If a dog is going to be spayed/neutered. Before 6 months is considered too early.
Seven months sounds about right, if you can wait till 9 months – 1 year that’s good too.
If you wait too long it is harder for the dog adjust to the surgery and the hormone disruption (imo).
The only dogs I have observed have complications were a 2 year old female and 11 year old male, both had difficult recoveries.
Excerpt from: http://skeptvet.com/Blog/2014/07/potential-risks-of-neutering-and-age-at-neutering-for-godlen-retrievers-and-labrador-retrievers/
“The findings in this study suggest some increase in the risk of some diseases with neutering, but the patterns were not very consistent. Neutering before 6 months of age appeared to be associated with higher risk of cruciate ligament disease and elbow dysplasia in male Labradors but not with the risk of hip dysplasia. In females, however, the pattern was the opposite, with neutering at less than 6 months being associated with greater risk of hip dysplasia but not the other two orthopedic diseases. But in Golden retrievers, neutering before 6 months of age was associated with greater risk of cruciate ligament disease in both sexes, but with greater risk of hip dysplasia only in males, not females”.
