Wow thanks for everyone's response! I c this can be a hot topic lol My GSDs are inside house dogs and only go outside supervised. I do have a fenced yard but since I live in a big city, I want to make sure they do not try to escape or that they don't bark too long at the neighbor's dog, etc.
These are the articles I've read:
http://www.naiaonline.org/pdfs/LongT...uterInDogs.pdf
This next study I read was done on rottweilers so I obviously did not want to generalize this to all large breeds that's why I wanted to ask GSD owners of their experiences/thoughts ( the link was already posted here).
I want to ask a vet about my dog's particular risks for any of these diseases but most vets offer the spay/neuter automatically and indiscriminately and don't really offer any details. It seems that, just like everything else ( even in humans), you may fix one health problem but may cause others lol
Oh, Also, my female is already over 2 yrs old..i read spaying to decrease chances of mammary tumors is most effective if done before her first heat cycle...so would it even matter at this point to spay only for that reason?