Australian Labradoodle Early Spay and Neuter (ESN)

To spay or not to spay?

There are several breeders of Australian Labradoodles that do what is called early spay and neuter (ESN), where a puppy is simply spayed or neutered at 8 weeks old as opposed to 6 months + old.

Some Australian Labradoodle breeders sell their puppies on spay/neuter contract where they must be spayed or neutered by a certain age, usually around 6-9 months. Others carry out a procedure called tubal ligation where tubes necessary for reproduction, are tied.

Why do Australian Labradoodle breeders choose to have such measures in place? While one consideration is to protect the breeding lines that they have spent an enormous amount of research, time and money creating.

The most compelling reason is to cut down on the number of dogs that find themselves each year in dog homes.

Breeders spend a great deal of time and effort to make sure our puppies go to families that will cherish them as a member of their family forever. It is very easy for time to slip away and for the male to come of age and find a fertile female, or for the female to come into heat at an early age and before you know it, she is having an unexpected “oops” litter. These puppies in turn would be sold or given away with little to no thought of the quality or preparedness of the family to deal with the new member of it’s household.

Many dogs are turned into dogs homes by the age of 14 months, because the families are not financialy ready or the pup has become “a bigger responsiblity” than the family had planned. We do our best to avoid this situation with our screening processes and our policy to always rehome any dog that comes from our program for it’s entire life.

In the UK, over 100,000 dogs are surrendered to rescue centres every year, and between 6 and 7 thousand dogs are euthanised each year.

We do not want any of our ALAUK dogs, puppies or their offspring contributing to that figure.