07/30/2026
Hello everyone
One debate I come across a lot is when to fix a dog. The hormones released as the dog ages, are not only important for their physical development but also their mental development.
Because this development is critical for service dogs, waiting until the female has gone through at least one heat is preferred, and if you can wait until just after the second it’s better. For males, I watch to see how often they lift their leg to p*e. However there are cases where the testosterone doesn’t present enough to create this behaviour or there is so much the behaviour starts early.
This is not a hard fast rule, you also need to take into consideration the size of the dog. The larger the dog the longer you wait, regardless of heat timings or lifting leg to p*e. The physical development of the dog is better when you allow them to grow with the hormones in their system.
But again everything comes down to training and when the hormones rushing through their body becomes detrimental to their training, it is time to fix them. The longer you fight the bad behaviour or allow it to progress, the longer it takes to correct it afterwards.
We tend to see crazy behaviour starting between 8-10 months, this is because the hormones have been released and he dog takes time to figure out how to react with them coursing through its body. But after they get fixed, the same thing happens, it takes about 3 weeks (depending on size of dog) for the hormones to clear out, and then the dog again goes through an adjustment period, just like when they were released. I tend to call this a “3 month regression” where you feel like you went backwards three months. What it really is, is the dog unable to process things the same way and relearning how.
This is not something unfamiliar, humans go through it as well….
