Stupid docking excuses

TooManyDogs

I'm just back from a walk with my lot and my spaniel cross has come home with shredded ears for the second time in a week from going into ditches and heavy undergrowth. It made me think of the injuries she's gotten from hunting in the ditches and it's always been to her ears, and her ears aren't even full spaniel size. Never once in her 12 years has she gotten an injury to her tail.

So it really makes me cross when people insist that spaniels working ditches/undergrowth need their tails docked but not their ears, simply has to be the biggest bullsh*t excuse going :mad:

(btw, not suggesting for a second that spaniels ears should be docked either)

JustRoss23

This has gone through a serious debate last week. i am for docking that's all i can say. you are clearly not. that's fine but as of it is legal provided it is done in the early stage as in the first 3 days of birth. so i dont see the point of another bitching/putting down docking when at the end of the day its legal and fine:D.

fatmammycat

TooManyDogs wrote: »

I'm just back from a walk with my lot and my spaniel cross has come home with shredded ears for the second time in a week from going into ditches and heavy undergrowth. It made me think of the injuries she's gotten from hunting in the ditches and it's always been to her ears, and her ears aren't even full spaniel size. Never once in her 12 years has she gotten an injury to her tail.

So it really makes me cross when people insist that spaniels working ditches/undergrowth need their tails docked but not their ears, simply has to be the biggest bullsh*t excuse going :mad:

(btw, not suggesting for a second that spaniels ears should be docked either)

I know, it's ridiculous. My dog has a tail like those crazy fur stoles ladies used to wear back in the day, and being a particularly outdoorsy doog, he's always getting it tangled up and coming home with burrs and briars and everything else that snags tails. The 'just because' argument is the dullest too, because it's not an argument but a trite refusal to consider the true welfare of pups.

kylith

The stupidest excuse I've come across was an ad that claimed the dam had bitten all the tails off at birth. Really? One, maybe, but seven? Seven tails bitten off puppies by their own mother?! Really? I find it very hard to believe.

DBB

JustRoss23 wrote: »

This has gone through a serious debate last week. i am for docking that's all i can say. you are clearly not. that's fine but as of it is legal provided it is done in the early stage as in the first 3 days of birth. so i dont see the point of another bitching/putting down docking when at the end of the day its legal and fine:D.

Mod note: can people stop reporting the above quoted post please. User JustRoss23 has now been permanently banned from this forum.
Thanks,
DBB

Edited to add: please don't reply to this post on thread!

Edited again: To clarify, the user was not banned for the post above. There was a lot of stuff going on in the background that users will not be aware of which caused the ban.
Thanks,
DBB

Tranceypoo

I'd love to know the wisdom behind docking my dogs tail, she's a collie x (probably with a boxer), but she looks all collie, just no tail, looks so wrong and she really wags her little stumpy bit when she's happy, mind you she seems to compensate with her 'emotional ears' as we call them.

When we win the lottery we might go to that bionic vet fella and get her a fancy bionic tail.

ISDW

Not all dogs that don't have full tails will have been docked though, we had a rescue litter born here and one of the pups only had half a tail, no idea at all why he was born like that, was a collie/husky cross we think.

TooManyDogs

Tranceypoo wrote: »

I'd love to know the wisdom behind docking my dogs tail, she's a collie x (probably with a boxer), but she looks all collie, just no tail, looks so wrong and she really wags her little stumpy bit when she's happy, mind you she seems to compensate with her 'emotional ears' as we call them.

You don't know what her mother looked like do you? I had a foster dog who was a tall terrier x, she came in pregnant and all the pups born looked like terrier x too, I took them to the vet at 2 days old cos she had kennel cough and the vet offered to dock the pups. After I got over my shock I said no. I later saw photos of those 'terrier x' pups when they were a year old, they looked like terrier x husky or x GSD or something!!! Big dogs with enormous standy up ears, can't imagine what they'd have looked like docked :eek:

ISDW wrote: »

Not all dogs that don't have full tails will have been docked though, we had a rescue litter born here and one of the pups only had half a tail, no idea at all why he was born like that, was a collie/husky cross we think.

Yeah I've seen that a couple of times too with terriers, 2 of a litter of 6 born with stumpy tails. I wonder if it's a thing that goes down blood lines??

ISDW

TooManyDogs wrote: »

Yeah I've seen that a couple of times too with terriers, 2 of a litter of 6 born with stumpy tails. I wonder if it's a thing that goes down blood lines??

Would be interesting to see how often it happens, and whether there is a prevalence in certain breeds etc. One of the pups was born with its organs outside its body, so was pts immediately

TooManyDogs

ISDW wrote: »

One of the pups was born with its organs outside its body, so was pts immediately

Poor baby It's so emotional having newborn pups, I've lost a couple too, not sure what the medical term is but to a bacterial infection passed from mother to pup as they're being born, we call it 'fading puppy syndrom'

fatmammycat

ISDW wrote: »

Not all dogs that don't have full tails will have been docked though, we had a rescue litter born here and one of the pups only had half a tail, no idea at all why he was born like that, was a collie/husky cross we think.

That can happen with Siamese cats a lot, just odd stumpy tails or with curious kinks in them.

Tranceypoo

ISDW wrote: »

Would be interesting to see how often it happens, and whether there is a prevalence in certain breeds etc. One of the pups was born with its organs outside its body, so was pts immediately

Oh my goodness, that sounds quite horrific, poor pup how sad.

Toomanydogs, no haven't a clue what her mother looked like, she was dumped by some railway tracks and taken in by a nice lady and then handed over to a local rescue so no chance of finding out either, I've always thought I'd love to see the parents of both my 2 rescues but of course that's never going to happen.

Is there a way to tell if it's docked or if it's been born like that? I assumed it was docked, it's stumpy and the hair has grown over it

SillyMangoX

A friend if mine has a springer with a half tail, they presumed it was docked, they got her from the pound at a year old, but why would they only dock the very bottom of the tail? From looking at what other people said here I'd say she might have just been born with it!

DBB

SillyMangoX wrote: »

A friend if mine has a springer with a half tail, they presumed it was docked, they got her from the pound at a year old, but why would they only dock the very bottom of the tail? From looking at what other people said here I'd say she might have just been born with it!

There are supposed "rules of thumb" around how much of the tail should come off.. I don't know where these rules came from, maybe someone else can enlighten me, but with the pointers, you're *meant* to leave about one third of the tail. With spaniels, it's supposed to be pretty short, shorter than a third anyway, but you do see them with their tails docked "too long". This surely contradicts the supposed purpose of docking them in the first place?!

I think, as a general rule, with litters of mutts, if the mother is docked, there's a pretty strong chance the pups will be too.

jimf

Tranceypoo wrote: »

Oh my goodness, that sounds quite horrific, poor pup how sad.

Toomanydogs, no haven't a clue what her mother looked like, she was dumped by some railway tracks and taken in by a nice lady and then handed over to a local rescue so no chance of finding out either, I've always thought I'd love to see the parents of both my 2 rescues but of course that's never going to happen.

Is there a way to tell if it's docked or if it's been born like that? I assumed it was docked, it's stumpy and the hair has grown over it

if you look very closely the taper end of the tail will noticeably be missing and the hair will not be perfect in that area

Knine

ISDW wrote: »

Would be interesting to see how often it happens, and whether there is a prevalence in certain breeds etc. One of the pups was born with its organs outside its body, so was pts immediately

Yes some terrier breeds can have shorter tails, often because of a kink in them. This becomes a real problem if the kink is not in the tail and in the dogs back vertabrae instead, if that makes sense.

jimf

its usually field trial spaniels you see with longer docked tails reason im led to believe is so that judges can easily see their tail action from a distance when competing in trials