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Originally Posted by yorkietalkjilly  Yorkies do have long thin tails they carry out behind them rather than roached more safely over the back or having the thick, sturdy tail of the Lab or GSD but knowing how genetically the breed is so prey driven and will go under lawn furniture or through snaggled fencing or anything in a heartbeat - whereas a greyhound or less prey-driven dog might not - I'm glad I have one with a docked tail. And those zillions of pages on Google asking about tail injuries and various medical conditions in dogs such as limber tail and on and on are empirical evidence that problems with the tail are not insignificant. And when one factors in that the people going online are the people that care enough to go online and ask to the tune of page after page after page, one wonders how many dogs go untreated or even unrecognized as having tail injury problems? |
Katie's tail was docked to a beautiful medium length. Her breeder is Canadian, and she competes in European shows and other shows throughout the world. She is leaving the tails of some of her puppies intact. I wouldn't have hesitated to get Katie if she had a full tail, but you raised an excellent point. I have seen Katie stop at nothing to get to her ball if it goes into the middle of dense shrubbery. Her breeder had her back dew claws removed, but she left ones on because it gives them extra traction. From an article written by veterinarian Dr. Chris Zinc, it says, " the dewclaw can dig in for extra traction to prevent unnecessary torque on the front leg. Without the gripping
action of the dog's 'thumbs’ there is more stress on the ligaments of
the carpus." I still have to think long and hard on the issue of tail docking. I really would wonder if Katie would injure her tail while playing because of how driven she is. I don't throw her balls into anything unsafe for her, but she loves to catch them midair, and she will take every opportunity to do so. The balls sometimes bounce off of her face
and then she's off to retrieve it wherever it goes. I have a difficult time thinking of any dog being in pain, so I need to read more to form my own conclusion about this. I would love to see the YTCA change the standard to allow docked and undocked tails.