Hi am approaching the time on deciding when to spay my bitch. At the moment I feel I would like to leave her until she has fully grown. So for me not too hard a decision. For my sister she has a harder choice. She has a dog and a bitch from the same litter as my pup, they are just over six months old. The main question is when are dogs fully furtile? Her boy is still squatting to pee and is only just starting to 'drop'. The dog will be fixed later but she would really like to delay her bitch being done. Can anyone shed any light on this please?!
This varies a lot from dog to dog. I have one of each, too, and chose to have my bitch spayed before her first season. I had this done at six and a half months. I am keeping my dog entire unless he becomes over-sexed and I can't cope with it through training and other methods. They are coming up one year old now. Here is an article which discusses whether and when you should have your dogs neutered/spayed: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/neutering-your-labrador/ If she chooses to wait until after the bitch's first season, she will need to have the two dogs separated for that time. Because it can be a distressing time for a male dog to be in close proximity to a bitch in season, I would personally choose to send the dog away to stay with a friend or family member during that time.
Hi, I had an entire dog when I got my bitch. My vet very helpfully just advised to separate them as I wanted the bitch to have one season and my dog was 9 and we had never had any problems with him. That said he started to get very interested in her to the point of distress even before she came into season. So in the end he was done. I think I am trying to say the only way to survive a season is to send your dog away, even though he is young he may not mount her but I suspect he will be emotionally effected by it. He will probably not settle and it gets very exhausting for boys. You need a plan though as she could come into season soon. I think meg was about 8 months. Good luck.
Thank you both. I will pass this info on. She has been trying to separate them at times during the day just to get them used to being apart but they spend the whole looking for each other and barking!
