When to Spay Your Dog

This isn’t a long post, so bear with me. Near the end I include a link to a chart from a study that helps you make a much more informed decision of when to spay your dog. My best recommendation is to read the chart.

When I was younger, I remember our puppy got spayed fairly young. That was the in the 1980s. At a third or fourth round of puppy shots I asked the vet if we should schedule Pandora’s spay. She was approximately 3- or 4-months old and I was under the impression that it was best to spay your dog sometime between 4- and 6-months of age.

The Unexpected Answer

The vet ever-so-casually says, “We spay a few months after her first heat.”

I vaguely remember her say, “Hello?” Followed by a long pause and then “Are you there?”

I was completely unprepared for that news. I had a plan and getting Pandora through her first heat was not in that plan. As far as I was concerned, we were not doing the first heat thing. We have a friend who breeds bulldogs and French bulldogs. I’ve seen the dogs when they’re in heat. A lady we met on our walk was telling me about her mixed-breed’s first heat. This was not good.

All I could muster was “I’m going to have to process that.”

The vet gave me a whole host of reasons about research and discovering it’s better for the dogs. I thanked her and hung up. I haven’t been so speechless since I got to talk to Tommy Lee from Motley Crew on the phone when I was a teen. And that was the 80’s, when Motley Crew was big.

After a few days of recovering from this news, I hit Google. It was a rough journey. There are sites that say to spay by 6 months, after the first heat (or season), and even some that say it’s best not to spay or neuter your dog at all.

Is it Best to Wait to Spay Your Dog?

Frontiersin.org published the results of a study of when to spay your dog.

The simplest answer is if you have a small pup, lapdog size, the study doesn’t show much of a difference of waiting to spay your dog. I’ve read that small dogs mature quicker, so I don’t know if that has anything to do with it or not, but something to think about.

And some larger breeds did okay with an earlier spay. But there are some breeds where it appears it’s better to wait. For Australian Cattle Dogs (Pandora’s predominant breed) it was best to wait because there is a 15% increase of joint disorders. Pandora is not full bred ACD, she also has a bit of Border Collie in her. For Border Collies, there were more benefits of waiting to spay until after her first heat. For us, it made sense to wait through her first heat.

The study encompassed 33 dogs and they have those breeds listed in more detail. If your dog is not in the list, make sure you check with your vet. Maybe, look at the possible breeds that your dog is a mix of and decide based on that.

Frontiersin.org made a handy-dandy chart to peruse when it comes to deciding whether or not to spay or neuter your dog. CLICK HERE – to go directly to the chart. In the chart, there are 35 dog breeds and for each there is a check mark for the best option for your dog. The categories are Intact, Choice (meaning it’s up to you), Beyond 6 months, Beyond 11 months, and Beyond 23 months.

I hope that chart makes it easier for you to make an informed decision. It made it much easier for us.