Female Shepherd's - Page 3

Candis
I have never seen a spayed female work well in the SchH Sport,
Of course they do not all go in  for that, but just an observation
Steve

The majority of my GSD's have been female. Males are very laid back and the females are a PITA as a rule.

Ahhh Steve, I see I'm going to have to work to become the exception to your rule about spayed females.

I ended up spaying my girl because I never got into this for breeding purposes, wouldn't be able to properly place a working litter if I had one and because while I love her to death and think she has all the qualities you want to breed, I'm biased.

Also, I spayed her because I found that she got mentally unfocused when she was coming into season.  She'd have less interest in working with me and more interest in checking out the ground where the 'boys' had been recently and she was more inclined to play headgames, such as 'oh, jump?  But but I don't know how to jump today...never mind that I do it perfectly every other day of the year.'

Since spaying her, her focus has come to be 100% on me 100% of the time and I don't have to worry about having to be treated like a second class citizen at a trial if I happen to be trialing her when she's in heat. 

Also, her focus in bitework and her intensity at the helper has increased as well. 

My male and female are in love,and both have their own territory, her is the inside of house ,his is outside,but I do have to say between the 2 she is the boss,and will let him know it .She is 80lbs, he is 110lbs ,its funny to see him go submissive when she gets mad inside or out. I prefer males for looks and size ,but give me a female for protection or work. My girl is just smarter and more intense.

Steve, the two girls I work are both spayed.  I don't think anybody would say it hurt their working ability one bit.   

i always prefer females, they are great strong willed type. yes they can be bitchy. i just like them way better.
the males are too much in your face type. and want to mark everywhere, i cant stand that.
i have one of each.
i too use to live in australia, i was born there.
sydney, nsw
i miss there.
now i am in the good old usa.

You do not see spayed females working over here in Schutzund, Come to think about it i have never heard of even one. But it seems there are where you live
Steve

Steve it actually doesn't surprise me, what you're saying because I suppose that from a certain stand point there is no gain to be had from working a spayed female.

After all I can understand the philosophy of why put time and money into an animal who will never give you any return in terms of breeding/puppy value?

As for a spayed female's working ability, I have not seen any difference in intensity between a spayed and an unaltered female, except for the positive adjustment of her focus being more on me now and less on procreation.

I too can understand why some would not bother with a spayed female.  For me, today, I have no plans to breed.  For me, today, I am doing Schutzhund for fun.    That does not mean in the future I will not consider breeding my dogs, at that point I would get a new female, or male, to compete with first and use for breeding later.  Heck, when I was showing horses many of the top horses competing were geldings, can't use those for breeding either. 

My father always said, sure man is the head of the household, but what good dose it do when female is the neck that turns the head any direction she wants lol hahahaha
 
And I always say so what that the man is head of the household when god give him two heads and only enough blood to use one at a time and we all know which one always rules lol J