07/14/2025
Jase hit a big milestone this week. He had a successful neuter surgery and his playful spirit came right back after waking up. As the video shows, he wanted to play with his chew bone so badly but a case of the snoozes won out.
A frequently asked question is “Do service dogs need to be spayed or neutered?” The answer is, by law, they actually don’t need to be surgically sterilized. So why do we choose to have our dogs fixed?
Importantly, it is rather messy to take an intact female dog into public during heat and putting that restriction on teams is unhelpful. Also, veterans may have their own pets at home and in the case of an accidental litter, the new mama would be out of commission for 8-10 weeks. For male dogs, they can be overcome by the scent of other service dogs that are in heat *for miles* or even catch the scent of other people’s “in-season” pets at home carried into public spaces on their clothing. Even in the most well-trained dogs, biology can still play a factor in distracting them from preforming their tasks.
While veterinarians have been increasingly recommending to wait longer and longer before altering animals for various health considerations, we must remember that services dogs are not regular pets. Behavior changes that occur as hormones increase in the body have to be weighed against the time and training commitment it would take to keep dogs intact for longer and still have well-balanced working dogs. It should be noted that we don’t have a set age that each dog is automatically spayed or neutered, we let each dog's biological behavior changes guide us so we can wait as long as is beneficial. Sterilization is one step our organization can use to give the animals we raise with love the best future for them and their veteran partner on the most consistent basis.
Secondly, All Seasons American Service Animals also strives for accreditation by “Assistance Dogs International (ADI).” Adhering to placing only spayed and neutered dogs is one of the guidelines of this gold-standard institution. The benefit to veterans is dogs originating from ADI-accredited programs can have some coverage for veterinary expenses by the VA. That's a relief for the veterans, as well as peace in the minds and hearts of the people raising these pups on the first stop in their journey!
