Neutered or not?

[CC Hurl]

Hello, I have another question about the new lab puppy. I am really just looking for the pro's and con's of Neutering him. I do not plan to use him for breeding at all and if not neutering makes him harder to train then I may just do it. Do they have a tendency to pee more as to mark there territory? Thanks for your time.

[St_Croix_Banks]

I've only owned females but if your not planning for him to be a stud dog get it done. I've heard you want to wait until 1 yr old minimum so they get all the hormones for proper development. I'm sure others will chime in on this one. I feel the same way about females though. If you're not breeding---get em fixed.

There are health benefits too--for females---less chance of cancer.

[Jmnhunter]

hey CC, i asked the same question a couple months back, and there is some discussion on it; but i'm in the same boat, i have a 6 month lab, the breeder i got him from originally suggested to do so at 4-5 months old, after doing some research I thought that was way too young; and doing some more searching there is no sound science behind it, many guys/vets say 6 months, and a couple of kennels I emailed said 11-12 months for developing and for prevention of cancer. I am leaning towards the 11-12 months as that makes sense to me as far as development goes; as for avoiding different behaviors, I would rather have him mentally/physically develop throughly than worrying about marking.