Hi there, just a quick question. I saw an advert for standard poodles and it said that they had been docked. I thought that poodles were meant to have tails, am I right or do poodles often get docked?

Poodles are a traditionally docked breed. :)

Really? I didn't know that. I suppose I'm so used to seeing the ones at shows with the pom pom tails. Would a docked poodle be able to win at a show then?

The ones at the shows with the pompom tails are docked. About half the tail length is removed. The pompom is at the end of the dock. :) An undocked poodle looks like this.

That looks like that static Pledge thing you use to dust with!  ;)   Well those of us who dust!

my friend has an undocked toy poodle puppy, she looks quite sweet with a tail - she uses it to mop up her wee after her

We've had poodles since I've been a little girl and in the past they were always docked.  Although it's not something we would have wished for our dogs, we weren't able to ask that they not be docked as it was already done by the time we went to see any puppies.  Our latest little girl is three years old and we're delighted that docking seems to be a thing of the past and she has a beautiful tail.  Her breeder shows very successfully and I think nowadays the majority of poodles are undocked.

I would question a breeder nowadays as to why they've had the tails docked.

Sorry Earl but if you've ever looked in the showring you will see that 99.9% (or there abouts) are all docked.  You would be lucky to see one undocked poodle at a show.  There were a couple in miniatures poodles at crufts last year but they were foreign dogs that were brought over for the show.  Most, although not all, show people are dreading the long tails when docking is banned.

I've never seen an undocked poodle, whether show or pet - docking is still very much the norm.

I've only ever seen them in Sweden, where the pom pom on the tail is a thing of the past -like in the photo you found. It would just look too stupid to have one at the end of a long tail -imagine what it would look like at the end of a long Standard Poodle tail LOL.

Apparently undocked show poodles have an elongated pompom and a shorter shave tail root to try more to resemble the traditional docked appearance.

(Incidentally, when I typed Poodle into Google UK, the third entry on the list was this one ... :D )

:D :D :D

Well I don't know if it could even be called a pom pom, it's certainly not a ball shape LOL. When I trained as a dog groomer, way back when, one of the first questions I was asked was what grade   I had in art in school. The groomer's reasoning was "if you can DRAW a ball, you can usually clip one as well!"

One thing that I have wondered for a few years already -remember the white Standard Poodle that won Crufts a few years ago? Well he was from Norway, where docking has been banned for many years now. Was he docked or not?? Was it just clever grooming? I could never tell!
Topscore Contradiction

mmm see what you mean! He's stunning whether he was or not  - what a beauty.

I remember that! It was never confirmed or denied whether or not his tail was natural or docked and was a major talking-point at the time. :)

The only undocked Poodles that I've seen have been pet bred, not show stock, and had all the other problems that you would expect from ignorant breeding too. :(

Just because any breed is NOT docked does NOT mean it has been bred by an ignorant, disreputable breeder.  Many ARE now keeping tails on dogs especially by request of owners and come from show stock!

It would be grossly unfair to equate the non docking of traditionally docked dogs to ignorant breeding. 

I was relating MY experience tohme, not the world in general. :) 
And ALL the tailed Poodles that I trimmed had narrow ear canals, upright shoulders, were slab sided, had skin problems, poor coats and were of unsound temperament, and ALL bred from different local pet dogs. :)
It is still only the odd one or two undocked dogs in each breed that are seen at shows.  I've still to see a tailed Cocker that is a reasonable example of its breed but I live in hope. :)

Exactly, it is important to stress that personal observations do not include a global view ;)

Did not a tailed cocker or two win at Crufts the other year, in fact there are now numerous tailed versions of differing breeds doing very well at shows and even being made into champions.

Excellent news for the dogs. :D

Yes 2 Yankees from Sweden won, undocked. :)

It's all any of us can do tohme. :) 
And I think it was a beautiful foreign American Cocker who did well at Crufts.  Tailed quality dogs are far from being common at shows, although there is always the odd exception to every rule. :)

I didn't realise that people cut varying lengths off the tails- I thought that a weimeraner was as long as it got in terms of docking. Does anybody know why the poodle gets a longer tail than say a cocker or a doberman, what function did it serve?

I understand that Vizslas only have a third of the tail removed. Presumably that's the bit that gets damaged the most, so there was no need to dock the tail shorter. Weimaraners have two-thirds removed - the standard calls for the tail to be left long enough to cover the scrotum in dogs and the vulva in bitches. (Incidentally, this is also the law for lambs.)

If you look at the Poodle's coat it is very woolly.  when they were originally worked as were the sheep they were docked so that a working dog living outside didn't get too messy etc. or that's what I was led to believe.  It's tail was slightly longer so that when they were in the water they could be seen clearly by the pom pom at the end of the tail.  Also the clip where the pom poms are left on the body was for a reason keeping the certain areas warmer, it wasn't just a funny style :d

I'm dreading my breed having tails they look awful in Europe because they are all so different.  This is why I have kept two natural short tailed dogs!

when they were in the water they could be seen clearly by the pom pom at the end of the tail.  Also the clip where the pom poms are left on the body was for a reason keeping the certain areas warmer, it wasn't just a funny style
Exactly right.  The legs were clipped so that they didn't hold water but the chest/ribs were left longer to protect the major organs in the rib cage and the poms on the loin were over the kidneys, to give them protection too.  They often tied a coloured ribbon onto the tail pom so that they could differentiate the dogs from a distance. :)

I see them all the time back home, but I guess it's because docking in most EU countries is against the law nowadays...... most of the show Poodles are undocked.