Intact male UWP Grand Ch. Rain Mountain Potlatch Kodiak
was one of the most dog- and human-friendly
Chinooks ever to walk the earth.

• Welcome to Rain Mountain Chinooks
• Meet the Family
• What's a Chinook?
• Chinook Health
• Getting Your Rain Mountain Chinook & Our Breeding Program
• The Chinook Breed Conservation Program and Enatai Chinook Crosses
• For More Information on Rain Mountain and Chinooks in General
• Doing Business With Friends

I’m not a Veterinarian but there are some things you need to understand before you rush out and subject your Chinook to major surgery. Whether or not you spay or neuter will depend in great part on the Sales Agreement you have with your breeder. But you need to understand what it will do and, even more so, what it will NOT accomplish. You also need to understand what the correct age for the surgery is and why.

I get too many people who want to rush out and spay or neuter their adolescent Chinooks because they think it will solve a wide spectrum of behavior issues. Sadly, 99% of the time these are problems that need to be solved with training, not surgery. Think about it – you would hesitate to crop your dog’s ears or cut off its tail but you think little about chopping its organs out!

The reality of the situation is that there are several problems CAUSED BY NEUTERING AND SPAYING! And this isn’t just me blowing smoke. I was a believer in this too until I started reading some of the studies out there. So here are a few for you to read and learn from.

These two articles both discuss the same studies.
https://dogzine.nl/en/newsarticle/more-fear-and-agression-after-neutering
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/canine-corner/201702/are-there-behavior-changes-when-dogs-are-spayed-or-neutered

The below cites UK and Australian sources and goes into diseases caused by spay/neuter as well as aggression issues.
https://www.doglistener.co.uk/neutering/spaying_neutering.shtml

This article cites several breed-specific studies and talks a lot about the shyness that spaying/neutering can induce.
https://healthyandhappydog.com/behavioral-effects-of-spay/
It also refers to an article by noted author on all things dog, Stanly Coren, PhD, DSc, FRSC. (I suggest that you go to amazon.com or dogwise.com for a list of all his wonderful books about dogs. I've had the fun of interviewing him before and he's quite the character.) That article can be found here:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/canine-corner/201702/are-there-behavior-changes-when-dogs-are-spayed-or-neutered

The best age to spay or neuter is when the dog has physically matured. You want the growth plates to close and the sex hormones to have done their magic on the skeleton and musculature. Here are a few websites that speak to this subject.

Written by a friend, Susi Szeremy, who has forgotten more about dogs than I will ever know. (You'll want to check out the National Purebred Dog Day website as well. Susi leads the efforts to have Purpose-Bred dogs like Chinooks recognized for their place in our heritage.) You’ll want to read the first couple comments where she adds even more information:
https://nationalpurebreddogday.com/before-you-do-something-permanent-know-about-growth-plates/

A study funded by the AKC Canine Health Foundation, including a link to a podcast by the primary researcher:
https://www.akcchf.org/news-events/news/health-implications-in-early.html

Look at it this way: By the time you get a Chinook pup from me, you’ve filled out a six-page questionnaire, paid me a chunk of money (though I charge far less than Chinook breeders on the East Coast), and signed a five-page Sales Agreement that is a legally binding contract. We’re probably going to be friends for life going forward. After all that, if I can’t trust you to keep your pup safe until it’s either old enough to be health tested for breeding or to be spayed or neutered, I shouldn’t be breeding at all.

If you want a puppy that you can spay or neuter when it’s less than six months old, please go to another breeder.