whilst clipping Jake, our bomb detection dog at work yesturday, it got me thinking about docking, jake is an ess and has a long dock, sally our drug detection dog also an ess has a short dock, charlie and buddy ess and essxgwp respectively have short docks but this is due to their tails being amputed through injury, bosh and freya our gsps have 3/4 length tails, benji (now rehomed) working cocker has a long dock what is the 'normal' length for these breeds and other breeds also, is it preferable that they have long or short docks?
also sammi (ess), and her pups(sprockers) are not docked but this is down to sammis breeder not docking any of their dogs and sammis pup were intended to be docked but were born xmas eve so there was no vet available to dock so their tails so they were left undocked
tanya

Hi Tanya,
I don't really know what the "correct" length for certain breeds is but I think I read somewhere that Springers should be left with some white at the end. Personally I think the longer the better but I know Springers are prone to damage. My Bess (an ESS) has white at the end of her's and it's about 4 inches long. I've just measured it for you and she wondered what on earth I was up to. :D :D

Kath.

Hi Tanya

We have 2 GSP's, Bronnie is just over a year old and her tail is too short, it's only about 3 - 4 inches long. We have been told by various breeders that we could have shown her because of her looks etc, but she would fail immediately because of her tail.

Ellis however, although only 9 weeks old his tail is supposed to be the correct length, which I beleive is 3/4's of it's original length.

Juliet

I have docked many tails in my time (when it was legal to do it) I always like a longer tail what I class as a field trial tail, I removed just over 1/3rd of the tail, just enough to stop the natural curve, any shorter is unnecessary.

just out of curiosity whistleblower...how did you doc the tails?? are they cut off? :)

always wondered because someone told me that if you tie a piece if string to the tail it will drop off, i never knew wether to believe them

You mean "banding" - I think it is tight elasic which is used, (I've never seen it done, so I'm not sure) to cut off circulation. The tail then eventually "dies". It needs to be done properly, though, by a vet who knows just where on the joints to band and how tight it should be. Like cutting, it has to be done by a vet.

Vets today mainly use a rubber ring that fits over the tail, the same as you see used on lambs. As the tail grows blood flow stops and the end of the tail falls off.You will often find lambs tails in fields with the ring still attached.I do not want to go into detail of how I and many other people during that time docked tails as I think many members of this forum would not understand, but what I would say is some puppies never even made a murmur.

I think I'm correct in saying that show springers have two thirds of their tails docked whereas working springers have one third docked.

Hi Whistleblower,

Do farmers dock lamb's tails today? Just curious, I had no idea this was done.

Stacey

Not meaning to comment on docking as such, but just in case some inexperienced idiots are reading this and fancy having a go themselves to save money - wasn't there a case not so long ago of some rotties being taken into care after attempts had been made to dock them with an elastic band? They for some reason didn't do it correctly and the dogs did really suffer

If pups are to be docked, they should be done by someone very competent.

Lindsay

Yes lambs tails are still banded and its with the backing of the RSPCA.Gillian

Wey yer B****r as they say in my neck of the woods.(Geordie Land).
Dawn R.

Dawn lived in Newcastle for !8 months so understood you completely :D Gillian

OK so now a vet has to dock but the vets governing body discourages them from docking, so who does it? Our vet will only dock a working dog not for showing. Confusing.

i forgot to put on my first post that all the rottis baring reiser and gucci, have a stump which i see on most rottis so im asuming this is 'normal' reiser and gucci have no evidence of a tail at all but both these dogs were breed by the same person (reiser is guccis dad,)
its interesting though that different breeds have different length docks,
I do tend to 'sit-on-the-fence' when it comes to the docking debate if a dog from a 'working' breed is a pet dog then i dont see the need to dock but a springers tail when wet is leathal :) as is a boxer with a tail, but if the dog is intended to be worked then yes the dog should be docked as they do cause damage to their tails so docking as a pup causes less stress then when the tail needs amputating later in life,

I have 5 springers that are being trained as gun dogs, they all have docked tails about one third has been taken off and 3 have white tips the other 2 have solid colour.
The way they charge around in hedges etc I am so glad they are docked.
Sandie.

The council of docked breeds will give details of a vet that docks - you have to be a member, though. Docking and banding can only be done legally by vets.

Just make sure they dont go too short one of my old dogs tail was docked and was short , she sat down and because it was so short it dident bend but moved to the left and came out the socket and went into her bowl . the vet said it had been docked too short and thats why it happened

Lambs tails are banded to help stop them getting dirty and infected with maggots which can literally eat them alive. I've helped a neighbour of mine with his sheep and it's not a pretty site. Luckily he's only had a couple infected and that was even after they'd been banded.

I agree in general that only working and not showdogs should be docked, but with such as the Springer even a pet can get it's tail damaged in undergrowth. It would help if they didn't wag the flippin' thing all the time. :D :D

Kath

I work in Newcastle Dawn - best place on God's earth!

:)

Eeeh, there'll be trouble at'mill wi that kinda talk cos ahm fro' Yorkshire an' it's a reet grand place t' live tha knows!

Kath. (From Yorkshire and reet proud of it.) :D

can we keep this on topic please

The Rottie litter all had to be pts or died due to their injuries and infection from the docking done it was claimed with a stanley knife, all 3 involved were sent to prison for upto 3mths I think.

In my breed there should be no sign of a tail left once docked, which seems to be a problem now as there was only 1 vet who did the job for most in the breed and he's now retired. We are starting to see more puppies with excess muscle tissue left or even in some cases bone which is not the desired look for the breed. For me it's not a problem as I don't dock or remove dewclaws and show them this way and more breeders are starting to give it serious thought due to the difficulties of getting a decent dock on their puppies.

Sorry Admin. :)

Kath.

Ears get fly strike and can get diseased too on farm animals. .. so how come if it's okay to band a lamb's tails it's not okay to ...

oh, never mind :-(

Stacey