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Originally Posted by Nancy1999  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. |
Last time this was hashed out, someone said the most sensible explanation that I've heard, which was that working dogs were taxed, and dogs with tails were considered working dogs. Actualy, now that I write that, it doesn't seem to make a tremendous amount of sense - why would a dog only be taxed if it had a tail? - but, well, there you go.
Nancy, where have you seen a yorkie that's had trouble holding up its tail? All the ones I've seen with full tails have lovely long ones that gently curl up over their back.
FYI to the poster above, dobermans do not have docked ears or tails in Europe, and they do perfectly fine. The "fragile" tail explanation does not hold water to me. It seems like a pretty self serving argument, there is very little evidence to support it, and it doesn't make a tremendous amont of sense anyway. Yorkies have trouble with LP, does that mean we should remove their knees, just in case?
IMO, it is only a matter of time before it's outlawed in the US. You can see the way the wind is blowing.