For Males:  A young male dog will start to lift his leg to pee by the age of 10 months. By having your dog neutered by the age of 8 months, he will probably never have the desire to lift his leg. Adult male dogs lift their leg to pee to mark territory. And since dogs are very territo­rial by nature, they will pee on every tree, brush, fence post, etc and sometimes even pees on the same tree twice. It is a very obnoxious behavior. It is not unusual for him to want to start to pee in your house, especially if he becomes “sexually frustrated".

This occurs when a female dog somewhere in the neighborhood is in heat. Remember a dog can smell a scent for a 3 mile radius. He will howl, scratch at the door, jump the fence, and even jump through windows. It is difficult to keep an un-neutered male dog from roaming the neighborhood. He's on a mission with one thing on his mind.  Once he has found his mate he will not leave her until her heat cycle is over, this last for at least 20 days. But wait! Female dogs synchronize their heat cycles, when one female has come into heat; another is just starting to become fertile.

Some dog owners tell me, "But I only want to breed him once". The thought of this sounds very cruel to me. How would you like to have sex one time in your life, and then be cut off! This will certainly cause him to be sexually frustrated. Even if you have him neutered after he produces a litter, he will still mark territory and be obnoxious.

For Females:    A young female dog will come into her first "heat" between the ages of 6-15 months. For that reason, I recommend that you have her spayed around 6 months of age. It is usually cheaper to spay a female before her first heat. Do it before the mess begins!

An un-spayed female's cycle is approximately 21-30 days long. For 3 weeks before she actually comes into heat, she will produce a horrible smelling, heavy white discharge, that you will find on your floors, walls, and clothes. Soon afterwards, her vagina swells up. She starts to bleed profusely; you will find blood everywhere. (Your house will look like a war zone!) Some fe­males keep themselves very clean by licking. Then they come to you and want to lick you in the face!

By Spaying & Neutering your dog at the young age of 6 - 8 months, you will avoid these unnecessary events in your dog's life. Your dog will be happy and content to just be your fam­ily pet. They will give you unconditional love without the worry of your female producing an un­planned litter. You will have peace of mind that your male dog is unable to contribute to the over population of unwanted puppies.

This may sound really blunt and straight forward, but it is all true..I try to put it into a prospective a human will understand.

Remenber that if you breed, that is your biusness; but being resposible early saves life long headaches.