How old is the dog and how much do you trust your vet?  We have a black lab that tore her ACL when she was 6 months old.  The first vet wanted to send us to the vet school at IA State for surgery.  I never liked that vet and he was basically picked out of the phone book by my husband.  I pushed for a 2nd opinon and got to our current vet in Casselton, ND.  They still wanted to do the surgery but was considerably cheaper and I was very comfortable with the vet and the reputation.  Her ACL was repaired at just over 1 year of age and she is now 8 1/2 years old and ready for phesant opener in a couple of weeks.  We are very vigilant about her weight and keeping her in shape plus preventative treatments.  She gets Glucosimine/MSM every day plus a Adequan shot every week during hunting season.  I guess in a very round about way what I'm saying is if the dog is young I would look at doing the surgery because it is very hard to replace a good dog and we all know that.  If the dog is older I would look at alternative methods of treatment if any are possible before surgery.