@kasadit Ear-cropping not done here in Britain, for those interested - would be illegal. Docking of tails: It's pretty much illegal in Britain now unless you can prove the dog is a working one and not many vets will be left soon who will do it (it's illegal for anyone else to do it). Kennel Club has just had to change all its rules and breed standards also due to public/RSPCA outcry over sick and unhealthy malformed "pedigree" dogs in shows including breeds which have to use AI or caesarian section to reproduce, or cannot breathe/walk properly, suffer from eye and skin problems due to skin folds etc., so many breeds as we know them will change dramatically (but only back to the less extreme versions from which they developed). I assume this will make international showing scene a bit more difficult?
@febewang It's banned here in Australia too, thank goodness.
In my mind chopping off a dog's ears or tail because "it could get hurt" would be like chopping the little finger or toes off babies for the same reason. Without anesthetic, too! Yikes...
@exegetica I never understood, either, if you could breed such extreme mutations in dogs, why you wouldn't breed out the tail if it bothered you or if it got in the way of the dog's use? It's blatantly (the docking), in the show ring, for appearance, to make the dog's body look stockier and show off hind quarters.
@exegetica I actually support preventative tail docking for working dogs and I have a pretty hard-line stance against things like ear cropping, routine tail docking and declawing. Working dogs have intense, demanding lives and they are universally high-energy personalities. Bad, bad candidates for wound healing. They're inevitably going to screw up their tails at some point in their careers and the healing process is always a huge, expensive, painful hassle for human and dog alike.
Only shitty, old-school doctors hack tails off without anesthetic, even for two day old pups.
@kasadit It was done historically to allow the dog to serve its working purpose better. The tail could get stuck in some brush, or an assailant could grab hold of it. The ears, same thing about an attacker grabbing hold of floppier ears. I've heard they pick up sounds better when cropped, but these days both boil down to official purebred standards or owner preference (I would never cut off a dog's tail or ears).
@romantic2013 I understand it more for hunting game than an assailant. A bear or boar could grab hold of ears/tails but its the same principle. I wouldn't be surprised if hunting animals was quite similar to hunting criminals historically.
@kasadit I have an 8 month old Great Dane, and we chose not to crop the ears/tail. I feel like it's cruel - it's got to hurt. Her father had a docked tail because he split it. I do worry about that because good God, that tail hurts when it hits you and she has managed to knock many things over with it.
@jaleena he split his tail? ouch, how did he manage that?
yah my aunt had a great danes when I was a child and they did tend to knock things over and 'whip' people but thats part of having a giant dog like a Great Dane. My aunt's danes didn't have cropped ears either and I remember my little cousin was a menice and pulled on them all the time but danes are such gentle and laid back dogs that they didn't even care! (also they were well trained by my aunt but still..)
@kasadit for those reading, its actually very important to train kids how to treat dogs properly, they may pull on the wrong dogs ear one day and lose a finger or more
@kasadit It's a barbaric practice. I have a Weimer. The only place in the world to dock the tail of weimers is the US - and it is known to be part of their spine now. At the dog park people are always asking me why it is not cropped...so I repeat the first line of this paragraph.
