I have no cite, but the fill-in vet that we had when Doc had his knee surgery told me that certain breeds used to be used in battle, and the dogs were safer without tails or long ears so that the enemy didn’t have much to grab ahold of, and the tradition just kinda kept going.
Whip tail dogs that are left in kennels often do end up with “kennel-tail”, and it doesn’t heal well. But, breeds like the Aussie, schipperke, and my own breed, the Pyrenean Shepherd, have fuzzy tails. If you’ve ever compared the turning styles of those breeds with tails intact, you’d see how much those dogs really do use the tail as a rudder when running.
One way to find un-cropped/docked dogs is to look for “natural ears and tails” - and yes, establish a relationship with the breeder and see if you can leave tails on. Cropping is often done later, and the breeder will know better which ones won’t be show prospects anyhow.
Also, look for dogs in the countries where docking/cropping is illegal.
(And, if you are trying to come up with an analogy to docking, remember that it is not just flesh disappearing with that tail - a good 1/4 to 1/3 of the dog’s vertabrae are removed!)
Also, we have a dog that boards every so often, and isn’t used to being in a kennel at night. When we come in in the mornings, there will be blood all over one corner of her kennel, and bloody sores on her tail, and she keeps bashing it and bashing it until we get her outside. She’s so bad about that that every time she comes to board now, I wrap her tail with gauze and tape before she even goes into the kennel for the night.
I can definitely see reasons behind tail docking. Dew claws too, because we’ve had several dogs come in after their dew claws had caught on something (carpet, etc.) and tore.
Ears, on the other hand, I don’t agree with at all, and neither does Doc.
Being interested in Dobermans, I was reading a magazine about them recently that addressed this issue. Some of the breeders feel that, since the cropped ear look is so well known for dobermans, it’s important to keep cropping the ears so that people recognize what kind of dog they are and are careful around them to avoid provoking an attack. Sure, most dobermans are loving dogs, but to a stranger who isn’t careful, they can obviously be quite dangerous.
I don’t like the idea of doing a painful procedure to an animal for cosmetic reasons, but I also don’t like the idea of someone approaching an uncropped doberman and perhaps getting mauled because they didn’t realize they were dealing with such a powerful breed and acted in a way that provoked the animal’s protective instincts.
I really don’t think ear cropping and tail docking are in the same category. When I was a vet tech, the clinic I worked at did tails and dewclaws but not ears. Cropping the tail of a 2 day old puppy goes something like this: vet holds the puppy in one hand and clamps the tail, breaking the vertebrae, then cuts or twists the tail off. The tail may require a stitch, sometimes not. There is almost no blood. It takes about a minute per puppy, and they cry while you’re doing it, but stop crying pretty much as soon as you put them down, and are immediately asleep again. At 2 days, they are just not that conscious. It sounds gross, and it is, but like others have mentioned, with the whip-tailed dogs it is often better. We used to have Weimaraners, and our female would wag her 6" tail so fast that you couldn’t see it. If it had been long, she would definitely have hurt herself. We knew one guy who had seen a weim with an uncut tail rub it raw from wagging it too fast, and actually flinging blood all over the walls. So, 30 seconds of pain at 2 days old just doesn’t seem all that bad to me. I appose tail amputations on adult dogs…that is completely different.
Ear-cropping is done much later (I think around 10 weeks, but I’m not sure). The puppies are conscious, the procedure is much more likely to have complications, and then you have to tape the poor dog’s ears up for weeks until they heal and “stand.” The end result is, in my opinion, ugly.
I don’t buy this argument. Dobies are no more vicious or powerful than any other dog their size, and any dog that is about to attack you will be barking and snarling what not. I don’t think anyone sees a large, barking dog baring his teeth at him and thinks, “Oh, but the ears are floppy, it must be friendly.”
You guys aren’t taking this far enough. It’s not about whether docking is good or not - why breed dogs that have such skinny tails that they need to be cut off so they don’t hurt themselves?
Well, if you have a dog whose tail will be docked anyway, there’s really no reason to breed for any specific type of tail since no-one will know what it would normally be like. Breeders could start taking into account the shape of a dog’s tail along with all other characteristics that go into breeding. However, that would take a long time and effort that some people deem unnecessary.
[breed-speficic semi-hijack]In Finland, tail-docking was made illegal in 1996 (ear-cropping has been banned since the 70’s). The breeders of many traditionally-docked breeds protested wildly against tail-docking, saying that it would alter the traditional look of the breed dramatically and it would be too hard to get conformity. It’s true that the first long-tailed dogs of traditionally-docked breeds did look “odd” to the eye, because the tail could be of any shape, size and form whatsoever. Now, however, when the oldest un-docked dogs are 10 years old already, it’s not such a big deal anymore. And certainly if something like this came up to me, I would look at a lot of other things besides the tail to determine whether I would watch myself…
However, the breeders were right in a way, about the conformity. Even now, 10 years later, some breeds still have a very, very large variation in tails because updating the breed standard takes a long time and breeders have very different opinions on what should be strived for. Take Schnauzers, for example. This is what’s most commonly regarded as the “ideal” these days. However,this is also perfectly acceptable, as are this and this.(All dogs pictured from the same kennel, where mine came from too.)[/hijack]
I have a docked tail/floppy eared boxer. I’ve never even seen a boxer with a tail. But, as for the ears, the docked boxer ears are horrid looking. Boxer faces are so expressive, and the ears add to that. I can’t imagine mine without floppy ears.
I am actually horrified that this is considered to be no big deal.
Course I also find dog shows completely disgusting and the idea that they have to be bred in litter after litter in order to get a ‘show quality’ dog sickening.
There is absolutely no reason that it’s necessary to treat these animals like inanimate objects designed solely to decorate a person’s lifestyle.
These people need cars, not dogs.
I actually mystified on how a grown adult with their complete mental faculties could have a problem with such a procedure.
Tails can be stepped on by livestock as well.
Are you bullshitting me?
You actually don’t understand why someone would have a problem with crushing the bones of and then ripping an appendage off of a defenseless animal for purely aesthetic reasons?
It seems like textbook cruelty to me.
So docking tails is for the dogs’ own good, huh? To protect them from hurting their whippy long tails?
And yet somehow tails don’t need to be docked on Afghan hounds.
Plenty of posters have given good examples of why, in certain cases, tail docking is not done purely for aesthetics.
Wow?! Really? I’ve shown dogs and known dog show people for years and I didn’t realize we were so “disgusting”. The last sentence I quoted would be hilarious if it wasn’t so uninformed.
Which dog breeds you show?
I used to show Shiba Inus. I still help out a friend and handle some of her dogs sometimes, but I don’t show my own anymore.
I knew someone who bred cars. It’s not worth it. Just getting them to mate is a full-time job. You need full hearing protection from all the loud honking; you also need to rent a crane just to get them in position.
And that “new car smell” that everyone goes goo-goo over? It’s the smell that comes in once the real new car smell goes away. I bet if more people smelled that, fewer people would want to buy a new car.
Okay, I may have exaggerated a teensy bit there.
<continued semi-hijack> Wow, auRa, some of those schnauzer tails are UGLY (IMHO). The one that looks like an otterhound tail isn’t bad, though. But those curly tails and semi-curled tails… ewwww.</hijack>
catsix, I dunno. I don’t think tail docking is much worse than piercing babies’ ears. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with dog shows per se, though I question how good they are for the breeds involved.
I like purebred dogs. I like mixed breed dogs for different reasons.
And here I was thinking to myself how cool the Schnauzer tails looked…
My old Pyr Shep was docked. She gave every sign that it bothered her at the dock site for her whole life - she would lick and gnaw at it until the stump got raw.
Another thing to think about - dogs use their tails in communication - why remove that?