oh kate. i dont know. no idea how old he was.

i,ve seen them in pictures and still prefer them docked

i just think the breed looks a lot better docked
but thats just my personal choice

it wouldn,t stop me getting a undocked one though if one came up for rescue

I have seen an undocked rottie personaly i dont think that they look right with their tails. JMO

I have seen the programme you have mentioned and the dog in question was just a young(er) puppy about 4-5 months old. However at that age it would have been extremely painful to try and take the tail off, and the dog would have suffered for it, tails are normally docked within a hours/days after the pups birth.

Jenny, I work at a Rottie kennel. I have met Rotties with tails, I have also met many Rotties Without tails.

A Rottie with the correct tail type and set is wonderful, a real treat to watch. Its almost like an otter tail, a Labs tail. But, put a bad tail set and type of tail onto a good Rottie and it destroys everything!! Believe me!! I know, I've seen it!!

Now, I have docked tails, myself. Note, only with the elastic band method, and even then, you can ONLY dock when the pup is 2-3 days old, otherwise the dog is too old and it will be to painful. It is cruel to dock anytime after that period!! Also note I felt terrible afterwards!! I will NEVER dock any of my puppies, Rottie or Vallhund!!

Vallhunds are often born without tails!! It is not "unnatural" to see a Vall without a tail!!

For me it is the quality of the dog, yes I would prefer a dog with a tail!! But if the better dog was docked I would choose him!! If the undocked dog had a bad character while the docked one has the better character, I would choose the docked. And its vice versa!!

Personally I hate cropping, and I believe it is right to ban cropping, and yes if banning docking is going to happen I have no problem. I've seen many dogs from breeds that are custumaily cropped, and they look better to me!

When I reserve my Rottie pup I will ask if its possibe for her tail to be left on, but I'm not going to worry about it! As its not the tail that is the most important thing for me!

Now, I'm made you mad. I didn't want to do that.

I believe Rotties like dobes were traditionally used as guard dogs and so were docked ( and dobes cropped) to look sharper -also there was less for attackers to get hold of and so the dog was harder to grab hold of -Personally I do prefer the look of a docked one -they have such cute waggle butts but whether this is just because it is what I am used to seeing , I don't know ??
-if I saw more undocked dobes/ rotties etc then it would become the norm :smt102

i dont think its natural for a dog to have its tail docked. Even if the "better" dog had a docked tail.. i would rather wait for the "better" un docked dog.
Since no one knows why they dock their tails.. there really is no reason to do it therefore. Perhaps if more of these dogs were undocked.. u wouldnt think it looked so strange.

Like.. if u saw a labrador with a docked tail, you'd think it was weird. But if it became a craze and everyone did it.. would u then think it was weird to keep the tail on?

yes murphy i was told that is why they were docked too

i had no choice with harley,he was docked when we got him
but i wouldn,t really care if he had been undocked,he is still my teddy bear :smt049

i don,t think u will ever stop docking,if it is what people prefer then they will get it done

isnt it illegal now in uk anyway? i thought it was

i don,t know jenny but my s-i-l got a patterdale terrier not so long ago and he was docked