Has anyone ever heard of a Springer with a naturally docked tail??

We have a puppy born with a docked tail.A GSP breeder has never heard of this before in a Springer! could he possibly be used at stud in the future, due to the present political climate & the threat of Docking becoming outlawed . if this is something he will throw then he will be of great value to the working side of the breed which is the most important thing for me.

anyone with any ideas about this
many thanks in advance!

vicky :)

Vicky, have you considered contacting the Council of Docked Breeds? They may be interested and might be able to tell you how often it happens :-)

I have heard of when I was a child and according to the work done by Bruce Cattnach and the human geno team there is a gene that is responsible for the 'self docked' puppies. The only way to be sure if he has the gene or just a defect affecting his tail would be to have him tested just not sure if they are testing anything other than the boxers at present.

In Schips there have been puppies born with varying tail lenghts too. If as this would suggest the gene is recessive then the dog will pass that gene on to any puppies but unless there are 2 genes, ie one from each parent, present the puppies will have normal tails. To produce puppies which are self docking I would put half brother and sister together rather than a father daughter mating - well that's how I do it with my Parrots lol

Thanks to everyone for all the replies so far .

the idea of putting 1/2 bro. to sis makes sense - the only problem is.....mum & dad were 1/2 bro. & sis on the fathers side ! his line seems to throw such quiet house dogs that work brilliantly who are very dedicated to their owners ( thats why we risked the close mating ) seeing as this is the case - what would you recomend ?? it wouldn't be wise to put Docker to a 1/2 sis in this case would it ?

sorry i seem so uneducated on this ! i am try to learn as much as i can very quickly !

thanks Leigh for the idea of speaking with the C.O.D.B - i cant believe i didn't think of that one ! do you think they will be at Crufts??

got my friends Brittany staying over night - must go & peel her off the walls now she has finished try to get my Viz pregnant !!!

vicky :)

I have Spanish Water Dogs. The litter I had in October of last year was to a self docked sire, the dam was born with tail, her father is self docked, her litter brothers (2) were born with short tails. She had 6 in her litter and 3 were born with short tails.

I have a bitch at home which I'm hoping to have a litter from maybe next year and she was born with a short tail, but with some length, and the dog I want to use has a short natural bob. I am not sure whether there wd. be problems with this. Australian Shepherd people say that they've come across no prob's as yet putting naturally short tails to each other.

YES: in a nutshell!!
Friend of mine had a litter of working ESS & couldn't believe her eyes when the male pup came out ready docked!!!! Trouble was, it was rather too short for a ESS so not been a big success. None of his off spring in his 1st litter had it though.

I have a Dobe with a tail that is about the length of a docked Viszla - none of her siblings or offspring have had one like it though.

Christine