The Spay and Neuter Debate

So tonight was my very first SKN course and it was just as I expected... a waste of my time. I really feel that this course is for the absolutely clueless absolutely, 100% first time owners.

There was one point that I have to say I was happy to hear about: Spay and Neuter. She laid out the facts: Neutering a dog is a fairly minor surgery for males and a major, more complicated surgery in females. Not only that, but emphasis was put on the fact that there are alternatives to surgery, such as chemical castration for dogs, but that most of the habits that some people may think of when they hear that a male is uncastrated like marking, aggression, etc... can be avoided through socialization and obedience training. In any case, the overall message was to consult with your veterinarian if you are considering castration of you dog.

Sounds pretty good right?

This has been a recent topic amongst many dog people lately. In the USA it is fairly taboo NOT to castrate your dog. Not only that, but they want it done ASAP, usually well before the animal is 6 months old. This is just how it is and is the mantra in the US. Now living in Switzerland, I rarely run into dogs that are castrated- at least this is very obvious in male dogs. Never at the dog park or during training periods have our dogs ever had issues with other males. Usually they go off and play and everything is fine. During one training period there was even a female in heat and 2 unaltered male dogs. They were not as focused as usual, but were able to work and even run around on the training place, with supervision of course, with no incidence.

Not only do I not believe in castration altering behaviors, but many studies show the same. An aggressive male dog is not going to automatically become a lamb because you cut his manly parts off. Forget it! If your male is aggressive, take it to a trainer and put in the time and effort to try and alter the behavior.

In addition, there was also a recent article -I believe it was Labradors- that tracked dogs that were castrated before 1 year of age and dogs that were castrated after 1 year. Unfortunately, I can't find the article at this time, but one thing that stood out to me was that dogs castrated before 1 year of age had more "structural" problems, e.g. Luxating patella, because the hormones that signal to stop growing are no longer produced. This can cause the dogs to grow taller, resulting in higher, lankier dogs with overgrown bones. This hit close to home as my parent's last dog, an American Eskimo, had this in both her knees. It is listed as a potential ailment in the breed, but not common. My parents shelled out $2000+ in surgeries because she slipped her knee once around the age of 1 or 2 and the other at the age of 5. I now wonder if perhaps her spay at the age of 6 months contributed to her knee problems. In addition, the dog battled with being overweight for a good portion of its life (not morbidly, but a maximum 10% at her fattest), which is another common "symptom" of castration.

Christmas at my parent's house in WI in 2009. Here "Lexi," our 12 year old American Eskimo, joined in on the fun.

Jolanta Jeanneney (of the Born to Track blog) wrote a very nice article a couple months ago about castrating working dogs:
http://borntotracknews.blogspot.ch/2013/01/should-tracking-and-hunting-dogs-be.html
I think she really highlights a reason against the normal fix it ASAP view, especially with working dogs of a specific breed in such a big country. You don't want to bottleneck your breeding stock and furthermore, if you have a talented, structurally and mentally sound dog, why not pass on its genes?

I personally am not opposed to spaying or neutering of dogs. I totally understand that non-breeders, for example, don't want to deal with a female coming into heat twice per year, especially if you have males in your house or nearby. I've experienced a love-sick Freddie, yearning to escape our room and make a B-line for Baxter's half-sister. It wasn't pretty for anyone involved.

I just think that we should let dogs grow up and mature. Unlike people, dogs mature in about a year. Is that so long to wait, especially if it means a healthier and mentally more mature doggie companion? I feel like the European mentality is starting to slowly make it's way stateside and I have my fingers crossed that dog lovers take notice.

Starting the SKN

Today marked Simon and Baxter's first of 4 SKN (Sachkundenachweis- Obligitory dog owner course in Switzerland) practical courses. In 2010, Switzerland started enforcing new laws that that require dog owners to participate in theory and/or practical courses. New dog owners are supposed to take the theory course before they get their dog and the practical course is taken after the dog is 5 months old and/or within 1 year of obtaining your dog.

In essence, I think that these courses are a great step in curbing "cute" puppy buying on a whim and forcing people to really look at why they want a dog. Unfortunately, the new system, in my opinion, still contains quite a few flaws, but I'm hoping that changes will be made in the coming years. One of the biggest flaws I see now is the practical course. Every person owning a dog has to take the practical course for every new dog that they obtain. This means everyone, including breeders. Mind you that depending on the Canton that you live in, the maximum number of dogs is something like 2 per person or 2 per household. You can, of course, have more dogs, but I believe that needs a special permit.

Now, I understand the importance of having a hands on course for new dog owners and I think it is a very good idea, in theory. The problem is that the practical course is usually 4-6 lessons for no more than 1 hour at a time. The SKN instructors have a basic "outline" that they have to follow in terms of what they teach the people involved, but each instructor makes their own courses. When Simon did this course with Freddie 2 years ago he came home pissed off after one class because they spent the whole 45 minutes learning how to pet the dog, give it treats, and pick out the right grooming utensils. This would be fine if you had just obtained your dog or if this was tacked onto the theory course, but since you can't take your dog until it is at least 5 months old, we found it pointless. These are the types of things you learn right away if you have at least 1 competent dog person in your life. The dogs were not allowed to interact with each other either since they are all on leash and the trainer was very strict about dogs not even sniffing butts on her training ground. Needless to say, Simon was thrilled when he was finished with that course. 

Freddie was not impressed...

I was supposed to do the practical course with Baxter. I say "supposed to" because the Basel Veterinarians found that my previous dog ownership (our poodle and American Eskimo growing up and our 2 dackel now) were insufficient. Thus, I have to spend at least 5 hours of my time and quite a bit of money to sit through a theory course(of which I'm pretty sure I know everything they'll tell me). This would be ok, except that all of the trainers listed on the BVET website in Switzerland as English speaking, will not hold the class in English. Mind you, my German is ok, but my Swiss German is crap. They have all told me that I can sit in and ask questions after in English if I didn't understand or that Simon can come and sit in with me. Great. A waste of both of our time. Since Simon already took the theory course, he is now taking the little guy to the practical course.


Sorry about the rant. Back on topic. What I find annoying about this new Swiss system is that there is no course for experienced dog owners. Simon would have happily taken a SKN course set that was geared to returning dog owners. Better yet, I think that they should allow for people to skip the course all together if they can prove that they regularly train with their dogs. If you put in the time and money and effort to make your dog a good citizen, reward them for it!

As I said, the whole system is rather new and I'm sure that it will evolve with time, so we can only hope for the best. I'm sure that we will run into issues with this whole system again if we stay in Switzerland, but only time will tell.