The Most Dog Friendly Community Online
Join Dog Forum to Discuss Breeds, Training, Food and More

Join Now for Free
New posts

Whippts With Their Tails Docked

Rob Rixon

Rob Rixon

New Member
Registered
Messages
545
Reaction score
7
Points
0

Join our free community today.

Connect with other like-minded dog lovers!

Login or Register
Hi

We went to the WC Limited show yesterday and noticed a note on the entry to another show - ' Only undocked dogs and legally docked dogs may be entered for exhibition at this show'. Has this note been forced by the KC?

Are there any hounds that would have had their tails docked?

:sweating: Rob
 
It is a KC rule that that silly statement has to be in all schedules and catalogues of KC licensed shows, silly but there are no docked whippets!!!!!!!!!!!
 
just read of a litter here on K9 of a pup who was born with a damaged tail which was then legally docked by the wet, imagine it can still be shown?
 
there ya go rob, i nfind she runs faster now her tails docked :thumbsup:

chilliz.jpg
 
I attended a sighthound show in Sweden where I saw a greyhound and a whippet with docked tails being exhibited. The greyhound won a good prize too. I presumed these dockings, not as short as the one in the photo, were done because of accidents. I was nevertheless surprised to see the dogs being exhibited because the judge has no way of knowing that the dog's tail was originally the correct length.

oh, by the way this reminds me of something I've been wanting to ask for a while. When looking for a whippet, I found a few litters which included a pup with a kink in it's tail. I've also heard about this fault often enough to think it's fairly common. Is it hereditary or does it happen as a result of injury? Injury during birth? or afterwards? If discovered early can the tail bones be set back in place?

if the kink was low down in the tail, that's something else that docking could disguise. I think a dog would be better off with full tail with a small kink than with an unneccessarily shortened tail; I'm just harking down to the point of the problem that a tail docked for bona fide medical reasons could present to a judge.

I've heard that some whippets and greyhounds with a small amount of tail lost through injury continue to race, but loss of tail length can affect their turning and balance.
 
bertha said:
It is a KC rule that that silly statement has to be in all schedules and catalogues of KC licensed shows, silly but there are no docked whippets!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...
Should have clarified it, only whippets and greyhounds can be shown with docked tails if the dog had a complete tail and lost part of it due to injury and has an exemption from the KC.

Whippets can be born with a kink, usually done in the womb. You can get it broken and re-set, but it does no always work. I don't think it is an inherited fault.

I don't think a vet would dock a kinked tail!
 
just a point of grammar, too late to edit the punctuation mistake. There is a convention not to use an apostrophe (inverted comma) with its except when writing a contraction of "it is", in order to distinguish between two different meanings. So I should have typed "its tail" rather than "it's tail"!
 
Correct Macha! Full marks from the (ex) English Teacher. :lol:

I have a bitch with a little kink at the end of her tail, just where her white tip begins. She is a multi BIS winner. If I remember correctly her grandfather also has a kink in his tail and is a Grand Ch and multi BIS winner.

I think it all depends where the kink is eg if it was half way down the tail and the bottom half stuck out at right angles to the top half then there might be a bit of a problem aesthetically. But if the tail is still CARRIED correctly (you can see the angle it is carried at from the base) then no problem really.

I do not believe kinks in tails are hereditary either - I reckon they're done in the womb. Some expert will have to tell me otherwise and provide me with the proof, for me to change my belief.
 
Although Greyhounds and Whippets do use their tails for balance I do know of more than 1 racing greyhound to win good races that have had most of their tails removed .

If I thought one of my GH was slightly lame( or not quite right in some way) I would always make a point of watching their tails when going around a bend . active use of the tail usually indigated to me they had a`problem `

You only have to see dogs coursing to seehow much they use their tails ............ as regards them in the ring , I wouldnt penailise a kinky tail , as long as the tail set was correct :thumbsup:
 
My pup Huey has a kink about an inch from the tip of his tail. I asked the vet about this - she said it was probably done in-utero (just like the Nirvana album) :D

Anyway - the vet said it was no biggie (and a purely aesthetic flaw) - being a new dog-owner I thought it might be painful! :blink:
 
As the person who has the boy that has been recently docked I would just like to point out that he was done due to 2 deformities in the tail, but they were down far enough to allow us to dock and leave a "bobtail".

Will I be breeding with him, certainly NOT, he will be going to his new home as a pet. Having bred Rigebacks for 25 years I am truly of the opinion that kink tails regardless of where they appear are inherited, a google search throws up any number of documents that reference this, here is just one of them -

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=zi_bbk...result#PPA65,M1

whether they win in the show ring or not is up to the judge officiating on the day I guess, I did try exhibiting a Ridgeback ten years or so ago and he had the kink right at the end of his tail but I would say 2 out of 3 judges commented on it (he was over 60 points when his owners moved away from the area). As most of the Aust K9 members know I don't take dew claws off, and I would say I get comments on this only once or twice a year.

If you want in idea of how inherited some of these tail issues can be, go and sit and watching judging of some of the breeds that are no longer allowed to be docked in this country (Australia), Boxers is a good one to start with, the array of tail set, carriage and things like kinks is amazing to see. I asked someone what correct tail set and carriage in a boxer should be and they shrugged their shoulders at me. There were dogs in the ring with tails carried up and over almost in a ring, there were sword tails (the ones that go at almost right angles to the croup), some that were carried out like a Ridgeback. There were thick tails with feathering, thinner whippy tails and of course kinks visible to the eye. I guess because the docked breeds have generally taken off the tails with kinks in the past they haven't worried about it.

Oh and Bob (the bobtail) is doing fine, we'll be taking his stitch out tomorrow but it's all looking good, and he may be going to a home that had a mini schnauzer before so they don't mind the tail :teehee:

Lisa
 
Isilwane said:
As the person who has the boy that has been recently docked I would just like to point out that he was done due to 2 deformities in the tail, but they were down far enough to allow us to dock and leave a "bobtail".
Will I be breeding with him, certainly NOT, he will be going to his new home as a pet. Having bred Rigebacks for 25 years I am truly of the opinion that kink tails regardless of where they appear are inherited, a google search throws up any number of documents that reference this, here is just one of them -

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=zi_bbk...result#PPA65,M1

whether they win in the show ring or not is up to the judge officiating on the day I guess, I did try exhibiting a Ridgeback ten years or so ago and he had the kink right at the end of his tail but I would say 2 out of 3 judges commented on it (he was over 60 points when his owners moved away from the area). As most of the Aust K9 members know I don't take dew claws off, and I would say I get comments on this only once or twice a year.

If you want in idea of how inherited some of these tail issues can be, go and sit and watching judging of some of the breeds that are no longer allowed to be docked in this country (Australia), Boxers is a good one to start with, the array of tail set, carriage and things like kinks is amazing to see. I asked someone what correct tail set and carriage in a boxer should be and they shrugged their shoulders at me. There were dogs in the ring with tails carried up and over almost in a ring, there were sword tails (the ones that go at almost right angles to the croup), some that were carried out like a Ridgeback. There were thick tails with feathering, thinner whippy tails and of course kinks visible to the eye. I guess because the docked breeds have generally taken off the tails with kinks in the past they haven't worried about it.

Oh and Bob (the bobtail) is doing fine, we'll be taking his stitch out tomorrow but it's all looking good, and he may be going to a home that had a mini schnauzer before so they don't mind the tail :teehee:

Lisa
Click to expand...
A friend of mine recently bred a litter of 10 which contained a pup with a right handed kink halfway down a lovely long tail. He was the pick of the litter in both confirmation & temperament but no-one wanted him. Eventually, he was virtually given away to a family who already had another young whippet. Six months later he is just beautiful, the family love him to bits & his tail causes him no bother or pain.

Some years ago, we bred a litter with beautiful tails. I was actually sitting with them when the bitch heard a noise outside, she rushed out of the whelping box, trod on her son with one of her nails completely amputating the tail close to the body. He was also named Bob & is living happily in a pet home. He, too, had to be virtually given away.

Gail.
 
I'm surprised to hear a pup's tail could be "docked" so easily (mother stepped on it)!

some whippets have a bit of ring tail, too much curvature at the tip. I don't think it does any harm except in the show ring. A judge couldn't tell with a docked dog what way the end of the tail used to look

I suppose breeds like boxers and cockers might vary quite a lot in tail carriage, length, etc because for generations no-one has been selecting for particular tail types. If the breed standards don't specify what is ideal, the standards will have to be modified - or else any type of tail allowed - but it will take some generations to put ideals into practice. A bit like the problem I imagine judges and breeders will have with pekingnese and English bulldogs now that they are being called on to breed dogs with less exagerrated features.
 
Alba said:
I'm surprised to hear a pup's tail could be "docked" so easily (mother stepped on it)!
Click to expand...
Especially "close to the body", I have seen pups' tails being docked; it requires a very sharp instrument and even then is not easy to cut off.
 
Well, ladies, I can assure you it happened because I sat there & saw it. The puppies were only a couple of days old, only just had their dew claws done. The bitch flew out of the box, put all her weight on one front foot & one of her nails sliced through the tail taking it clean off. It didn't even bleed very much. The puppy ended up with a tail about 2 - 3 inches long. An absolute fluke of an accident but it happened right enough. Poor old Don was devastated.

Gail.
 
I've been thinking about that comment about breaking and resetting a tail. I wouldn't have thought that was feasible as the tail is made up of little bones like the vertebrae of the neck and spine.

I suspect that in the dogs with the kinks in their tails there may be two vertebrae fused together. But if so, would they have been fused in the newborns or was there a simple dislocation that might be manipulated into place? The problem might be in bandaging and stabilizing the tail afterwards?

I'm also wondering if the reason tail injuries so often result in amputations not only because of the difficulty in immobilizing a broken tail but because of nerve damage. Is it common for the tail to become numb or paralysed below the injury? Is severe pain, when the nerve is not severed but trapped also common? I'm extrapolating from what I've heard about neck and back injuries in humans.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Welcome to Dog Forum!

Join our vibrant online community dedicated to all things canine. Whether you're a seasoned owner or new to the world of dogs, our forum is your go-to hub for sharing stories, seeking advice, and connecting with fellow dog lovers. From training tips to health concerns, we cover it all. Register now and unleash the full potential of your dog-loving experience!

Login or Register
Back
Top