No Patch you have misunderstood, the owner knew exactly what she had bought, it was the staff at the Vets who said it was too dark to be a yellow Labrador and might be chocolate! It was also the Vets who had written the owners name wrong.

But why did she let them - my vets put down the colour, markings, and breeds or mixes as I state them, they don`t argue with me about it, they know without a doubt that I know what my dogs are and what their colours are and if they were to make a mistake when putting it on their records I`d put them right - if an owner does`nt have the gumption to make sure the vet is recording things accurately how will that owner deal with her dog wanting to mount a bitch out on a walk - will she prevent it or will she keep quiet and not do anything for fear of being pro-active ?
All I`m saying is perhaps the vet felt it safest all round to strongly suggest neutering ?

[ plus it being irrefutable medical fact that prevention is better than cure so why put the dog at needless risk of related health issue`s later on, I`d rather pre-empt than risk waiting until a dog is old and getting ill from something which can be so easily prevented by the snip when a dog is young and healthy and at far less risk from GA or complications than when elderly and in compromised state of health...]

She assumed the Vet KNEW what she was talking about and didnt question them. She then phoned the breeder who she has since become close to who said exactly what we had said, they are THICK! She also said that when she readdressed the issue she was told when the dog next went in they would amend it or to do it herself!

This is her first dog of her own, her partner has Dogs and she grew up with dogs, its her first pedigree dog. She did nothing wrong Patch there is nothing sinister here, just a bullying vet who saw an owner keen to do right be her pet, and they bullied her into booking the dog in for castration despite her saying no, she was made to feel irresponsible. Tough for the Vets though, they lose this £100.

We have always had bitches, TJ and Flag were our first male dogs, Tj came from a rescue so had already been done, flag was just over eight weeks when we got him and we took him to the vets a couple of days later, just so he could get used to them, the vets who we had used for many years went through when to inoculate, worm, flea treatment, Castration was bought up by us on the third visit which was for his second injection.

On the other hand...

"None of the behavioral or medical problems caused by testosterone are rare. Veterinarians deal with them on a daily basis. To say it in a way that may not sound very nice but is certainly true – veterinarians would make a lot less money if everyone neutered their male dogs before they were a year of age."

[ from http://www.peteducation.com/article....&articleid=911 ]

Yeah but think how much money they'd be raking in daily from all those unecessary ops and possible complications arising from them!

I know you are a staunch supporter Patch and I appreciate that, but the Vet was out of line to put such pressure on this lady, it made her feel very uncomfortable.

Appreciated
But don`t forget though Dawn, apparently the stats on what owners remember from a vet visit, [ just a check up visit never mind a worrying one ], is only 20% of the full conversation and new owners do often tend to latch on to one thing and the more they think about it the more it becomes `something` when it really was `nothing`.
None of us were in the consult room at the time, it could just as easily be that the vet brought it up quite routinely as something to discuss and rightly so, [ I bet you would`nt be annoyed about a vet bringing it up to a new cat owner ], and the simple fact is if an owner does`nt want to neuter they can`t be forced into it like that, it all sounds like much ado about nothing really, possibly nothing more than class of personality or too heavy handed a way of talking about it by the vet in which case of course a different vet would be the solution - but better a vet bring it up than never mention it.

If an owner, whose vet never mentioned neutering, had a dog suffering a related but preventable health issue in later life you can bet the owner would be just as upset if the vet then said `ah well, if he`d been neutered years ago he would`nt be suffering this illness which now requires surgery, and at his age now don`t be surprised if he does`nt pull through this or that operation to try to rectify it, if only you`d had him done when he was in a good state of health in the first place`...

They gave her a card with the appointment on for 3 days after he left the kennels. Im certain she was bullied into agreeing. That aside, I agree that a vet should mention all aspects of dog ownership.

Originally Posted by Patch

But why did she let them - my vets put down the colour, markings, and breeds or mixes as I state them, they don`t argue with me about it, they know without a doubt that I know what my dogs are and what their colours are

At the vet we used to attend, my very obviously BROWN Newf was recorded on their computer system as BLACK. I only got the opportunity to correct it because I happened to see it on screen at one of our appointments and challenged the vet who admitted that, although it wasn't her who filled in the details, she had never seen brown Newf and assumed she was just a 'pale black' ???. Her vaccs card was completed correctly only because I dictated the details at the time, if they had gone by what was on their computer system, she would have been described as black on that too.

You don;t need to ask why we are no longer with that veterinary practice

Our weim had to be castrated due to an undecended testicle. About a week or two after the op he beacame nervous and aggressive towards other dogs and we have to watch him like a hawk off lead (he has excellent recall otherwise he wouldn't be let off). Up until being castrated he was friendly and playful with other dogs. I believe that the testosterone gave him confidence whereas now, he has none and cannot cope, so has resorted to aggression to keep other dogs away.