Piper, my German shorthaired pointer, had his tail docked as a wee baby which means that all but five inches of his tail were surgically removed.
This is standard practice for many breeds of pointing dogs as well as other breeds such as Dobermans, boxers and Rottweilers.
For dogs like Piper who are bred for hunting fur and feathered creatures, and for other dogs bred for herding, it was believed that long tails could collect burrs causing pain or could be subject to injury while moving through dense brush. As such, tails were removed to maintain a dog's health. There is also an interesting - albeit odd - historical reason for tail docking. In early Georgian times in Great Britain a tax was levied upon working dogs with tails, so many types of dogs were docked to avoid this tax. Once the tax was abolished the practice of tail docking continued.
Our current lifestyle rarely, if ever, involves our family dogs hunting or herding, and the taxman has yet to find a way to tax us for owning family dogs, so the reasons for docking tails are now purely cosmetic. Breeders attempting to maintain correct breed standards based on regulations set by organizations like the Canadian Kennel Club focus on maintaining the breed's historical working confirmation.
This cosmetic procedure may preserve the history of our canine companions, but it may also put dogs with amputated tails at risk for anti-social behaviour from other dogs and result in unnecessary conflict.
Dogs are creatures of silent communication. Besides the occasional alerting bark, attentionseking whine or warning growl, dogs communicate through body language and their tails are a huge communication tool.
In a 1996 study, Robert Wansbrough argued that docking tails puts dogs at a disadvantage. Dogs use their tails to communicate with other dogs (and with people). A dog without a tail might be significantly handicapped in conveying fear, caution, aggression, playfulness, and so on, the study found.
Stephen Leaver, a graduate student at the University of Victoria, published a paper in 2007 on tail docking. His research suggested that tail length was important in communicating social cues between dogs. The study found that dogs with docked tails were approached with caution, as if the approaching dog was unsure of the emotional state of the docked dog. The study also suggested that dogs with docked tails were unable to efficiently transmit social cues to other dogs due to their lack of proper tail length and would grow up to be more anti-social and thus more aggressive.
Recently an even more interesting study was done on dog tails. This research suggests there is conclusive evidence that the side of the body a dog wags its tail on transmits whether the approaching dog or person is a friend or a foe.
In a series of controlled experiments, dogs were observed getting anxious when they saw an image of a dog wagging its tail to its left side. When they saw a dog wagging its tail to its right side, they stayed relaxed.
Giorgio Vallortigara of the University of Trento in Italy made similar observations. He showed that when a dog was seeing something friendly, like a known dog or its owner, it tended to wag its tail to its right side. Yet when the dog saw something threatening, like a dominant unfamiliar dog, it wagged its tail to its left side.
Piper is the third dog in my life with a docked tail and from anecdotal evidence I can say that docked-tail dogs learn to compensate for their missing appendage. For example, Piper will turn his hips in the direction of an oncoming dog to ensure the dog sees his shortened tail and thus his intentions. But this doesn't mean that it makes the procedure of docking tails acceptable. It is unfair for any dog to have to compensate for human vanity. Hopefully breeders and clubs like the CKC will put their historical biases aside, place dogs' emotional health at the forefront and stop the cosmetic docking of dog tails.
Joan has been working with dogs for more than 15 years. Contact her through her website at k9kinship.com.
