To not know when to spay dog

[inneedofgooddogideas]

Posting here rather than dog section as keen to get opinions
we have a 4 month old female terrier. We need to decide asap about whether to get her spayed before her first season or to wait. I have heard lots of people advising to wait due to issues, but keen to hear from people who did it before the first season and whether they actually had any issues or not?

it seems there are pros and cons to each side of things health wise, but I am unsure how many of these are more anecdotal than scientific (eg getting them done early locks them into puppy-like behaviour etc). It would be easier for us to get her done sooner but my number 1 priority is her health and well-being.

please share your experiences and opinions!!

@SM4713 Putting nappies on a female dog can increase the risk of pyometra because they can't clean themselves well, I keep my in season dogs in rooms that are wipe clean

Thanks. Off the back of this thread I have called a few different vets to get their opinion as well

I concur with most that Platupys said. There is this study, it has only looked at 35 breeds, but your breed might be within those breeds or similar (if terrier type). Main take away is that for most small breed dogs the consensus is "choice" as in time of spaying didn't make significant difference and only for very few breeds the results were surprising to me. I do find I'm using it qute a lot in day to day practice as it gives people a bit of a more informed decision regarding their dogs :)
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fvets.2020.00388/full

Thanks. I am leaning towards us booking it in for around 6/7 months and if she hasn’t had a season by then she should be fully grown, but if she has a season that’s fine and we will wait until 3 months after

My female dogs were 1 and 3 years old when they were done. To be honest the only reason we did it was because they were humping each other 24/7 otherwise we wouldn’t have.