hi when a female gets spayed does it usually calm them down

Not necessarily - it's usually age that does that! In fact, if spayed too young they can stay mentally immature for longer ...

I can vouch for that KG :D We had Kayla spayed 3 months after her first season(she was 14 months at the time) and she is still quite puppyish in some ways now at just 3 years! She has matured alot in this last year but I would not get a bitch spayed at that age again, I would wait until she was at least 2.5.
JMO
Emily

Interested to hear other people's opinions.  I always have my bitches spayed before their first season (around 6 1/2 months) as recommended by my vet.  Apparently there are major health benefits for doing this, such as an almost nil chance of mammory cancer in later life. I have never noticed my bitches behaving more immature but then I don't really have anything to compare them to do I.  Even so, I think I would rather have a more immature bitch but save her from dying young of cancer. 

I have here a 13 1/2 year old bitch who goes for 2 to 4 mile walks daily (starting to look a bit gaunt around the face and rear).  She is the only one of mine to have had a mamamry tumour thus far.  she got a tiny lump at 5 years old which I had tested and found to be malignant (so I had her spayed).  She did have a regrowth at 8 1/2 and had a second op to remove the gland (partial mastectomy).

The often quoted statistic is that around half of bitches will develop mammary tumours and of those half will be malignant, or a 1 in four chance, but early surgery is very curative. 

Her daughter wasn't spayed until almost 7 and is tumour fr4ee at 10 1/2 years old.  Granfaughter was spayed last year and is almost 8 years old (no sign of tumours), Great Grandaughter at nearly 6 is nursing her second litter, with no signs of a problem as yet, Great Great Grandaughter is not quite two yet and obviously won't be spayed until her reproductive life is over.

I know no-one in my breed who has had many bitches with mammary tumours despite many never spaying or only spaying in middle age.

There is some evidence that the statistics for the high incidenc of tumours are flawed as they were small sample of bit6ches of thye smae type/breed, which may ahve been more of a factor than their reproductive status.