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Originally Posted by NatNatt  I thought docking their tail was for their heath...because its has to stay clean down there and they can get very sick and even die for its dirty and has dingle berry. Correct me if Im wrong. |
I think it may have originated because Yorkies were used as ratters, they worked in mining caves and crawled through tunnels to get rats. Miners could pull out the dog by the tail without risk of injury (and wouldn't confuse a rat's tail with a Yorkie's tail.
) I imagine there is quite a bit of variation in natural tail length between yorkies, since this trait hasn't been considered when breeding, and I've seen some with their natural tails that looked only an inch or so longer than a docked tail, and others whose tails looked longer than their bodies. The longer and skinnier the natural tail, the more chance of injury, just stepping on the tail could cause injury. Regarding sanitary reasons, it's possible, that a yorkie with a natural overly long tail might have more problems in that area, some seem to have a problem holding their tail up.