It's "any type or combination of type" (referring to gundogs and terriers already on the list)

Maybe I wasnt specific enough but my sentence was talking about Flynn being a crossbreed gundog, of 2 HPR types specifically, and thats the vein I meant it in.

I know that crossing a Dobermann with a boxer and docking it's tail wouldnt make it legal.

So Crossbreeds aren't exempt but working mixed gundog/terrier/spaniel are exempted. I thought that non working cross breeds of any combination of breeds aren't exempted so your first statement confused me.

What breed do you have?

I don't agree with docking, dogs need their tails for balance and for communication.

Sorry but that sort of comment makes me laugh every time i read it.

I have dogs with naturally short tails - from around 3 inches long, through proper round bob and even inverted (ie missing the last vetebrae)

None of these dogs have ever had a problem with either balance or communication!

Well you can laugh (not sure why!) but it's a scientific fact that dogs communicate with their tails. My dog has a short tail too, doesn't mean she doesn't wag it, or let other dogs know what she's thinking by using it.

Slovakian Pointer.

And there is a lot of more to communication than just tails. I disagree that a docked tail is uncommunicative anyway.

Going slightly OT but interesting that you say that because I have a border collie with a stump of a tail.

When you watch her run/corner/jump etc., you might not think it affects her. But then compare her agility/balance with those of a border collie with a tail and you can see a massive difference. I also really think it affects her when she is swimming - she has to be really careful when she tries to turn in the water or she capsizes, not something that happens to my other dogs.

Now I don't know her history, its possible that she had a full tail and lost it in an accident - perhaps having had one it is more difficult to adjust than never having one - I don't know.

But I do know other people with previously docked breeds who are now starting to say that the dogs coming through with tails are a lot more agile.

You've opened up a can of worms here! The subject has been debated over and over again on many different forums.

I have two undocked Weimaraners, born before the ban, because I wanted them that way. When I was looking for my first Weimaraner 6 years ago I was totally against docking and there was no way I was going to have a docked dog. Finding an undocked Weim back then was very hard and I didn't want to go to a backyard breeder who didn't dock because they couldn't be bothered to pay the vet's fees.

I asked a few reputable breeders if they would leave the tail on one puppy for me and some of the answers I got made me feel like a criminal! Eventually I found one good breeder brave enough to do it but she got alot of grief from other breeders.

Luckily Rossi's breeder came recommended and would have preferred to leave all of the tails on but only two out of eight owners wanted their puppies undocked.

I am not totally against docking now I know more about the kind of work HPR's do, but I am against it for pet dogs who will never do a day's work in their life!

Breeders can get around the docking ban by saying that the puppies are going to be worked.

Mine have no tail to wag, the muscles around the stump because it's natural cause the "tail" if there is one at all, to move in a totally different way - for example my girl with a "bob" tail moves it up and down. This isn't always the case and some natural short tails will move their entire back ends in an exaggerated wag, but they don't have the ability to put their tails, up, down between their legs or straight out.

The dogs tail is only a very small part of the way in which dogs communicate with each other. Much more communication is done with body stance, eye contact, ear positioning and vocalisation.

Okies, I guess you must work them then? Why aren't English pointers fully docked if Slovakian ones are?

I know that thanks, (well read and watched Turid Rugaas fan here ) it's a lot less communicative than a full one, and the tail is a very obvious one when you're looking at another dog from afar.