One of my bitches who is 20 mths old has had 2 season's. 
About 3 wks. prior, during & again after (for about 2 mths) she become's very tetchy, aggressive towards any of my other dogs at this time.
I am planning to have her spayed next mth in the hope this will eradicate this problem.
After speaking with one behavourist though, he advised it would make her worse.
I am hoping that some of you have any similar experience's & can advise.
My opinion is if most of her behaviour issue's are around the time of her season, so by having her spayed it would eradicate most of her behaviour issue's?  She can be slightly unpredicatable (rare occasions though) when not in season around my other dog's but most of this is just a case of handling situations.
Do any of you have similar experiences?

I have experience with 2 very different breeds on this.
First bitch was an Akita so very territorial, guardy and sometimes aggressive to other bitches.  I got her spayed because she started fighting with one of my other bitches and thought it might help.  It did not.  In fact, it did nothing to alter her temprement at all.  She was still the dominant bitch till the day she passed.
My other bitch was 10 yrs old when spayed.  Smallish gundog but still dominant top bitch.  She was very hard on the other bitches, wouldn't play, etc but what a change after getting her spayed.  She is now more relaxed and will actually play with other dogs now.  She's still not 100% sure about the youngest bitch but she is thawing slightly.
I think what I am trying to put forward is it depends on your bitch.  My bitches never got worse or better at season time, they were like this all the time but taking away the hormones seemed to mellow the little one.

Spaying (done at the right time, midway between seasons) usually means a bitch stays in her non-hormonal state of behaviour for the rest of her life. Of course there will always be exceptions, but these are impossible to predict.

We have one bitch (she lives with one dog and 3 other bitches) and she would always get really touchy around her season, during it and for a while afterwards.  This would cause problems with the other bitches at home and it was getting annoying having to keep an eye on her.  We did use homeopathic remedies and also evening primrose oil which helped a lot but after deciding not to have a litter from her we got her spayed....since then we have had harmony in the household again and all of her silly touchy behaviour has stopped.  So for us, yes it worked and if I had a hormonal bitch causing problems again I would spay again.

Thanks for your replies so far.
Staff....its a similar set up here but with 3 (1 already spayed) girls & 1 (neutered) boy.
She has been on Stroppy Bitch since her 1st season at 8 mths & initially it seemed to help a little. I'm not sure anymore if it is worth carrying on using it.  It does become a real strain on everyone constantly watching out for her & obviously affects the other dogs who are all the most lovely temperaments.
Its just the behavourist i spoke to made me doubt myself with getting her spayed.  I do think he didn't actually take the time to really listen to everything i told him & seemed more keen to just point out that researches into spaying doesn't solve it.

Think of it from a behaviourist's point of view, if spaying fixes the issue, you won't pay him any more!!lol.

There is some research to suggest that spaying increases aggression.  The reason suggested is that you are removing the female hormones, and leaving the bitch with the small amount of testosterone produced and present in all bitches.  Female hormones often have a softening effect on behaviour...

There is also some research finding that bitches which remain entire until they are 5/6yo are much more likely to live exceptionally long lives than those spayed younger.  Here is the paper on that one:
http://www.gpmcf.org/respectovaries.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2805875/?tool=pubmed

I've always understood that spaying a bitch removes the 'calming hormone' (oestrogen) so in the case of a dominant aggresive bitch, it is likely the aggression would increase.  However, in the case of a nervous/anxiety-fuelled aggressive bitch, removing the female hormone raises the male hormone testosterone level and the bitch would feel less anxious and needing to prove herself to apparent 'enemies'.

It is important to understand why the bitch is aggressive before making irreversible physical changes.

Good luck :-)

mine went very twitchy, nervy post season-and she was having seasons only 3 months apart with signs of false pregnacy thrown in.   she was more settled after spaying

Made my bitch more aggressive towards the other 2 that are also spayed. They had  had 2 litters each but not this bitch. We tried for over 18 months but in the end we had to rehome her because the fights got more and more aggressive,before she was spay all was fine, my other two girls are fine no difference at all, still lovely fun loving girlies.

My eldest dog (12yr old jack russel cocker cross) was always a bit of a madam towards others other dogs, I held off spaying her for many years because of worry about her becoming more aggressive. In the end she was spayed in 2005 or so because she kept having a lot of phantoms and it was making her poorly.
She chilled out regards other dogs one hell of a lot, she still doesn't like bouncy dogs much but she's content to just give a warning now rather than trying to beat them up.

For dogs you can try them on the suprelorin implant which mimics the effects of castration, does anyone know if there is anything similar for bitches?

For dogs you can try them on the suprelorin implant which mimics the effects of castration, does anyone know if there is anything similar for bitches?

I don't think there is anything available for bitches.  If there is then i would def. try this first.

I've always waited until my bitches were fully mature adults, usually 5 years or older, so don't know if my answer is relevent really. None of mine changed their normal, between season, behaviour. However, it has stopped the tetchy, uptight behaviour of the pre- and post- season times. My top bitch was still my top bitch, and the others just fell into place behind her.

> There is also some research finding that bitches which remain entire until they are 5/6yo are much more likely to live exceptionally long lives than those spayed younger.  Here is the paper on that one:
> http://www.gpmcf.org/respectovaries.html
>
> [url=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2805875/?tool=pubmed" rel=nofollow]http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2805875/?tool=pubmed[/url]

That is interesting as I have my girls spayed at about 7, after they have had their last litter.

the three I have lost have been 13y 7m, 11y, and 14y 10m, and the breed average age I think is 13y 4m.  So 2 out of 3 lived a bit longer than average but not exceptionally so, and one died young for the breed, out like a light, no warning.