----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Hi there everyone...I was just thinking it would be interesting to do this since it's been a subject >we've been talking about a lot lately. I was wondering how many of you have >neutered/spayed/unneutered/unspayed females and males, and what you're reasoning for doing it >or not doing it is--i.e. breeding purposes or personal preference, or whatever--and how many >BMDs you do have.
In order that they joined us: Male Berner, 4 yrs, neutered at 6 months (Micawber) Female Pyr, 4 yrs in a week, spayed at 5 months (Lliira) Female Newf, 3 yrs, spayed at six months (Nessie) Female Pyr, 5 yrs, spayed at 2 after litter of puppies (Cassie the Rescue) Mic comes from a moderately successful set of show dogs but is clearly pet quality; there are some finished dogs in his five gen, and his dad was being actively shown, but it is not exactly a roll call of show dogs. Lliira the Pyr girl is probably show quality; she comes from a family with 5 generations all CH, 8 Hall of Fame dogs and the top winning Pyr bitch in the US and the top winning Pyr (male) of all time within 5 generations. However, as we did not intend to show her or breed her, we spayed her to reduce the risk of breast cancer and to avoid dealing with heat periods (by the way--although her breeding is impeccable, Lliira was out least expensive puppy, which says more about demand for Pyrs vs. Newfs/Berners than anything else; Nessie was our priciest pup). Nessie was retained by her breeder as a show prospect, but due to job layoff she decided to place Nessie when she was 9-10 weeks old; Nessie is a lovely but not 'in vogue' Newf. She goes back to some of the old, heavy, jowly lines. Very classic, but not what is being sought in the ring; 3/4 of her 5 gen pedigree were finished CH, most with working titles also. She could finish with the right handler (I once emailed her pedigree to a fancier who was looking for a stud to freshen her lines and wanted to know more about Nessie's family--her comment after reading the pedigree was WOW you have a classic canine there). Again, since we had no plans to breed her, we felt it was in all of our best interests to have her spayed also. Cassie the rescue Pyr is without papers, probably a pet shop girl, and also has had a litter of pups (as is evident by her teats, which have obviously been nursed). She came into rescue for the first time at 2 yrs old and was spayed and placed. We would have spayed her since she is clearly a nice dog of pet quality. Would make a heck of a working dog, though, had she landed in the right home for it. She has all the serious guarding behaviors you would want in a livestock guardian--night barking, territoriality, marking behavior, alert to new predator type animals, high pain tolerance and low prey drive, dominant personality. Eileen Morgan The Mare's Nest http://www.enter.net/~edlehman --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.426 / Virus Database: 239 - Release Date: 12/2/2002
