A friend of mine at grooming college reckons her Yorkie has a docked tail, and this is something only done on dogs that are shown. Seems somewhat unlikely to me - certainly the pet Yorkies I have groomed seem to have normal length tails, but I admit I've never inspected the ones at shows. Is this true, or is it just some tale someone might have made up to explain why her dog has a short tail??

Yes they are customarily docked.

Well you learn something new everyday on here. It never even occurred to me that they were docked :-)

It's only in the past few years that I've started seeing Yorkies with tails. Very much in line with seeing other breeds undocked all of a sudden.

I've not seen any tailed Yorkies in the ring. 
All the ones with tails that I've trimmed have always been pet bred, weighed about 20lb and had floppy ears and wooly coats to complete the picture!:rolleyes:  Invariably their owners have been told by the person selling them that it is illegal to dock these days!  They have been shocked when I told them that it's not the case.

Gosh, I never would have realised! I'll have to have a closer look at the ones I see at the show on Sunday - like Val says, I have only ever seen pet ones with full tails up close! :-)

You'd know if you saw one, they seem to have tails bigger than the dog sometimes :)