[PyrNet-L] Re: Chat: Questions on Spaying

[Stephanie W <srwhitney@earthlink.net>]

Anais is 5 months old.  She attended her first Match yesterday.  We
wanted a puppy we could try to show but had no intention of breeding
her.  My vet's new associate is pushing us to get her spayed before she
is six months old.  Her grand-breeder <G> said to wait until about a
year old if we were going to spay her.  So sometime in the next several
months we have to decide whether we are going to have her spayed.

This is what I know:

1) If she is spayed, we can no longer show her.

2) Spaying will prevent pregnancy.

On the other hand:

1) I don't know what her show potential is.

2) All my male dogs are neutered.

What I don't know (and this is the reason I'm writing this):

1) What are the risks (other than pregnancy) of not spaying her?  What
are the statistics on the types of diseases that would be prevented by
spaying?  That is, would her risk be reduced from 50% to 20% or from 2%
to 1%.

2) On the other side, what are the risks of spaying?  Besides the risk
from anesthesia and infection, I remember something about incontinence
as a possible after-effect.  What are the chances of that?

3) I read somewhere (I don't remember where) that while neutering a male
may or may not reduce aggressive behavior, it will not reduce aggressive
behaviour in a female, and here's the scary part, it may increase
aggressive behaviour in a female.  Does anyone know anything about
this?  I had never heard this before and that would certainly not be a
chance I would want to take.