All our dogs have been spayed or neutered and I will probably continue to do so unless I decide to get into showing dogs (which is always a possiblity!) sometime in the future. My main reason for spaying females is because we just didn't want to deal with the mess of our female golden retriever in heat, since she was a house dog and we did not have an outside kennel (or room for one) to keep her in. The male dog we neutered because we keep him outside and he has free roam of the yard. He's a farm dog and we didn't want any distractions to take away from his job.
We also spayed our cats, mostly because we didn't want to deal with accidents. They are strictly indoors, but every once in awhile they escape outside. We do have quite a few cats that are unaltered who hang around our property and a few seconds with one of them could end in kittens! Spaying our cats alleviated that risk.
I typically don't care if a person alters or unalters their animals, but I do have an issue with it when that person does not control or take responsibilty for their animal. I see it in horses, dogs, cats, etc. If you are a responsible person, then I don't see the need to spay or neuter. However, if your animal is going to act insane every time I try to take my animal for a walk in a park or down the road, this bothers me. It takes away my enjoyment of that outing and I believe 1) you should train you animal and 2) you should probably have the animal altered (This mostly pertains to crazy male dogs/horses/etc.).
One time I remember taking my mare for a trail ride with a friend and we encountered this crazy appaloosa stallion. The owner of the stallion started freaking out saying that her horse would try and mount mine and she wouldn't be able to control it, etc, etc. Well then honestly...why did you take that horse out in the first place?! It's not my fault for having a mare (Which this woman clearly tried to make it seem that way!) and my mare was perfectly well behaved. She couldn't have cared less about the stallion! Yet somehow it is my fault for someone else's horse acting up!
All of mine are fixed. Three are from shelters so it is a must and one was used for breeding. She had complications from her last litter and had to be fixed. She was no longer useful to the breeder; so they sold her to me. Cause she is an awesome little dog. Old and grouchy sometimes with strangers and other female dogs but awesome just the same. I believe in spaying/nuetering because there are way to many irresponsible pet owners out there. I know someone who wants to breed her pitbull (who is unbelievelably georgous) just because she thinks he will make cute puppies. And that is why we have an overpopulation of unwanted pets.
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I may have missed it, but since I did complain about not being able to put my dog out when she was in heat I am assuming it is me
. If so, I did not say she lived outside, she would go out spend time outside in her kennel. She lives in the house but she would rather be out(and with 7 children I am not staying out with her which is why she ended up in the house, miserable). I just don't feel I should need to alter my life, on my property, because people are irresponsible and "lose" their intact dog. I just think I shouldn't need to alter MY life on MY property because of someone else, and that applies to more than just dogs....
I don't know if I was referencing you or not. I do apologize if I sounded harsh, wasn't intended to in the least. I totally get what you are saying though. I also have issues with dogs on my property without their owners and killing my chickens.
In fact just recently got in a near-legal dispute when my GSD defended my chickens from a Doberman who was in pursuit of them. I had no idea if the dog was a stray or what. I didn't stop to look check and see if the owner was around, when my birds lives are at stake I don't feel the need to ask questions first. My dog did his job. They tried to stick me with the 700.00 Vet bill but I refused to pay it. They called Animal Control and when the officer arrived he was on our side since the incident started on our property.
When the ACO went back to them he told the Dobie's owners that they are lucky the dog survived because we were within our rights to choose to shoot the dog. Instead we used non leathal action and they should feel lucky to have not had the dog shot. They were quite upset because they deem my GSD vicious but hes NOT at all he's just doing what I wanted him to do and stopped my flock from being slaughtered.
I digress...
Lose dogs are a huge issue here and I get sick and tired of it as well. My point with what you quoted above was that it takes two responsible parties to maintain dogs from two different households. Of course you know that
I live in a rurual area but also on a very busy road. Across the street caddy corner to us there are those neighbors everybody hates. They have 3 very annoying dogs. Granted, this is the owners fault but the dogs are a neusence. There have been many complaints and they are suppose to keep them restrained in their yard but they don't. They will stand in the road and bark at us or our animals in our yard non stop. Hour after hour it goes on, all night or day. When ever they let them off their chains this goes on till they put them back. They hve caused 2 accidents from people trying to keep from running them over. They stand in the road and will move out of the way just in time to avoid being ran over. But this makes the drivers swerve to avoid hitting them. Both accidents where due to the driver trying to miss the dog. I let my dogs out to potty and when those dogs are loose they will come in our yard and go after my dogs so I have to stand and guard them in our own yard so they can take care of their business. My dogs just try to ignore them even though they are in our yard. Their owner is more vicious than the dogs. And nobody can go to their door to complain because the dogs will attack. The police will drive right up to their door and honk or turn on the siren to get them to come out.
The man had his female coon hound tied up in the yard and she was in heat. Of course we all know what that caused. Every dog with in smelling range was haning out. His most annoying dog was a puppy at the time and got attacked by one of the male dogs. He was furious and drove over to our house to threaten to shoot our dog. Of course we straightened him out immediately. At that time we had a small male dog that somebody dropped off on us and our 14 year old spayed female. The male dog went out on a leash. He wasn't much bigger than the puppy either. Yet this man lets his dogs harrass those of us that are near him which are 3 other houses. They tear up the garbage of those that take it out the night before garbage day. We all had to adjust our way of doing things to avoid those dogs destroying things on our property. Us and our neighbor have to keep our cats food up high to keep them from stealing it. They take dish and all. Thank goodness they don't bother chickens or we would have a whole nother issue. He would be mad about his dogs getting shot. He obviously refuses to do what the police said he has to do. The police say if it is in our yard to shoot it because their isn't much else they can do unless somebody wants to sue him for damages. The police don't do much around here unless they can charge a heafty fine. There is a leash law but they only pursue city dogs, country dogs they don't charge unless they attack people or attack other peoples pets and do serious damage. Then it's more up to the pet owner to sue. They can slap a $50 fine on them but that isn't enough money for them to really care.
So we have to deal with having the dogs across the street bark at us when we are in our own yard minding our own business. We have to listen to the non stop barking through the night when they are off the chains, which is more so than not. We have to rush to put out the garbage for pick up to avoid it being scattered all over the place. WE have to keep the cats food up high to keep them from stealing it. I was putting it up on the rail of the deck and they would still get it, dish and all. Aparently they learned it was faster to just take dish and all tonot get caught.
We are also in the perfect spot for those people that think we need their unwanted pets more than they do. They stop just short of our driveway and toss them out and take off. Next thing we know there is a new cat or dog. So far all the cats have gone ferrel, or how ever it is spelled except for the 1 that we have here. I always find homes for the dogs. If they would just hve them fixed they wouldn't have to drop off their problem on others. They would rather let them get pregnant and have babies, then drop them off on somebody instead of paying $50.00 to not have that problem.
Some people think it's better to let them have 1 litter first. I would rather have them fixed as soon as possible before they ever go in heat. This cat we have had kittens last week. Although she is very friendly she wouldn't let us look to see what she was so we had no idea till she started to swell. That other cat that was hanging out here apparently knew she was a she and we thought he was another drop off. We fed him and treated him as if he was family then he disappeared one day as fast as he appeared. I know why now. If we normally had cats I probably would have put 2 and 2 together and figured it out before she gave birth. But now we know and the kittens already have homes to go to when they are weaned and momma is getting fixed. She's a good mouser and the chickens make sure the mice around here are fat and healthy by scattering their food every where.
The subject about breeding for show. Although I watch the shows on Animal Planet when I find them on, I wouldn't personally go through what they do to have a Perfect dog. I'd prefer to have the not perfect ones. Those are the ones that need homes. Most people want pretty perfect pets. That is why I refuse to pay money for a pet. There are so many out there that are desperate for a home and are free. Just think about it. Maybe it will sound familiar. Breed a living creature then sell their young as if we had a right to what doesn't belong to us, train and mold this living creature to do exactly what we want them to do and perform as we want them to or they get punished. They spend their entire lives trying to please us and for what? Treats and petted every now and again. They are living, breathing creatures of god just as we are. They have feelings, they feel pain, their blood is even the same color. They don't ask anything of us but we demand alot from them. They just want food and water and to be loved and will do anything to get just that little bit from us.
Our animals are trained to behave such as not chewing and destroying our stuff, potty outside and not to chase the chickens. In return they have free run of the house and yard, they get treats and snacks and sit with us and watch TV at night. We don't restrict them to one area of the house. We make sure they get their shots and check ups and any medical care they need. They are never made to suffer if there is an accident. They go to the vet immediately where lots of people will just ignore them and bury them if they don't recover on their own. They get their preventative care as well and baths that they really don't want.
I have a brother n law that has had so many dogs it's a shame. He feeds them if he has food and they starve if not. They never get their shots or any medical care. If they're injured they either recover on their own or die. They are lucky to get petted and are not trained at all. They will jump all over you when you go to visit, the little dogs are all over you and in your face. They will steal your food right out of your hand. When you try to pull into or out of their driveway you have to keep looking for the dogs because they will run around the car till you are well down the road. They are dirty and full of fleas and ticks and if female, pregnant on every cycle.
It's just too bad we don't have an ASPCA around here to police animal care and abuse. I have a long list that would keep them busy for a while.
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Honey, shoot the dogs if they are threatening your dogs. As far as him being angry, so what? I learned a long time ago that to handle those kind of people you just have to make them realize that you are way scarier than they are. If that means sitting on the porch cleaning the gun, target practice in the back yard and flying the "Don't Tread on Me" flag, then so be it.
All i know is..my mastiff was lifting his leg and spraying my couch... thats really the only reason hes fixed today..
Have you ever seen how MUCH a mastiff sprays?? My WHOLE couch front was soaked..
New couch and neutered mastiff... Ahh..life is good now..
Too bad..he would have made some darn cute puppies!!!
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Now that might make me neuter one of the boys. Course Jax is still peeing on his front legs and Kane squats like a girl
heehee..i have sissy males too... he squats when he pees too...
but boy, when he was spraying...he lifted that leg high!! He had pretty darn good aim too....
OOh once..he even peed on me! No lie.. i was sitting on the couch... (the one he hadnt peed on..i have 2 livingrooms..) anyways..i was sitting on the couch all wrapped up warm in a blanket...we decided to let him in the LR with us...
and sure enough...he walks up to me... lifts and sprays ME and the blanket....
he was all stealth about it too..did it quick and walked away like ..>>>>
edited to add: I'm SO thankful neutering him stopped the spraying... the vet said that fixing him after hes already started spraying might not work..he may continue spraying... ugh.. thankfully we caught it in time... He was 14 months old and we got him fixed within a few weeks of him starting to spray...
but..if he hadnt started to spray... i doubt we would have fixed him...
My other male didnt spray...but we got him fixed at 6 months... which i think was too early to fix a giant breed dog... but we didnt know any better at the time..
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Now that might make me neuter one of the boys. Course Jax is still peeing on his front legs and Kane squats like a girl
heehee..i have sissy males too... he squats when he pees too...
but boy, when he was spraying...he lifted that leg high!! He had pretty darn good aim too....
OOh once..he even peed on me! No lie.. i was sitting on the couch... (the one he hadnt peed on..i have 2 livingrooms..) anyways..i was sitting on the couch all wrapped up warm in a blanket...we decided to let him in the LR with us...
and sure enough...he walks up to me... lifts and sprays ME and the blanket....
he was all stealth about it too..did it quick and walked away like ..>>>> https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/10638_whistling.gif
I have a male dog - neutered. I do believe that unaltered male and female dogs show some behaviors that are resolved or avoided with neutering.
I don't think anyone can GAURANTEE that their animal will not breed or be bred - these are very strong desires in an unaltered animal.
We had a female dog(purebreed - not "fixed") that was kept very responsibly. We went on vacation and the person watching her left her loose. She came back bred to "blackie" down that street.
I'm not sure what "other" countries people were referring to that had no neutering and no overpopulation problem but the few countries I've been to have had terrible problems with many, many strays.
