never seen a mastiff in the forces, guess its down to the scent work side of things,

hence the reason they prefer dogs with a high set tail to be docked, no police man wants his dog swung around,

I think the last thing a criminal is going to do is faff about searching for a tail when faced by a trained police protection dog

Agree absolutely think they would be more concerned about the front end. To a criminal a dogs tail is a tail wether it be high set or low set. I think they would know by grabbing a dog by its tail in these circumstances the dog is not going to turn around and lick them.

Sorry was referring to DP Danish Pastry not you lol!
Becky

often dogs are used for crowd control, so it wouldnt have to be the person the dog had hold of, but it will not matter what I say your all clued up, so the stance your all taking is the dogs used in the police force, army and so on have no need to be docked?

I don't believe any dog needs to be docked but I certainly can't see a need for security dogs to be docked no.
Becky

Becky have you ever handled dogs used for police type work? there are many sinarios that can and do happen, sadly some dogs are killed, badly injured each year working for police and army,

I don't doubt that, but I doubt very much they have died as a result of a tail injury. To be honest the only dogs I've heard of die of tail injuries are puppies that have been docked!
Becky

Well one of my dogs was regullally used for crowd control as his handler in the breed ring worked security & his own bitch was too sharp to use for football matches so he used my dog who looked & sounded the part without the bite. If anyone had suggested docking him I'd have been mad but as all the dogs were GSDs none were docked.