HELP!

With my dog, I usually wait at least a week after the spotting is over just to be sure.  By then, my male has no more interest in her.

Heat lasts three weeks but you won't know exactly when she started.  The first week her scent is released.  She IS fertile (they *are* fertile all three weeks). The second week she is the most interested in mating and will match the male in her eagerness.  The third week that wanes -- but she IS still fertile.  So if he's interested in her and she's not so in him, then yes she's likely still fertile. 
 
I've honestly never even heard of keeping a male intact that long -- 6 months is typical.  I can understand a year but I'll never have a male intact longer than absolutely necessary ever again -- I have some pretty firm beliefs that it's a bit mean to leave them intact, and allow them all the 'feelings' and desires that we won't let them act on.  And the longer they are intact, the greater the eventual risk of cancer.  I know everyone's got their opinion, but two years seems rather excessive to me.  The growth plates are closed well before age one and that's truly when any discussion usually centers on.
 
You have to wait for like usually 3 weeks minimum *beyond* heat before you can spay her.  The vets like to wait for the tissues to return to normal (and make sure there is no phantom pregnancy) before they spay -- it reduces the risk of infection. 
 
There are simply no hard and fast rules -- my first dog was a little female who literally got pregnant and DELIVERD pups before she was 6 months old!!  That means she went into first heat around 4 months.  But if you take a poll of human females on when they 'started' you're going to get as many answers as girls you poll.  From 7-8 to 13-15  -- it's a wide range.  And just like we all fluctuate as to 'duration' so will a dog. 
 
However, I would surely have the vet look at her a.s.a.p. after you think the heat is done and he'll probably be able to tell you closer than you might think -- since this has been such a challenge you want to be sure nothing accidentally happened before you realized she WAS in heat.  If the vet is at all in doubt he may want to spay her early. 
 
Good luck -- and oh yeah, a spay IS a total hysterectomy.  Part of the point is to remove the organs that would be likely to get cancer -- why leave her with the negatives and not the positive!! 

At the shelter the spay was just a tube tie.  I helped with a ton of them... he fished out the organ, tied it off, and went for the other... sewed them up.  I would ask to make sure.  I know that was a shelter, but they did act as a regulat vet for some.    ?

What breeders have found about heats is that there is actually only a small window that the bitch is actually ovulating and fertile (eggs are released within  a certain time and they die 5-6 days later). This has to do with the surge or progesterone etc. Basically some bitches would take a dog on any day....but they'd only be fertile for a few...for some bitches this is early on, for others it's near the end. What you can do to be 100% is to take your bitch to be either vaginally swabbed by a knowledgable vet or have a blood draw and progesterone test done. This will tell you if she has already ovulated and is in the "after" period and no longer fertile. It's easier and cheaper....to wait...lol! But it does remove all doubt.
 
This site is a wonderful resource to learn but it is a vet site and has pictures of dissected uterus and graphic pics of a bitch in season...so be warned. The info is invaluable however...
[linkhttp://www.vetmed.lsu.edu/eiltslotus/theriogenology-5361/the_normal_canine.htm]http://www.vetmed.lsu.edu/eiltslotus/theriogenology-5361/the_normal_canine.htm[/link]
 
Spay is an ovariohyseterctomy...ovaries and uterine horns ALL removed.
 
What can help is to bathe the bitch after a season...this removes lingering odors that may still be encouraging to the male.

Once your bitch is spayed, I will weigh in to support waiting 18 months to 24 months for the neuter provided you are able to manage an intact dog.  I prefer the full bone and muscle development you get when male hormones are not removed during the growth periods.
 
I have netuered at 2 years, 6 months (undescended testicle) and 6 years.  No problems with any of those time lines.

At the shelter the spay was just a tube tie. I helped with a ton of them... he fished out the organ, tied it off, and went for the other... sewed them up. I would ask to make sure. I know that was a shelter, but they did act as a regulat vet for some. ?

Amy, with just tying the tubes, the dogs would still go into heat, still bleed, still attract males, and still mate. They just wouldn't be fertile. Some people prefer that their dogs are "whole dogs", but I think they're weirdos.... I'd think a shelter would remove everything... Emma had everything removed. She's never been in heat.

I prefer the full bone and muscle development you get when male hormones are not removed during the growth periods.

 
I've never heard this until I ran across it in another part of the forum recently.
 
I don't have any advice Candace, except never underestimate the determination of a husky!

Thanks everyone for the advice.  Even you Tina.  And trust me I'm not underestimating anyone.  They are a full floor apart and in crates when we are not home.  And unless both of us are home, only one is out of his/her crate at a time.  I feel really mean about this but I would feel worse if IT happened.  Onyx never seemed to match Crusher in wanting to mate.  She seemed rather oblivious to it in fact.  Could that be because it was her first heat?  Or maybe just because I seperated them before she got to this stage?  The other thing is that she didn't bleed much.  Just a few drops her and there.  My Pint left little bingo dabber splotches all over the house when she went into heat.  But I would imagine that dogs, just like women are different right?  Gina, thanks for the tip on bathing her.  I was just commenting to her last night, that she stinks.  My dogs never stink, so that may be why Crusher is still interested.  Oh and Callie, I am positive nothing happened before I noticed.  My dogs are NEVER unsupervised together.  They are crated when we are not home and at night, so unless they have figured out how to re-crate themselves...