[yorkietalkjilly]

Have you seen a 3 day old infant puppy having its tail docked? They yelp out sometimes just like they do when you pick one up, press moderately on a foot with your thumb or their mother leaves the nest. My vet says the heart rate or respiration rate hardly rises after the dock, resumes normal within a couple of minutes and certainly is not as high as when a pup is removed from the teat and says that the neurological system in the peripherals at that age is just not developed enough to sustain a pain message to the brain. Tiny puppies with significant pain have increased heart & respiration rates and cry over and over. Puppies who have just had tail docks do not keep crying or any other displays of sustained distress.

What we do to a dog bathing it, clipping its toenails, dressing them in all kinds of clothing, bows, jewelry when they don't like it or leaving them alone as we leave a young pup in its crate are far harder for the dog to deal with - in that their heart rates and respirations rise and stay up for significant periods during these activities. Infant puppies after tail/dew docking do not exhibit anywhere near the amount of stress as Tibbe did the first time I tried to clip his toenails when I first got him. And then he ran off and hid, sustaining his stress.