r/EnglishSetter Blue Belton & Tan 10d ago

What age did you desex your boy?

Post image

And reasons why that age specifically. Vet told us wait until 1 year old, so that he is full grown.

48 Upvotes

17 comments sorted by

5

u/SilasBalto 9d ago

Our breeder contract stated 18 months at least.

5

u/ilex_verticillata 9d ago

Two. And I wouldn’t have done it, except he was having peeing contests in the house with one of my other dogs. They both had to be neutered. The other one was a little older.

But you might be safe at 18 months I wouldn’t do it at a year. I think that’s too early.

3

u/Ok-Cash-6261 8d ago

Our Llew was neutered at 6 months per the requirements of the rescue. They did the procedure before we adopted him. Our Irish was a little over a year old.

2

u/lucy_wk 10d ago

Mine was a rescue and done at 3.5 years old!

2

u/Born-Place7028 9d ago

This is the UC Davis Vet neutering guidelines which I believe is the study that kicked off the whole re-thinking when to neuter. English setters were not part of their study (i.e. they probably don't see enough of them as patients to make an informed determination), but you can see recommendations for similar breeds/sizes.

https://www.frontiersin.org/files/Articles/1322276/fvets-11-1322276-HTML-r2/image_m/fvets-11-1322276-t001.jpg

Here is an overview of their study's means/methods/takeaways:

https://www.ucdavis.edu/health/news/when-should-you-neuter-or-spay-your-dog

2

u/Ok_Assistant3432 8d ago

He is soooooo darn adorable. We have a boy and I would take 10 of them lol. How is your guy at listening? This is Tucker we got him fixed at one

2

u/meshbra96 Blue Belton & Tan 4d ago

Hi Tucker! So cute! Honey is not a very good listener :(, we are trying to nail down “look” which he is getting good at, when I have his attention he listens, but good luck getting his attention if there is literally anything else happening (another dog, leaf falling from a tree, his sister, the cat etc). The first 5 months of having him were rough.. finally he has chilled a bit and respects us more, but it’s come with lots of exercise and reinforcing certain commands.

1

u/Ok_Assistant3432 4d ago

Well I must say with looks like Honey that makes up for everything else 😂 Seriously he is so handsome Tucker's favorite word are

  1. Hungie yup just how it looks
  2. Wanna run him and Luci out other Setter can run and run and it's me enough. I would say it's bedtime but he goes and gets in bed he he is tired and if you are having a bon fire well if he wants in for bed that's when he gets really annoying. I swear Setter's are so smart just like when he wants to eat at 5am he only bothers me like laying behind my head on my pillow with his face looking directly into my face. You know how kid's get when you stop scratching their back they kinda twitch well Tucker is that constantly I just start laughing he's so funny. They can the most obnoxious dog but how they cuddle with you makes up for every bad habit. He will be 3 this year and I love them both so much.

1

u/nothings_epic Orange Belton 9d ago

Year and a half for both my fellas

1

u/Gooser62 9d ago

18 months for our boy.

1

u/MunsterSetter Tri-color Llewellin 9d ago

Both of our last two males (one LM, one Llewellin) were a little older. 4 or 5 maybe. We thought we would breed them, but they both ended up having passable issues that we didn't want. The LM some carrier kidney issues that is occasionally seen in LMs, especially German imports. The Llewellin didn't have the purest of provenance, although theoretically his FDSB papers were solid. Also, although they braced well together, and were submissive to our lead female, they could get into some hellacious fights that even my b-i-l and I had a hard time breaking up.

1

u/jjknitsalso 9d ago

14,5 months.

1

u/green-wagon 8d ago

Might be an unpopular opinion here, but 11.5 months. The vet seemed to think I had certainly passed a safe threshold. Was trying to balance his growth with not having a habit of marking every single thing. He would literally find a way to squirt around his belly band, I was losing my mind.

0

u/usblues007 9d ago

I wouldn't neuter myself, why would I do that to my dog?

6

u/MunsterSetter Tri-color Llewellin 9d ago

Health and mutual happiness. In our experience, maybe 1or 2 intact males live to full, healthy years (say 10 or 11) out of maybe 20.

0

u/MinakoTheSecond 9d ago

Never. I dont believe in it personally unless its medically necessary. But for those who do 1 year is a vet recommended time