I would appreciate your thougths and/or comments.. My husband and I have two puppies, one female Lab (Becky) almost 7 months old, and one male Lab mix (Ben) 5 months old. We are planning to have them both spayed and neutered, but we're a bit confused on WHEN is the best time to do this. Our vet recommends to get Becky spayed as early as possible, before she reaches her sexual maturity. But the dog trainer recommends to wait until three months after Becky's first heat cycle, or right between first and second heat cycle, when her hormones are at the lowest. As for Ben, both recommend to wait until he is after 6 months old. As of today, Becky hasn't had her first cycle and Ben hasn't sprayed on anything yet - he still pees with both hind legs down. If Becky gets her heat cycle and Ben isn't neutered yet, we're gonna have a lot of problems restraining those two from each other, as they spend every waking hours together. But we can't have any accidents, as Becky has had demodectic mange when she was younger and her vet stongly advised agaisnt breeding her. What should we do? Who should get "the snip" (as my husband calls it) first? And when? My Internet search showed these two schools of thought (early spaying/neutering versus after reaching sexual maturity) and they both seem to be equally adamant. Cheers Mia