When to neuter a dog

Question
My golden retriever is a shelter rescue. I adopted him when he was 7 months old and by policy he had to be neutered before he went home with me. He's now 12 months and has proven to be exceedingly intelligent (will learn a command after being shown once), but is still very puppyish and at times obstinate.

I've been reading lately that one should wait until a dog begins to cock their leg before neutering them to allow the dog to fully mature hormonally. If this isn't done the dog will remain psychologically immature or stunted. There apparently isn't any scientific evidence for either side of this issue, but I thought a good way to tell would be to find out when working dogs, such as police, assistance, rescue, or seeing eye dogs are neutered, if at all.

Can anyone shed any light on this for me? Have I done my dog a disservice?

Thanks,
Matthew

Answer
I have raised puppiess for 2 different schools with very different policies.  The dog guide school, that I have long worked with, wants to be able to select any of their puppies as breeding stock after they return at a year old.  They are quite successful spay/neutering after the dogs start training and have demonstrated their abilities.

The asistance dog school we have raised a copuple of puppies for has the puppy raisers spay/neuter all but selected puppies at 4-6 months.

While I have read some of the arguments in favor of later spay/neuter, I have to question how important it is with so many dogs being done early and doing fine.  I think the average pet owner is better off getting their dogs spay/neutered at 6 months.  It avoids all the hassle of going through the females season and stops may behavior problems in th emales before they start.

You are right to trust the policies of the service dog schools.  Nobody else that you can trust has as much experience or the same goal of a long, active life.