Why Desex Your Dog?
There are lots of good reasons for desexing your dog:
Desexing your male dog as soon as practical will
prevent any testosterone driven behavioural
Problems.
Desexed dogs - male and female - live longer and
are easier to control.
Desexing your dog does not necessarily make it
fat (overfeeding and lack of exercise make dogs
fat).
Desexing bitches totally prevents unwanted litters.
It is easier to keep several dogs, particularly
males, if they have been neutered.
Contacts for advice and information
8
Broken Hill City Council
PO Box 448
BROKEN HILL NSW 2880
Animal Control Officer - 0409 717 944
Environmental Services - (08) 8080 3340
Broken Hill City Council - (08) 8080 3300
OTHER BROCHURES IN THE URBAN DOG SERIES
CATEGORY I - LIFESTYLE DECISIONS
1.
Origins of the Dog
2.
Should I Get a Dog?
3.
Which Dog is For Me?
4.
Dogs as Kids
5.
Dogs as Protectors
6.
Dog-Smart Kids
7.
A New Puppy
CATEGORY II - CARING FOR YOUR DOG
8.
Desexing Your Dog
9.
The Happy Dog
10.
Exercise and Nutrition
11.
Grooming Your Dog
12.
Having Puppies
13.
Senior Dogs
14.
Health Care and First Aid
15.
Travelling With Dogs
CATEGORY III - RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
16.
Today's Urban Dog
17.
The NSW Companion Animals Act
18.
Identification and Registration
19.
Dangerous and Restricted Dogs
20.
Barking Dogs
21.
Roaming Dogs
22.
Local Facilities & Services (Optional)
23.
Restricted Breeds
24.
How to Register & Microchip your Pet
25.
How to find a Lost Pet
26.
Dog Droppings - Lets deal with them
This brochure has been developed in the interests of
community education, health and safety as part of a
nationwide project promoting responsible pet ownership.
All brochures are numbered and cross-referenced, with
corresponding brochures indicated by number (eg, 5)
after a particular topic.
ANIMAL CONTROL
SERVICES
Desexing your
Dog
Anyone who’s ever questioned the necessity of having
their dog desexed need only visit the local council pound
or RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals) shelter.
It is here where each year tens of thousands of unwanted
dogs, unable to be identified and re-homed, meet a tragic
fate and are euthanased.
In 1999/2000 alone, RSPCA shelters around the country
received 67,204 dogs, of which 26,339 were euthanased.
By desexing their dogs people can take that important first
step towards ensuring unwanted litters are avoided and
reducing this appalling statistic.
An entire dog so entranced will lose interest in his family
duties and can become very difficult to control.
Dogs that can escape their yards to get to a bitch in season
will congregate around her or as close to her as they can
get.
Competition for her attention is fierce and serious fights
often break out between potential suitors – these are bad
circumstances for your dog to be in.
“You can enjoy the peace of mind that will come from
knowing you aren’t contributing to the unwanted pet
population”
If you have a bitch in heat:
Keep it in secure surroundings.
Don’t tolerate male dogs hanging around (call the
owners or the Council).
Don’t walk it unless you want every dog in the area
to follow you home.
Bear in mind that some bitches have preferences in
mating partners and will go to great lengths to
escape to mate.
Also, as competing male dogs take very little interest in
their surroundings many are killed or injured by traffic in
urban areas.
Female Dogs:
If you own an undesexed bitch you will have to take extra
precautions before and during her “heat”.
Male Dogs:
The dogs that cause the most problems in urban areas
through nuisance and aggressive behaviour are
undesexed males, commonly known as “entire” dogs.
Entire dogs usually reach sexual maturity at about 8
months of age and:
Are driven by testosterone and strive to guarantee the
survival of their genetic make-up by creating as many
offspring as possible.
Are harder to keep and require very firm control to
ensure they don’t follow their natural instincts and
become a problem for the community.
The scent of a female dog (bitch) on heat is enough to drive
any entire dog crazy, and any entire dog, but especially one
that has mated before, will be almost impossible to restrain in
the average yard.
While the wolf and true wild dogs (such as the Dingo)
and true feral dogs have one heat a year, domestic dogs
have two heats a year.
Dogs have their first heat between eight and 12 months of
age, and at six-month intervals thereafter. Individual
bitches may vary quite a lot, especially young dogs.
Heats last around 21 days and generally consist of:
First week: “coming on”, showing a bloody discharge
and will not stand for a dog.
Second week: “on heat”, showing a clear discharge,
turns tail up over back and will stand for a dog.
Third week: “coming off”, when the discharge
finishes and the bitch loses interest in the dog.
Unless you are a specialist breeder and the bitch is to be
used as part of a legitimate breeding plan, it should be
desexed (spayed).
You can have a bitch desexed from about 6 months of
age, which will prevent it from having any heats. You can
even have a bitch spayed even if she is pregnant; consult
your vet as soon as you become aware that she may have
been mated.