Contents Stray dogs are a significant problem in large cities. Contraception is an important and useful solution to control the growing population of these dogs. Early‐age neutering is an effective technique for canine population control; however, surgical neutering may not be possible in various situations. GnRH‐agonist implantation has been successful for long‐term reversible contraception in dogs. The efficacy of GnRH‐agonist implantation on long‐term suppression of reproductive performance was observed in male dogs. Eleven 4‐month‐old dogs were implanted with 4.7, 9.4 mg deslorelin or placebo. Sexual behaviour and testicular size were monitored every 2 months. Ejaculates were collected and evaluated at 8, 12, 15, 18, 24, 30, 32, 34 and 36 months of age. Dogs implanted with placebo were found to be healthy and in normal reproductive status. Most dogs (3/4) implanted with 4.7 mg deslorelin showed male sexual behaviour at age of 34 months old. From this group, two dogs had normal semen quality, while semen could not be collected from the other dog, and after castration, no sperm were obtained following epididymal flushing. One dog implanted 4.7 mg deslorelin and four dogs implanted with 9.4 mg deslorelin remained in the non‐pubertal reproductive status at 30–34 months. The delay to puberty was longer in dogs implanted with higher dose of GnRH agonist. Implantation of pre‐pubertal dogs with high doses of GnRH agonist will delay the onset of puberty and may be an effective strategy to reduce the number of unwanted breedings.

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Contents This study aimed to evaluate and compare the ovarian and uterine characteristics along with the ovarian mRNA and protein expression of LHR and FSHR between the pre‐pubertal and adult female cats. The uterine horns and ovaries were collected from pre‐pubertal and adult female cats at their follicular, luteal and interoestrous stages of the oestrous cycle (n = 6/group). Endometrial and myometrial thickness, uterine gland diameter, ovarian weight and type of follicles were analysed. The mRNA and protein expression of LHR and FSHR was analysed by IHC and qPCR, respectively. The ovarian weight of pre‐pubertal cats was significantly lower than that of adult cats. No differences were recorded in the numbers of primordial and primary follicles between the study groups, while adult luteal cats had significantly lower numbers of antral follicles compared to pre‐pubertal cats. No differences in the ovarian expression of FSHR mRNA, LHR protein or mRNA were found between the pre‐pubertal and adult cats, but significantly lower FSHR protein expression was found in pre‐pubertal cats compared to adult luteal cats.