Spay 10 year old dog?

Hello:

I adopted a Belgian tervuren 10 months ago. She was already
10 years old, so after much consideration, I decided to leave her intact, as I felt at this point spaying would be too much for her; and she was pretty emaciated when I got her.

Anyway, she is extremely healthy now, and my question is,
Is it very hard on the female not to get pregnant.? Have a male, I mean, attach. Does the female get sexually frustrated if no mating occurs. is she depressed? She was not really acting too much different, 7 months ago when she had her heat.
(this was 2 months after I got her, and the first heat she had with me. She was still not totally up to her proper weight). This is her 2nd heat since I got her and she is so much stronger and healthier now. She is really showing signs of wanting to breed. Lots and Lots of flagging. She is quiet and moody, not as much "with it" as normal. So that is my question, basically is it very stressful for her to keep going through this? I have never had an intact dog , so I just do not know a real lot about this--. I look forward to hearing back from you, and I hope you can answer fairly soon. Thank you so much. Diane Widdifield

Thank you for answering my question. I thought I would ask you first. Would you mind answering a further question, regarding my decision of not having her spayed.

Thank you. I just thought another opinion on all I am going to say would help. Thank you so much again.

When I adopted Bailee,
l Thought long and hard, and did a real lot of reading on making this decision to have her spayed or not at this point in her life. I just concluded that at her age it would not be right to take her organs away after she has gone this long with them, and she is so so strong in body, now that I had brought her back to her proper weight and health. But I still was not completely sure I had made the right decision. Then she went into heat, for the first time that I had her. So it was sort of like she made the decision for me, at that point. Also it did seem to make her stronger, like I have read. Believe me, I went back and forth a real lot, on the decision to have her spayed her or not; and I feel I was pretty well informed on the pros and cons.

The blood panel she had done said that she was extremely healthy, the results were that of a much younger dog. The vet said a very healthy immune system should keep any infection from developing. She is German and they do not spay the dogs there as much; and she, of course, knew how hard this decision was on me. But again, it has to be my decision. I have to make the right one for my individual dog. I had also just lost my precious dog from hemangiosarcoma, which as you know happens to dogs more often that have been spayed at a young age. Also I am worried about my currant dogs joints and hips and bones in general getting weak; and incontinence. As my other dog had all of those problems throughout her life (hip dysplasia and weak bones I mean) The question is: do you believe that a very healthy dog like this would have a better chance of Not getting the desease?- Like we have about the same odds of getting certain types of cancers; but we must just sty as healthy as we can. I am just confused now, and it has obviously come up in my mind again, since she is in heat again, whether or not my decision was absolutely the right one. I am also just frightened to death about the procedure and recovery at her age. So if you would give your comments and opinion on all this; I would be really appreciate it. It occupies my mind a lot of the time. I am extremely close to this dog, as I was to my dog that died. I thank you in advance for you time, again, in this matter, and reading my rather long replay.