Cropping and Docking

[AllAmericanPUP]

no no no and more no.

I dont agree with docking or cropping, or de-clawing.

i only agree with removing dew claws if it is absolutely necessary.
but i have a 3 yr old great pyrenees/lab who has very dangly back dew claws and she has never had a problem with them.
all of my dogs have their dew claws.

Humankind is forever changing what should not be changed, because human kind is ignorant, egotistcal and wants everything to conform to their liking, therefore people crop and dock their dogs because they like the look

no offense to anyone. :wink: JMO

also, people say hunting/working breeds need a docked tail.

yet golden retrievers, labs, chesapeke bay retrievers, english pointers, and lots of other breeds hunt/retriever and go through brush and what not and dont get hurt....??
but yet people feed the need to dock a german short hair pointer and other breeds because they will get hurt...?? :-?

[DogPaddle]

Interstingly, golden retrievers, labs, chesapeke bay retrievers, english pointers have more furred, protected tails than german short hair pointers. Don't know if that might have anything to do with the docking rationale but I thought I'd mention it.

[Seijun]

I don't know anything about chesapeke bay retrievers, but labs and goldens are for retrieving, not running at top speed through dense thickets and possibly barbed fences.

English pointers are long distance runners, designed more for large wide open spaces, hence the non-docked tails. German Short-haired pointers are made for working in smaller fielded/forested areas that are more likely to be heavily weeded, have a lot of briars, and have a lot more old and/or hidded barbed fences.

I saw a picture of an explosives detective dog, a german shepherd of some kind, with a docked tail. At first I thought this was strange, but it does make sense to me now. Suppose the dog found an explosive, turned around, and its tail hit the explosive blowing everyone up? Sounds to me like a pretty good reason to dock..

~Seij

[Rowie-the-Pooh]

Seijun, you made some great points! I'm not a really big fan of cropping, actually I'd rather not do it at all. But I always think of the Salukis here in the ME who have cropped ears (not standing, just cropped with rounded tips). I thought it was horrible until this boy whos father raised and bred Salukis brought in a video of a Saluki hunting a gazelle. With the cropped ears, the dog was able to hunt much better because the ears weren't in the way and they didn't get torn...etc. So when it comes to a working dog, I guess I can accept the fact that a dog is going to be cropped/docked. But I think when you just own a pet, cropping and docking isn't very necessary.

Did you know horses used to be docked? :o It was banned, though.

[Horsefeathers!]

Seijun napisał(a):

I saw a picture of an explosives detective dog, a german shepherd of some kind, with a docked tail. At first I thought this was strange, but it does make sense to me now. Suppose the dog found an explosive, turned around, and its tail hit the explosive blowing everyone up? Sounds to me like a pretty good reason to dock..

~Seij

I dunno if I believe that. I'm not a militant anything, and I'm certainly no expert, but at the same time, that makes about as much sense to me as cutting of their feet just because there's an off chance that the dog may step on an explosive, or cutting off their noses because they might touch it while sniffing. I'm sure they had a valid reason for docking the GSD (I reckon), but I just can't wrap my brain around that particular reasoning.

[Seijun]

Why else then would they dock the tail of an explosive detection dog's tail then? I know it sound weird, but it is plausible. I know on the cops shows if the drug dog find the drugs it turns around, sits, and WAGS ITS TAIL. If it was a bomb behind the dog, there is serious risk the dog could set it off with its tail. Dogs are taught to find that stuff through possitive reinforcement. When they do their job, they're happy because they know they are going to get rewarded. Happiness=wagging tail. Guess I need to find someone with an explosives detection dog and ask 'em..

~Seij

[Queen Bitch]

Seijun, are you even considering that the dog may have had its tail docked, or amputated for that manner, for a different reason altogether? Perhaps due to some medical condition or a freak accident that had nothing to do with the line of work? Any of the pictures I have have seen of explosives dogs, they have all had thier tails unless they were Dobes or another docked breed. Detection dogs, depending on thier task are all trained to alert in different ways. Some like drug dogs and the FDA's Beagle Brigade, are trained to just sit as an alert. Some dogs are trained to just bark as an alert, etc. I just doubt that the dog you saw had it's tail docked due to it's line of work. Out of the many canidates for detection work, not all make the grade to work. Not to mention that many dogs used for detection work are actually rescues. ( Generally dogs that had too much drive to just be "pets".)

[Seijun]

Hey, it was only a suggestion. I wasn't rying to say I was 100% sure that's why his tail was docked, I was only guessing :D

~Seij

[JackieMaya]

I didn't read the whole thread, but personally, I think all dogs should be left natural, the way they were born (besides neutering and spaying, of course). I love to see dogs who normally would have cropped ears and/or tail with natural ones. It adds more character to them! I think docking ears and tails is a barbaric practice.