There’s studies now about how that claw is not function-less, and at high speeds and hard running can contact the ground and provide stability.
It’s got to be all or nothing though, with docking and dew claws. Using a vizsla as an example, if you tell a breeder you want undocked with dew claws, you get pigeon holed into a pup right from the start, without the breeder able to pick your puppy based on your goals. The best breeders will tell you no on undocked with dew claws, for that reason.
I’m surprised a lot of breeders would remove dewclaws now a days.
Growing up it was common for the dewclaws to be removed and when I got my last lab 14 years ago I was surprised to see he had them when I picked him up at 8 weeks. I asked the breeder and she said its a procedure that is not really done anymore as well as ear tattoos. They leave dewclaws and microchip instead of tattoo.
I never had an issue with them being left on of course, I was just surprised as I never saw them growing up. It never caused my lab an issue in his 14 years wandering around the farm. My Swiss also has her front dewclaws and double dewclaws in the hind can happen in the breed and they are always left on as well (unless there is a problem of course).
My Swiss uses her dewclaws like a thumb and uses them to hold bones or toys. Or uses them for evil like grabbing my foot so she can insert it into her mouth to chew ha ha!
As for horse tail docking, there is a crupper that has a buckle attachment that can prevent tails from being swished over lines. I have a pony that has a helicopter tail with flies and rips the reins out of my hands from time to time. I’m sure this attachment would help that a lot but I never purchased one. Yet…
My dog has extra declaws. They have no attachment other than a flap of skin. They are horrendous to constantly trim… My dog thinks nail trimming is torture. Honestly, she may have been happier having them removed, rather than getting them trimmed throughout her life. If you don’t trim them often enough, they start curling and if neglected, they can ingrow. I would rather see them removed, then neglected. Not everyone maintains their animals the way they should and those double declaws can be painful to trim, and ingrow easily.
Declawing cats is vile. Obviously.
I have never owned a breed with a docked tail, and I have never in my 40 years of owning full tailed dogs (including a Bernese Mountain dog with lots of extra tail hair) have ever even thought of closing a door on their tail. I actually have never heard of this as a worry from anyone before. Its a first for me!
I have had some people with herding/working dogs worry about their tails being stepped on by their cattle or other animals though. I could see that happening to a full tailed dog for sure. So I can for sure see docked tails for working dogs. Makes sense to me.
I personally love full tails and droopy ears no matter the breed <3
My last 2 dogs have not been a fan of feet holding or nail trimming (even with all my man handling when they were pups right up to old age), but they will tolerate it. Just. I like shorter nails so I torture my Swiss every 2-3 weeks for a little nail trim to keep them short (have hardwood floors so like to keep slipping to a minimum).
I think every dog I’ve had in my lifetime had dewclaws, and I don’t recall ever having a problem with them. This includes the one puppy I got from a breeder and registered with AKC. All the rest were shelter dogs or similar situations.
Rebecca
It’s not about shutting the tail in the door. It’s generally for field work (sporting dogs) and cart work (working dogs).
And obviously it’s tradition. My breed’s standard requires dewclaws removed and tails docked. Of course it could be changed, but until it is - the breeders who show dogs will have to comply. It would be cruel to wait to see if a dog was “show quality” and do it at a later age. So, if it’s going to be done, do it on day 3.
Agreed.
And not sure about the age for ears, but no breeder is going to decide which dog not to dock on day 2. They will do them all, or they will do none.
Ears are very different than tails, in my opinion. And, I believe in my state (or most states?) only a licensed vet can crop ears but some people dock tails at home. (I don’t know of any that do, but I don’t believe it is illegal.) But it’s far easier and there are some reasons. The pointer people all know how to treat a tail that gets injured - because it happens often.
If we could stop all altering of animals for aesthetics and tradition (and pretending it’s for their own good)- that’d be great 
Sheep keepers spout this nonsense too! They say the wool will get stained with feces.
With my first crop of lambs (American Jacobs), I couldn’t bear to have their little tails cut off, so I left them long and kept a close watch to see what happened. No staining, no fly strike, no issues at all. The sheep were perfectly able to lift their tails out of the way during bathroom breaks.
Plus the wool under the tail is discarded during shearing anyway.
No lamb born to my flock ever ended up having their tail docked!
We didn’t dock our lambs either
What’s the risk of tail injury to working dogs nowadays, such that docking would prevent it?
Genuine question (as someone whose dogs have all been serially unemployed).
And our sons? Altering them “for tradition/religion?”
How do you feel about circumcision?
What about piercing a baby’s ears?
But seriously, people who do hunt their dogs deal with tail injuries a lot. It’s not only about aesthetics.
I don’t agree with either of those things
And really it’s 2023, we can’t come up with a better way of protecting a dog’s tail than chopping it off?
Boyd Excell doesn’t seem to have any problem with long tails: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW0FirW_G3g
Really? I’ve never known an actual hunting dog, one that goes out and actually hunts, that was docked. And fox hounds?
Er. I think maybe this argument about hunting dogs and tail injuries needs a whole lot of backing up.
Editing to say - I don’t really have a strong opinion on docking. It is certainly for aesthetics too. But tail injuries are real. Talk to people who actively participate in gun dog sports, and they will tell you how to treat a tail injury in the field, because they know, because it happens.
But of all the things to worry about in dogs - good breeders properly docking tails is not even on my radar.
Ear cropping…is definitely a bigger deal. And there is literally no other reason but aesthetics and dog fighting.
But, I’d still rather put my energy into spay/neuter than tail docking or even ear cropping, when done legally and humanely.
Funny, but that never came up in all the years I hung with people who put food on the table hunting with dogs. Maybe the perils for hunting dogs are much greater than those in Canada?
From the survey, under 15% of those whose statistics were cited in the survey sustained a tail injury, so we should conclude that 100% of those dogs should be mutilated? Ok. My math doesn’t reach that conclusion, but whatever.
Huh, just had another thought - pretty much unrelated to hunting since most are now pets - the JRT hitch, I wonder if there’s any connection since there seems to be (possibly) some connection between docking and other hind end of the dog issues? Could be totally unrelated, but the last I heard on it, was that there was no known reason for the hitch that so many of them have when they get running.
I don’t know what a JRT hitch means.
Our Rat Terrier is going in for a spay on Tuesday, and the vet tech asked if we wanted her dew claws removed. Um, no.
Said they’re told to ask, just in case. I see no reason to remove them unless they’re damaged.
Many of them when they get trotting along at speed will hold up a hind leg for a few strides, not missing a beat or slowing down, just going along 3-legged for a bit, then getting back into 4-legged, then maybe back to 3-legged again a few strides later. A hitch in their git-along if you will.
I worked for a show dog handler who raised a few litters of poodles and docked and did dew claws at a few days old. The tails were for the look (and breeders were fussy about the length!) and the dewclaws were said to be to avoid issues with clipping. The pups were remarkably calm.
I did know of a couple of greyhounds and a Great Dane that got a late in life “docking”. They suffered from “Happy Tail”. They would run around the house wagging their thin tails enthusiastically and open up cuts tht were very difficult to heal.
A friend raised Dobermans and I was appalled at what they went through for the correct cropped ear look. I wouldnt put a dog through it.
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