What do they "sense" with these whiskers exactly?

I caught two of my sons cutting my GSDs whiskers off when they were little. When asked why they said I had remarked that she was getting old as her whiskers were going grey. So they`d cut them off to stop her getting old.

Got to love kids sometimes Claire what a cute story..

When I used to show Marius, I was advised to trim his whiskers, but never did. I much prefer seeing dogs with their whiskers and to me, if a judge would knock you down the placings for having proper whiskers, then I'd rather go home with my natural looking dog!

Never did him any harm I have to say - he rarely went home without a placing.

Why would you trim a dogs whiskers? I don't see how it's cruel to be honest,I just don't see the point in it. When I lived with my parents someone (nobody would admit it) kept cutting Ruperts ear tassles off. Drove me mad!

Why would anyone want to trim them anyway? seems like a bit of an odd and pointless thing to do.

Well my Jessie is a whisker trimmer, she regularly trims the other dogs whiskers & they never object or even try to get away, she did try it on the cat-but only once-Ms Jaq left her with a claw mark across her nose

Just to clarify: I'm not stating it is cruel, I'm just repeating what *some* folk stated in the article I read.

Bit on the fence myself. Dex's whiskers are absurdly long... On the other hand, if it caused him discomfort to trim them OR if he uses them, would hate to interfere!

i was alwasy told the wiskers were so they could check if a gap was big enough to get through - so if the wiskers touch the sides gap is to small so dont go. i could be so wrong

the chances of phoebe finding a whole big enough to even get in to get stuck are pretty slim but ild never cut them off. they dont bother me atall. although she dosnt like me playing with them. My dads yorkies go to a groomers and she cuts them off with the clippers and they dont seam to mind

I thought that was cats but not sure I believe it ... if any of mne tried that they'd get very stuck - their bodies are way bigger than their whiskers suggest!

I have cut split ends off whiskers and seen whiskers trimmed on other dogs and teh dogs certainly don't care or appear bothered.

I like the way on some of my dogs - they have half white, half black whiskers