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Originally Posted by yorkietalkjilly  Very interesting thread. Still glad my dog had his tail docked and dews removed as an infant. The moment I see empirical long-term studies from noted specialists that there are overall net health benefits to the Yorkshire Terrier not having a tail or dew claws, I'll be picking out my future dogs with tails/dews, but certainly not until then.
What is far more troublesome to me than dogs with docked tails/dews are those dogs bred deliberately to have known and recognized health and function problems, such as the huge-headed/shouldered, pushface bulldog with its narrow pelvis, the outrageously wrinkled breeds, the overly long-backed breeds and push-faced breeds with pop eyes and obvious trouble just breathing and sometimes seemingly just walking. After seeing the BBC documentary about the many health problems of people breeding dogs specifically for the purpose of creating exaggerated features pleasing to the judge's eye or current popular thinking of what is preferable while creating functional problems for the dog's daily existence, I realized many breeds lately do have pretty bad problems to live with because of popular opinions. So before changing a lot of things about dogs from what has worked successfully for years for them, I always hang back and wait to see whether current popular thinking really works out best for each dog in the long run. |
Jeanie - I so agree with what you're saying in the 2nd paragraph! Ugh, the breeding for things that are unhealthy, deadly, etc just for the goal of money or winning shows makes me ill.
I hear you on the desire for empirical long-term studies, but I'm curious why you wouldn't want those
before allowing their tail to be amputated (and claws, ears etc)? As a nurse, we always look for studies to prove you *should* perform a surgery or any intervention that alters the body...instead of doing the surgery automatically and keep doing it until there are studies in the future to show you
shouldn't do it. Do you know what I mean? In the medical field, if we removed body parts or did other permanent alterations as part of preventive medicine *without proof*...holy heck... the whole field would be in prison. Me included
!