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Q. Our male dog is about to be neutered. How do we explain this to our 4 and 6 year old children?
A. We usually tell children of this age that the vet is keeping the dog for the day to make him healthier. Focus on the reasons for taking him – he’ll be friendlier, he’ll live longer – rather than on the specifics of the procedure. It can be confusing to tell them it’s so a male dog can’t have puppies (since a male dog can’t have puppies anyways!). At pick up we usually tell the kids that the dog has had some medicine that might make him cranky, and that he needs to rest for a couple days. When the testicles are removed the scrotum will still be there, so they may not even notice the testicles are gone.
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