I figured it was her coming “into her own” but wondered if her being intact had any connection as well??  When we do go to the beach alone (with no intention of meeting up with the other GS) I always make it a point to make sure she is on her own and playing with me because she does not do well with the juvenile dogs… as you know they have a totally different mindset.  When it’s just us, she pays no mind to other dogs or people.  She is totally focused on me and playing fetch, which is how it should be anyway.  I will bring the swim toy because she loves fetching in the water, but it’s either the ball or the swim toy, it’s never both.  I should have mentioned that in my prior post.  Oh and they are my toys, not hers!! 🙂 😉  One thing I learned when I first started listening to Mike’s video…and learning about his technique. This is my 6th GS so I’m pretty familiar with their wiring but always like to learn as much as I can about dog behavior, as I find it fascinating.  The more educated a handler/owner is, the better success the human and dog have together.

I do have one other comment … while doing my research on why not to spay I came across this study.  It’s not recent (2009) but it caught my eye…  This is my second female (usually I have males) and the last female I had I was much younger and did not do my due diligence on researching the effects of spaying and just took the vets’s advice and had my GS spayed after her first heat and did not think twice about my decision (of course that was when I was child-free too).  We usually waited with our males.  But once I became more knowledgeable I started to question why should do I have to desex my dog? What are the benefits?

Anyway don’t want to get into too many details but our last GS, who was a male.  He was the only male that survived out four males that were stillborn in the liter.  Only the females survived.  Right there should have been warnings flags for me that something genetically was wrong with the males but I was so determined to get my “moose male”.  Once puppy hood ended, we also found out that he had an heart issue as well, along with a host of allergies.   It was one problem after another with him. We had him fixed at a clinic (which I normally never do).  They did an absolute horrendous, hack job (his testicles filled up with blood like the size of grapefruits…it was horrible for him and our family), he was not right after the surgery … seemed completely off, became unpredictable (it was a heartbreaking experience with Bacchus, something that I had never experienced as a person who grew up with GS her entire life ….  Mike knows the entire story and to this day I am still heartbroken over his loss).

To get back to my concern about why I want to keep our female intact is partly because of this article I read several months ago, it’s keeps nagging at me.  I asked my vet about it but she did not have an answer and was of no help.   There was a study done with MWD in Korea where half the females (GS) were intact and the other half were not … They found that the females that were not intact anymore became moire reactive? Do you know of any other studies that support this?  I looked and looked and can’t seem to find anymore on GS becoming more reactive once desexed.

Here is the article:   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sophia-yin/does-spaying-or-neutering_b_272030.html  What’s your thought on this?

The last thing I want is for our female’s temperament to change because of her not being intact.  She so compliant now and knows “her place” in our family, although with my 6 y.o. that is a work in progress, as she does not listen to him yet … which gets him quite annoyed … LOL   But with have two young children who bring friend’s over (of course when they come over she is either crated depending upon on the child, some children know Ziya and feel comfortable with her not being crated, under my control at all times, while others just show fear and Ziya senses it, so I crate her for the safety of everyone.

Have you ever experienced female GS becoming more reactive once desexed?  It does make sense, as a woman myself, the hormones that we produce are needed to balance us out on a daily basis.  Think about it, when woman goes through menopause, some go on hormone therapy to regulate their system and this is a gradual process.  With a female one day she is producing all these hormones and the next day, she is not because her ovaries and uterus are now gone … I think if we were to get a full out hysterectomy our hormones along with our physical and mental state would change too without some kind of meds to balance us out … I know where talking humans vs. dogs and woman cycles are much different to a female cycle but the premise is still the same?

Would love to know your thoughts on that.. Thanks so much.. 🙂  (sorry for the length of my post)