Sorry that should not be ---tell which is which in the showring---- but which of them had a tail and has been docked Kath

How bizarre! So you can dock a working dogs tail, but then you won't be able to show where people have to pay to get in?????

Who on earth thought that one up!

I'm pro choice and that's all I've got to say, we've been through this debate so many times before - reasons for docking, not for docking, why some dogs are docked and others aren't...........

So here's the previous docking thread in case anyones interested!
http://www.dogweb.co.uk/talkdogs/tai...hlight=docking

From an undocked Dobie owner - they look just as good with'em. What makes a Dobie a Dobie is at the front end!!!!

I appreciate your view; I have however been told that a dobes tail can be raised, straight or turned in between his/her legs and I apprecaite my dog from all angles.

I personally prefer my dogs to have docked tails, I'm assured by my breeder as Kath has said that they don't suffer when their tails are docked.

I have been ripped into by people who don't have docked breeds before for saying that I want my Dobes docked. One of my main reasons for this is that a dobes tail, however it hangs, is a whip and it does cause welts on adults legs and childrens faces. My mother in law had an undocked dobe and we couldn't let the very happy dog mingle with children due to it's tails whip like effect.

I'm very sad that docking looks like it's going to be banned

i dont own a docked breed but know that a lot of labs that i have come across have "lethal" tails-but they are not docked

dont think a labradors tail can be classed as a whip like tail

no i didnt say it was whip like julie,but never the less they too also really hurt when wagging/hitting u at the same time ...

Gonna say this then duck out.

Switzerland has had a docking ban since the early '90s and the Dobies and the other "normally" docked breeds are still going strong. In German it's been in force for some years now and people haven't whined, pouted and said "well we won't breed now cause we ain't allowed to dock". One of last year's Rottie Sieger shows had some 500 dogs entered, doesn't sound like a dying breed to me. The Scandanivan countries have had docking bans in law for years and there doesn't seem to be any problem there.

Since last fall it is illegal to show a docked dog in Switzerland and at our last international show some 35 dogs were disqualified purely for that reason. In Finland, Sweden, and Norway it's the same.

From what I see over here the traditionally docked breeds won't die out, and you really do get used to it. I am so used to seeing undocked dogs that when I look at American or British sites those dogs look odd to me. Contrary to the Pro-dockers belief the vets don't get a flood of dogs with injured tails every day. I've asked our vet (the main one in our area) about it and he had last year alone precicely 9 tail related accidents, (the practice that is, 3 vets working together) compare that to the 634 cases of grass seeds stuck in eyes. Maybe we should start preventitive eye amputation "just in case".

I've worked in a Rottie and Dobie kennel part time, and I've helped dock. And anyone who tries to tell me that docking is painless should come and listen to the babies being docked (if its the sicissor method) or if it's the rubber band method they should listen and watch them a day to 3 days after the band being applied. I know what I saw, and no, sorry, it wasn't painless.

As far as breeds dying out all that will happen is that the breeders who really love the breed for itself and not for any cosmetic reason will be the breeders that are left. Something that maybe isn't such a bad thing.

Oh yes, and by the way I have a docked breed. My Vallhund is in full possession of his tail, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

When I came to Germany for a vacation in 2003, (I live here now) after being in US for so long the first Boxer I saw here had all its ears and its full tail, first time Id seen a Boxer with a tail in donkeys years, I think I was in shock!!!

I work at a local rescue shelter and last year a GSD type dog came in (apparantly its not a GSD but one of the Russian breeds) and the tail was docked, a Dobie came in (I believe Spanish owners originally and they brought the dog with them when they came....then dumped it at the shelter)....you should see the disapproving looks from the people that work at the shelter. Tail docking is definately looked down on over here.

That is exactly the reaction in Switzerland And it's one I can understand, though when I look at a docked dog it's not the first thing i think about.