I for one am VERY glad you posted these slides! There are other effects of early age altering that need to be considered.

For example, sex hormones play a role in the closing of the growth plates, so animals altered before they are done growing have a slightly different conformation, and some evidence suggests that athletic animals altered early run a higher risk of injury because of this conformation.

FORCING someone who wants to have a canine athlete or a working dog to put their animal at higher risk for something like and ACL injury is inhumane IMO.