how young is too young for a dog to be Neutered?

The reason i ask is because I met the most gorgeous boxer last night at training. He was 19 weeks old. Now I had been refering to said Boxer as a girl cos no dangly bits . Got talking to the lovely owner to find out it was a boy and he had already been done to try and calm him down, he I think had it done about 2 weeks earlier so would have been 17 weeks.

Now he was a very broad dog but I was always led to believe 12-18 months was best. The vet had said he was mature enough,

Is this right?

Just thought this might help others with a similar question

Mel x

Our vets suggest 6 months or over....

Max was "done" at about 8 months old, and Murphy is being "done" over Easter (so he'll be 9 months)

I think 17 weeks is very early!

Besides, you won't calm a Boxer down until he's about 4!! At 17 weeks, he's just an exuberant puppy!

our vet recomends from 5 months before the first season, for speying not sure about castration.

6 months is the suggestion from our vets. Storm was 6 months when he was done and Star 8months.

I thought a dog was neutered to stop it breeding. But then, I thought a dog was given exercise, training and the correct food to `calm it down`. Hormone changes from male neutering take months to fully take effect, and I think that relying on a hormone change to stop already learned behaviour is a bit....daft. I`m not anti-neutering, I just don`t think it solves behavioural problems. - Well, maybe it helps with marking in some cases. But it won`t make a young dog behave any less like a young dog.

That's what I thought!

Our vets reccommend over 6 months also, I've heard a few stories of dogs in america being done as early as 8 weeks.

My vet suggests about five months for a bitch, Meg was about six months when she was spayed, and from six months for castration. Mack is 8 months and he will be getting castrated soon.
My friend has a rescue dogwho was castrated at four months, and hasn't seemed to do him any harm, he is six years old.

I bet it was the vet that recommended neutering to calm him down not a dog trainer
Becky

many vets will try and persaude you to spay/castrate as early as possible, some will try for around 6mths even before the first season

My own vet advises after 12 mths for a dog, and after the first season for a bitch.

But the longer you leave it the better, give them a chance to mature first.

But who ever castrated that pup at that age want`s shooting (although I have heard it is dome regularly in the US)

All I can see in this case, is another Boxer in rescue.... if the owner cant cope with a 17 /19 wk old Boxer , god help her when he reaches the "Kevin " stage...

Another case for not taking everything vets says as gospel. you get fools in all walks of life, and if the vet recommended castration to calm a young pup down..god help us.

What ever happened to exercise /training/ diet

OR........... HE IS ONLY A PUPPY