I have a similar set up with both dogs going in and out to a fenced yard with a dog door. I have lived through 3 heats with my GSD bitch and my male is intact! It’s not really that big of a deal. They quickly learn that they can’t go out together and can’t play and have much more crate time. When she’s out of heat, they just as quickly go back to normal. Dogs are more adaptable than you think.
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Something you could consider is an ovary sparing spay. Your girl retains her hormones, and has zero chance of pregnancy. You could remove the ovaries at a year or two, if you wanted to cut your risk of mammary disease.
It’s not perfect–she’s not DESEXED–and there is still a hormonal surge that your male or others might respond to. But no risk of an oops pregnancy. It would be a way to split the goalposts.
This is such a personal question, but if your answer to “can you prevent a breeding” isn’t “absolutely, yes,” spaying in whole or in part is the answer. Even people who are dedicated to “absolutely, yes” still sometimes have slip ups. So if you’re not 100% bought in to the work that keeps her secure, spay.
(And I say that as someone who has had intact girls for years and years. I have one in heat right now. But it’s sure not for everyone, and reeeeeeaaally not for a dog that has unsupervised outside privileges.)
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I am wary of one major abdominal surgery, I don’t want to do 2 on her. She’s already a spit fire cracker bitch so I’m ok with bidding farewell to the hormones. I’d like to bid farewell to mine 
and I’m already looking forward to the reduced feed bill.
The fence is 6’ but I’m already paranoid about coyotes with a wee one around now.
I think I’ll just lock up the dog door, and stop leash walking in the neighborhood (hadn’t considered that, thank you coth) presuming she does go into heat between now and 1yo. It’s pretty much a given, right?
I’m cautious by nature and diligent and my whole life revolves around my animals so I should be able to handle one heat cycle… right?
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If that’s the only concern, you can go minimally invasive to remove the ovaries. Perhaps to pull the uterus as well.
I don’t find in heat girls to be burdensome, but it’s certainly dependent on lifestyle! It’s pretty much 3-4 weeks with eyeballs on the dog, unless they’re secured. Some do come in that first time at over a year, but the little ones are usually pretty precocious.
No guarantees spaying will reduce your feed bill, though. My last spayed bitch ate more than any intact girl I’ve had, despite being the same breed/weight.
With females, you risk pyometra (uterine infection) if they are not bred… so personally, if I ever have another female, I’m going with an ovary sparing spay.
Her forehand is lovely. Her hindquarters are crap and that one leg-on-the-ground looks crippled. She looks (as do most modern “show” type German Shepherds) like a dog who suffered a birth defect but was not put down out of “kindness.”
I hate that look.
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So am I.
Discussing German Shepherds elsewhere in this thread, someone posted implying a 2009 dog was not “recent.”
LOL to me 2009 is yesterday!
1959, now – that’s a little while ago. 
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A random selection of “Great Da-noodles,” “Great Doodles,” and one “Dalmatian Great Dane” (who I hope is not a mix but a harlequin NOT belonging to an ignoramus) –
I guess @DownYonder would say, that’s just the way she happens to be standing, and if she stood in a normal relaxed fashion, she would look “normal.”
To me the real question is function. How many German Shepherds are making it into their teens with reasonable mobility and without excessive arthritis?
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I wonder why the German Shepherd show people don’t stack them in a normal relaxed stance? Like the Belgian herding breeds, the Collies, and almost every Herding breed or other dog of about the same size as the German Shepherds? The only thing I’ve read about this GSD pose that makes any sort of “sense” to me is that it’s supposed to make the dog look like a Schutzhund about to attack. Which makes no sense for a dog at a show.
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Really depends on the dogs involved and you won’t know until you go through a heat or two. My bitch became a raging lunatic during her heat cycles once we had an intact male in the house and she started fights with the other altered bitches she was going out with. My male … well, he’s young and while he basically stopped eating for two weeks, was otherwise unaffected.
Yep - when you realize 2000 was as far away from today as 1978, well, we’re all getting old … 
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My local shelter just posted a Shar Pei-Pug cross on its Facebook page, and I admit I thought of this thread.
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I explained this above. It is to compare the hock angle.
Please share this source.
The only purpose of a “stack” is to compare one dog to the standard and to each other, which is what a dog show is for.
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Shouldn’t a judge be able to assess leg angles between dogs standing normally? If the stack is influencing the conformation of the breed, should it be used in the show ring?
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Glad to try. BTW I charge $35 an hour for research, no guarantee of success, $50 bonus if research is successful.
Duh, yeah. lol
…you’re claiming something (“The only thing I’ve read about this GSD pose that makes any sort of “sense” to me is that it’s supposed to make the dog look like a Schutzhund about to attack.”) with no ability at all to back up that statement? But you’ll “try” to find a source for something you’re stating…for pay?
Uh, that’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.
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The stack is not influencing the conformation of the breed. It is being used to show off the unique conformation of the breed.
But yes, of course, the judge looks at all the dogs together, and each dog individually, hand stacked, moving, and usually free stacked. They are judging which dog is closest to the standard, so having them all stand the same way in the lineup is useful. It doesn’t need to be shown that way; maybe the GSD people like to show them this way.
So…you’re the one who said it. And I was going to say that just because someone wrote it doesn’t make it true.
Invoking the stack as a way to compare dogs is meaningless. If tomorrow the standard was changed to require GSDs to stack just like the rest of the herding group, every judge would still be comparing dogs based on the same criteria.
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