To neuter or not to neuter

[Nikki & Charlie]

I`m on the fence with getting Charlie neutered. After reading up about it I have mixed feelings. He`s 7 months old now and he`s on the Ontario SPCA waiting list which will be 2-3 months before he gets his appointment -- as a side note, for those of you living in Ontario, the ontario SPCA charges between $80-$110 for male dogs depending their weight and this includes the medicine needed. 

Anyways, what I want to know is if your dogs are all neutered? From my understanding the main reason behind doing the procedure is for population control which I completely understand, BUT Charlie will never be in the presence of a female dog long enough for them to mate, our backyard is closed off and no other dogs have access to it, and there are no un-fixed female dogs on our street. So, aside from population control, what are the medical reasons behind getting this procedure done?

He hardly humps anything. His behaviour is fine and I have read that that getting a dog neutered does not really change their behaviour anyways, so what is the reason for doing it? What I have read is that getting it done may prevent testicular cancer and prostate cancer, but doing the procedure could cause many things... here are the links I've read by Dr. Karen Becker

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2011/02/17...

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2013/09/30...

So I would love to hear your thoughts on this. 

[Gabby]

I can relate to your concerns and we wondered the same thing about our Duke.  We eventually decided to neuter around 9 months or so....  By then he had started to mark on our walks... We have had no issues since and he has an amazing temperament.  He is now 18 months and doing great!