@Nick Benger Dobermann Italian Spinone or Bracco Italiano?

Happy birthday!

I'd love to hear more about your progress with this!

It's a tricky issue. Having worked in rescue in the past where you get endless gluts of dogs from accidental litters, or people just breeding their pets, I can understand the drive for population control, but I think we have options now such as vasectomy or keyhole spay which can make dogs infertile but keep their hormones. Though sometimes neutering can help behaviourally. I had my previous dog castrated on principal as his temperament wasn't great and didn't want to use him for breeding, but I think it made his dog social skills worse so I regretted it. No other notable health issues came with it. My current dog I had wanted not to neuter him at all but he has a retained testicle. I haven't made up my mind what to do exactly. He's had chemical castration for a test run and now it's fading I feel like his dog reactivity is also fading with it - but unsure if that's hormones or just maturity - or maybe even my training. 😅 You can leave a retained testicle but it's a potential cancer risk long term, or can become twisted. I'd like to leave him with his descended testicle intact and have the undescended one removed, I think, but most vets would rather remove both. I didn't want this problem but I have it so... now he's coming up 3, I'll probably have to think about doing something in the next few years. I know people who have had cryptorchid dogs neutered and they've been fine, but have also spoke to people who had their dog's missing testicle removed only and they've been happy with he result as well. There's no right answer! 🤷

Also a question that I keep pondering: I feel like the culture isn't changing in other domestic animals like it is in dogs. Take horses for example. No one as far as I can tell Is fighting to stop people gelding colts. Is it that we are in a better position to manage entire dogs now, but not entire horses, entire rabbits, entire cats (cats are a whole other problem population-wise, let's face it). Are other animals too inconvenient to leave intact? Surely it's not only dogs that have potential adverse affects? Just a thought, though perhaps a bit off topic.