OMG the breeder must be devistated, o.k he mabey should have left tails on but to take the litter and de sex then rehome is a bit much if the pups were health and well cared for. guess we will see things like that in GB very soon,

Completely agree its pathetic. My Shady is a docked Rottie x GSD and should never have been docked, but then looking at the people who bred the poor girl it doesn't surprise me .
I would have liked all my dog not had part ripped off first, but there were reasons why I took her the main one being I couldn't leave her there to end up like thier dogs chucked in a scrap yard as a guard dog by another irresposible owner and probaly bred and bred from.
At least with me she is safe, warm, spayed and loved very much.

Trying to take an objective view on the practicality of the docking ban and summing up what I've read here and elsewhere, I've come up with three anomalies which may constitute loopholes that allow some docking and/or showing of docked dogs to continue -

1/ The Bill asks only for evidence that the dog is likely to be used for work -

"there has been produced
to the veterinary surgeon such evidence as the appropriate national authority
may by regulations require for the purpose of showing that the dog is likely to
be used for work"

As has already been pointed out, it's not possible to predict before 5 days old, which pups in a litter will be chosen for work, so likely that whole litters of working bred (and possibly other) dogs will continue to be docked on this pretext.

2/ Entrance fee to shows -

"A person commits an offence if—
(a) he shows a dog at an event to which members of the public are
admitted on payment of a fee,"

Most dog show societies take very little of their income from the gate entrance fee. Exhibitors don't pay and the very few members of the public that don't have a pass for some reason or another are charged just a nominal fee that would hardly be missed if it were dropped altogether.

Obvious exceptions are the shows held in conjunction with agricultural events. The only Championship one I can think of offhand is the Three Counties Agric Show but there are many Open shows and of course the Companion shows.

And of course Crufts. No way could I see the Kennel Club forfeiting their huge revenue from their gate! But it could be that we will see some show societies altering their policy to accommodate legally docked dogs in the showring.

3/ Probably the most significant loophole that I can see is the fact that there seems to be no way of reliably identifying if a dog has been manually docked, once it has reached adulthood.

Some of the customarily docked breeds are known to have natural bobtail pups born in litters but it's not confined to these breeds, it could occur in any breed as a rare gene or even a spontaneous mutation. The bobtail gene in the Corgi, that was used in the Boxer programme has been DNA sequenced so it would be easy enough to prove if a tailless dog carried this particular type of natural dock..... BUT this is not the only bobtail gene in dogs.

From what I can gather, not all manually docked dogs show obvious scarring and not all natural bobtails have the fatty pad on the stump so it seems impossible to be 100% sure if a dog is a docked or not. Not very good foundation for securing a conviction if illegal docking was suspected.

The way round this would be to have natural bobtails identified soon after birth and recorded on registration (some other record for non registered dogs) but as this isn't included in the Welfare Act, it's hardly going to happen.

Ive never been intrested in docked breeds, but i actually didnt know dobermans had tails untill last year....and im 23 years old!! and i didnt know they had ears either!!!

anyway.......... Why do some dogs have there tails docked? is there a purpose for it?

and do the dogs have some say in it?!!

You did not know they had ears?!?

I highly doubt dogs have a say in it, and like it has been mentioned before sometimes docking just done for cosmetic reasons. I have to say, personal preference, a Dobe with a tail does not look right. Thats purely becaue im just not used to seeing it.

I bet in 20 years time, people will look back and be saying "gosh do you remember Dobes without tails? how weird did that look!"

As I pointed out in a post a bit earlier, a dog walker i got chatting to the other day didn't realise Boxers were docked. She honestly thought they were born without tails....

I suspect amongst non-dog owners it's quite a common thought, and also amongst people who have never owned a docked breed, or seen a traditionally docked breed with a tail.

We often get told about Max: "He looks just like a Boxer, except for his tail" and have to tell them that he is a Boxer, just undocked.

eh?! boxers are docked to?! haha oh my god!!! no i did not know that either!!!!

and i love dobermans! there one of my main fav dogs..... but ive never seen one with a tail or ears until last year and then i was like 'thats a cross surely!'

wow! are all dogs born with tails then?! oh my god i sound so stupid, but if you have never seen it before how would you know?!

Can you define the 'ears' part??

Dobermanns either have dropped ears or they are clipped and pinned upright. But the def have ears

Dont worry I thought Jack Russels didn't have tails when my father first brough one. The day I saw one with a tail I knew why they docked them!! they are soooo long!

The Manx cat is the only Animal that comes to mind, born without a tail?

me define the ears part?? i jsut thought they all has sticky up pointy ears......... even on my Nintendo DS the puppy one the boxer has pointy ears..........

yeh a manx cat has no tail, which is odd as they use there tail for balance......... so im not sure what the manx cat does....

Ahh right, yeah ear pinning is Banned in the UK, thats just a US thing.