Sorry for bombarding you with questions and long posts but here is another one:

I  have always spayed my females at 6 months old but  found that they grew long legs after that, and were generally narrower, than their intact litter mates although that was not a big deal to me.

Then my last dog struggled with bilateral ACL ruptures and researching it I came across studies that suggest that ACLs more often occur in spayed dogs than intact dogs (one study found that out of 48 females with bilateral tears, only 2 were intact). Nothing written in stone but the medical community is looking into this.

It is a known fact that the growth plates don't close until 8-10 months of age (?) and that removing hormons via spaying at 6 months or earlier will affect bone growth; the bones become narrower and longer, although bone density does not seem to ge affected. HOWEVER: angulation, corelation of joints and bones etc may change, possibly making some dogs more prone to joint injuries.

So my plan this time around is, and every breeder I have talked to agrees, to wait until she is done growing, at least 12 months, even if that means that she may have to go through one heat. My vet (a new guy at the clinic) however disagrees because of the cancer risk goes up as you wait (reduced by 95% before the first heat, and 80% after the first heat).

What kind of annoyed me is that he said that because she is not going to be shown it doesn't matter if her conformation changes and that she will be taller and leggier. I mean, the breeder took great care in producing these wonderful, functional dogs - why not let Tessa grow up to look like she is intended to look? Do I have to settle for less because we are not in the show ring? More importantly, what if the changed conformation will result in more wear and tear on her joints? I thought there was a reason why their bodies look the way they look. Or am I missing something?

It's not that I don't want to spay her, just want to give her an additional 6 months to finish growing. BTW Tessa's breeder said that her dogs go into heat very late, at around 15 months.

Any thoughts?

Here is a link to an earlier thread on the forum about spay/neuter.

www.shorthairs.net/GSPForum/tabid/220/forumid/2/tpage/1/view/topic/postid/1566/Default.aspx#1566

I still have mixed feelings about this subject as far as spaying.  Halo is my intact bitch and I kept her intact because I show her in the breed ring.  The issue I have is I have no plans to breed her.  She is a late bloomer and didn't come into season until she was almost 2 years old.  She has had several heat cycles since, but only every 9 - 10 months and she usually has a bit of a hard time (yeast infections, false pregnancies, etc.). So, those kinds of things are something to think about too in your decision.

That said, if the breeder told you they are slower coming into season, I think I would wait until she is older (1 year) before I would spay.  Gives her a little more growing room, and if she happens to come in season before you have her spayed, well you would just have to watch her and deal with it for 3 weeks.  I know what they say about mammary cancer, but you are talking statistics over a large population with those numbers, and your bitch is only one dot somewhere on that statistical curve (just to put it into mathematical perspective).  In the end analysis, I feel that spaying and neutering should wait until they are at least adults, but that is just my opinion, and I have only just recently come to that opinion (I also have my oldest bitch who I spayed at 6 mos at the vets advice.).

I know this is a wishy washy kind of answer, but this is one of those topics where the jury is still out on the true benefits or problems of spay/neuter at 6 mos.  By the way I would never spay or neuter a dog before 6 mos.

I would be interested to really find out if their is a direct correlation if you wait to spay. Her's was a freak accident jumping off the back of the couch, but your post has made me curious about the injury. Whether she was more susceptible or not interests me, and would sway my outlook on spaying in general.

Luckily for me Laila is a calm dog.  She was a sloth in her last life.  We had a very calm summer due to her.  There where weeks in the crate and leash only walking and then a slow return to her normal activities.  She had her surgery in late June and is now running around and very happy.  I have to give her chondriton and glucosamine daily, but she seems to not have a problem with it.  She will still pick it up at times and not run on it, but when hse is really interested in something or playing hard there is no limp at all.  I can tell she favors it out of memory not feeling.  I have an awesome vet who made her restrictions heavy but it was worth the time to have her pain free. 

I have some picks of the incision and here loopy on pain killers.