

I too always hear conflicting advice on this, and would really like to know more information as to when is best to have them 'done'. My Vizsla is nearly a year, and we had him castrated when he was 7 months old. At that point he was then starting to get a bit humpy- I don't think it was sexual at all just dominance. It was abit embarrassing when you are out though and you have to pull your dog off another dog because it's humping it. I don't think my vizsla looks like a female at all for this and he is not small either. However I have heard people say you should have them done till about 18months so I do wonder about it. 
I like the fact the Wiley is very submissive and not dominant at all so play with other dogs is always friendly even if the other one is intact- I put this down to having him neutered at a young age.
But then again I have met lovely intact Vizsla who are dominant.


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