Hal used to use his hind dew claws to grip on to things ... I remember a very worriesome incident when Mike and Holly were out riding, and I was following on foot with Hal on the lead. They decided to go for a gallop without letting me know and I didn't have a tight enough grip on the lead and Hal broke away and chased them, convinced that they were going to come to some harm and jumped on to the back legs of Holly's pony to try and stop it, and was using his hind leg dew claws to get a purchase. How that pony didn't send him into the next world I have no idea, he was such a sweetheart, he just slowed up and stopped and then tried to do the same to my husband's horse, who lashed out at him with his back legs, thankfully missed, but caught the trunk of an oak tree! There was no doubt at all that he was using his hind dew claws to try and get a grip to stop the animal.

We have indeed, more is the very great pity, but I prefer to leave bits on my dogs alone unless they start to cause problems. During Hal's 10 years of life, he never had a problem with his double hind dew claws, and none of Eddie's dogs ever did - she never had them removed, and she told me that she had never had trouble with any of her dogs whether they be her wc's, GSDs, Mals or Huskys. Holly's chihuahua has his rear dewclaws and the only problem he has with them is that the nail grows and curls round and Holly has to trim these, which I can hardly think is a big deal at all.

Isaac had his rear dew claws removed while he was under GA for another routine op. Our vet couldn't wait for an opportunity to remove them. It was an accident waiting to happen.

We would cover them whenever he ran in harness while he still had them. His litter sister came into rescue with rear dew claws too. She was very reluctant to run in harness. Always held back and never enjoyed the experience. Since she has had them removed she flies like a little pocket rocket round the trail.

I would never take the risk with a sled dog. Seen some pretty nasty injuries with dogs catching their front ones to on the trail.

Take care.

Seoniad. xxx

Yes I have a daughter, who has behavioural and learning difficulties, plus scoliosis and campylodactyly (bird-claw like little fingers). She has been badly bullied all through her school days and into the workplace. It is only now that she is working for the NHS that the bullying has stopped. I too was bullied at school, but that's a different story, but just stating facts so you know that I understand all about bullying. Chopping off bits from our children's bodies just to prevent them from being bullied, is not to my mind a good enough reason. Facial disfigurements requiring cosmetic surgery are of course a completely different matter, or the removal of, eg, unsightly ganglia or warts. Of course I would do anything to protect my child, but I never mollycoddled her, when she came back from school crying because she had been bullied and I would talk her through what had happened and depending on what had been done or said to her, give her the appropriate advice as to what to do. When it was serious, I would discuss with the headmaster and we would sort it out. You cannot wrap your childre in cottonwool and to do so is not helping them. My daughter now, despite all her problems, is feisty, independent, takes no **** from anyone including her parents, she is still a nightmare and will exasperate us to our dying days, but the way we brought her up was clearly the correct way. Plenty of love and support, but teaching her to stand up to bullies and never let the b******s get you down.

Hmmm ... I see where you are coming from with regard to sled dogs - I have not closely examined how the harnesses fit on to sled dogs, but I can see that if there are any bits near the area of the rear dew claws it could be a problem because I know, like ears, they do bleed like the very devil and if during a race you didn't notice that a dog was bleeding heavily, obviously this could be very serious.

My Hal did not run in harness though, and I preferred him to keep his dilly dolly danglies ... all of 'em

I know of a Staff that had double dew claw on her back feet, I've not seen her for a while but I have this crappy phone pic,



Tbh with her I do think that they will probally need removing, I am against the removal of front few claws because of the affects it can have on the dogs, but if the back ones have a problem I think that its up to the owners, I must say though I've not seen research on them, but AFAIK theres no problems there, and the owner shouldn't feel guilty one way or the other on having them removed, as that will be a desicion based on the owner, and what the vet advisies.

All I will say is that IMHO if you can PREVENT harm coming to your children most of us will do so where possible. And I am sorry but I fail to understand your logic of finding it unacceptable to remove extra digits but on the other hand perfectly acceptable to remove facial disfigurements, ganglia or warts?

You may not find an extra digit disfiguring but many people would.

I do not consider the removal of such things as "molly coddling" myself.

There are some things over which we have no control, there are some things which we can have some influence.

It is, IMHO, down to the personal choice of individuals what they do about these issues. Some may choose to leave well alone, some may choose to intervene.

Neither position is "the right one" and neither position should be pilloried by others.

This is not cosmetic surgery in order to further a career, but to protect children from harm.

To say people who do such things are "horrible" is at best insensitive and at worst harmful. Many parents carry enough guilt about these things, they hardly need others to throw stones!

Hello Gnasher

It has nothing to do with the position of the harness. I was unwilling to risk my boy's rear dew claws locking on the trail and him ripping them open/off. He has a fantastic working ethic and I wanted to keep it that way and not let him have a negative painful experience. There is a world of difference between a dog running alongside a bike say, and a focused sled dog on the trail.

Hope Tai and Ben are doing ok.

Take good care.

Seoniad.

yip id expect u to see my point tho
u missed the point..and actually sorry,but thats funny..you really dont know about harnesses do u

re Hal and using his rear dew claws on a horse...yet again im sure u believe that, but i do not believe this to be the case...im not sure its even physically possible lol.

No of course I don't ... why the mocking laughter? Have I ever claimed to know anything about working sled dogs in harness? I fail to see what is funny about someone not knowing something and asking some questions.

As for last paragraph, again I roll my eyes to the heavens and say how on earth can you possibly say that you don't believe me and that you don't believe it to be possible. I thought you were an ex veterinary nurse ... as such you should know what the purpose of the dew claws was