Experienses spaying a bitch-key-hole

Here in Norway it is not as common to spay and neuter dogs, it requires health issues to do so, as we dont have a problem with stray homeless dogs here. Cats though... But luckily the vets here are very good! It's just that stupid law...
But fortunately more and more clinics will do it to prevent health issues in bitches. SO, to my question:

1. At what age is it common? Here they recommend between 1 and 2 heat.
2. Do bitches calm down at all, like males often do?
3. And how did your staffy girl cope after surgery?
4. It is extremely expensive here, and there is one supermodern clinic here that use key-hole tecnique, which is much less painful for the dog, is it common in the US? Have someone experienced both key-hole and the usual method? It costs 1400 dollars (about 9000 kroner) to use key-hole here, but we think its worth it, if its better for our girl

We haven't completely desided on anything yet, but I'd like to hear your experienses

Daisy is a rescue so was spayed just after I adopted her, she was fine with the surgery, was a bit out of it when I brought her home but pretty much back to normal the next day! It's best to wait until they've had a couple of seasons and matured a bit and always do it at least 10 weeks after a season has finished. Don't think it calms them down at all

Here in the UK we have a huge problem with the amount of dogs in rescue centres, many are spayed as a matter of course before they are rehomed to stop the issues from escalating even further.

Rocky was neutered before we rehomed him from a rescue centre.

I see, yeah, I have had to dogs neutered myself, but this is my first bitch

My girl was a stray that has been used heavily to breed from, but had lots of hormonal problems/phantom pregnancies and the rescue centre didn't think that she was rehomeable - so didn't want to spay her. They finally did when I adopted her and it sorted all of her hormonal imbalances out, which in turn did change her behaviour in a positive way - but I also adopted her after a long spell in kennels so this would have effected the behaviour too. The pro neutering brigade will tell you (and I have read)that spaying before a first season can eliminate pyometras, cancers of the breast/reproductive organs and can raise life expectancy by 18 months as compared to unspayed dogs and can keep the hormonally neutral personality traits. However, there are also lots of cons to this as well, I generally like dogs to wait until 18 months and level out hormonally and personality wise too, but there is a wealth of information in books and online that can help you to make your decision.

Bug felt very sorry for herself and was on full rest for a week, but generally recovered quite quickly.