should dog tails be docked?

Answer 1

No - it's cruel and is only done to satisfy the owners' over-inflated egos.

Answer 2

This is a controversial question! Breeders believe tails should be docked to maintain the breed standard and stop tail damage, while veterinarians believe that it is a needless act against dogs that genetically designed to have tails. I suppose there is also some irony as breeders will tell you the dogs tails get damaged and therefore should have them removed, while they then breed dogs like pugs that cant breath, Shar peis that have awful skin conditions, Bulldogs that cant give birth by themselves and the list goes on. I believe dogs should have tails to wag to tell you they are happy, tails to tell you they are sad, tails to tell they are scared. I have no doubt other dogs dont need to see a tail to tell what the dog is thinking but humans sure do! A quote from the AVA:' Put simply, tail docking is the needless mutilation of a dog, usually a puppy, and is passionately opposed by most veterinarians in Australia. There is absolutely no scientific basis for continuing with amputation of dogs' tails &endash; indeed there are definite signs that it is cruel and the animals suffer." Hope this helps.

Answer 3

In Sweden they outlawed tail docking and within the first 2 years breeds who would have have tails docked had a 51% increase in tail injuries. Working breeds that work should continue to have tails docked to avoid these injuries. Amputating a tail of an adult dog can in fact lead to death. Tails docked at 2 to 4 days of old have no extensive nerve development thus does not cause serious injury to the dog. Min Pins tails were docked due to rat and mice attacks while face first in holes chasing after other vermin which in turn were attacking their ears. Farmers were forced to amputate tails that were so damaged by attacks that it made more sense to dock the tail when first born to avoid these hazards. The damaged ear area was cut off to the point that farmers realized that by cropping them they had less chance of suffering injuries. Docking is not done just because, but for specific reasons and that is the overall health of the dog. Any working dog, not show but working dog that has history of tail docking should continue to have docking permitted. As for the April 17 thing mentioned. I do not know where you are but there is no law in my state that says you or your vet cannot dock a dogs tail.

Answer 4

No tails should not be docked.
Contrary to popular belief, the puppy has a FULLY developed nervous system and a well developed sense of pain. While the puppy can't tell us that it is in pain, many biological markers show that pain is occurring. There is the same amount of pain in docking a 3 day old puppy's tail as there is in a 3 yr old dog. IF you have a hunting dog, who is actually used for hunting, and it chronically injures its tail while working, then I say good- dock it to prevent further pain and damage. But to dock a tail because it "might" get hurt is silly.
Even adult dogs do not show pain in a way us humans do. Just think of how a female dog acts after bing spayed- They are not hospitalized and kept on IV pain medication for several days and then sent home for strict rest with heavy duty pain killers like a woman who has a hysterectomy. Even though it is the same surgery, they spend less than 24 hours in the hospital & are sent home usually with out pain medication because they are "acting fine" and "do not seem painful". There is no way that there is no pain, yet they are usualy back to their old selves within 24-48 hours.

I don't understand why humans think it is ok to change the look of a dog with tail docking and ear cropping. I think that if breeders want to have a breed with upright ears and a short tail, they should work towards that in their breeding programs (look how far a pug or chihuahua has been bred away from its wild dog ancestors). "Breed standard" is what ever breeders want it to be. If all breeders wanted dobermans to have their natural (beautiful) ears, they can change the "standard" to reflect that.

http://www.wsava.org/Taildock.htm

Answer 5

The docking of dogs tails is a practice which has been carried out for centuries in order to avoid tail damage, for hygiene and other reasons. I think that doing must have been an awful eperience for dogs and I dont see any sense in Dockings dogs tails anymore. So no a dogs tail should not be docked.

Answer 6

No unless it's medically needed.

This fuss by people who like tail docking is like the fuss there was 100 years ago when Britain banned ear cropping of dogs and it died down-so will this.

Deal with it UK breeders-in a month and a bit it will be illegal and a good thing too.

Next thing to go should be removal of dew claws as dogs are meant to have them too.

Americans are barbaric in many ways but still liking to crop the ears of dogs is one of the sickest.

If dogs were meant to have no tails,no dewclaws and trimmed ears they would be born that way.Doing it for show is just a sick fashion.

Answer 7

It's not necessary, but not quite cruel, but they try to do it as humanely as possible. I don't think we need to do it, as the days when tail docking kept dogs tails clean are over. I haved a docked dog (they docked him before I could say anything) and I can tell you, that docked tail isn't doing much, and he communicates just fine with other dogs. And remember, other breeds like the brittany are raised in packs where they need to communicate, yet they have no tail...

Answer 8

I think anyone who has their dogs tail docked should have one finger removed from the hand then they would understand the pain their dog is going through.

Note to the persons who gave the thumbs down to all NO answers I'll bet a pound to a pinch of salt you are Americans

Answer 9

The theory went that certain breeds, like gundogs or working stock needed their tails docked to avoid injury whilst working...apparently it dates back to roman times when only working dogs were docked, other dogs with undocked tails were taxed so to avoid taxes they romans cut off their dogs tails too....personally I have two dogs who are both unfortunately docked...they are both rescued spaniels and came to me that way...I did contact a breeder when I was first looking for a spaniel and requested that if I purchased a dog off him I would not want it to be docked as I would have it as a pet and not work it...he basically said I was weird...well I think its weird to cut of a dogs tail for asthetic reasons....leave the bloody things alone...I am so glad it is being banned for non working dogs....and to hell with the kennel club and its snobbery ways...

Answer 10

it all depends on the dog if it is a working dog like my English springer spaniel then yes but it is just for fun then no it is no cruel for the tail to be dock as a lot of people say it is. it is more cruel for you to work a dog like mine with a long tail because as they go inti the bush they will rip their tail and this will give then more pain than it been dock long live docking.

Answer 11

I'm not going to jump on the "no" bandwagon.

A lot of breeds that are docked are "gun dogs" or hunting dogs. If these dogs are used for what they were originally bred for, then docking should be done. The reason being that these dogs are required to traverse dense brush, and their natural, un-docked tails are thin and whip-like and often become chronically inflamed and damaged, requiring painful treatment and amputation later on. Having to perform the surgery on a damaged tail in an adult dog is a lot more painful and horrible for the dog than doing it when the dog is a puppy. (Puppies are generally docked at less than 10 days old, before their eyes even open.)

If the surgery is done for purely cosmetic reasons, then no, it should not be done. But if the dog is going to do the job it was bred to do, it can save the dog a lot of pain later on.

Some countries where docking is illegal, such as Germany, have special considerations for gun dog / hunting breeds to allow docking.