Should I get my dogs neutered?

[dab_20]

I, for one, applaud anyone going through some in depth research about the health of your dog before going through with any type of surgery. Unfortunately, veterinarians are biased, or told certain things over and over in veterinary school that often their information could be wrong. It takes a lot of time and research to come up with a good vet IMO.

With that being said, I think the MAIN reason to spay and neuter is to prevent unwanted litters. We have thousands and thousands of dogs and cats dying in shelters every year. The average dog owner should spay and neuter their pets because the risk of them jumping the fence and breeding.
I do think it is okay to keep an intact dog as long as you make sure nothing will happen. However, intact dogs, especially males, DO show increased aggression as a whole. The majority of the dogs (around 70%+) that have attacked and killed humans are unaltered. That is a fact. OTHER dogs tend to pick fights with unaltered dogs, whether spayed or neutered. Of course we are not saying because your dog is unaltered he will be aggressive, but most aggressive dogs are unaltered. And most aggressive dogs have bad owners, too. Which most bad owners do not spay and neuter their pets.
However, if you are worried about the hormonal changes, I would go with a vasectomy. I don't think you need to cut the hormones off, and I don't think that there are rampant health problems that come with hormones. Sexual hormones actually control a lot more than just sex. Mind you, I'm not a doctor, but I am in school for nursing and have learned a lot about hormones and such that is applicable to many species, not just humans.

[snakemama]

My biggest hesitation in hormone removal is that the sex hormones do play a role in the closing of the growth plates of the bones. I'm sure that in many dogs this will have no long-term effects, but I'd rather take care with my dogs until teh growth plates are closed before desexing them. I've always opted to neuter my dogs because I'm not up to the task of keeping an unaltered dog in a busy city like the one I live in.

Your dogs are obviously past that point, so it's up to you. Wolfsoul has put up a lot of good information, and it sounds like you have things well thought out. Your pups are lucky to have an owner who goes over all of the information before making a desion about their welfare.