Quote:
Originally Posted by lisaly  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. |
Yes and at a seminar Ilona and I attended we saw in slo mo how this works, both if I remember correctly one agility video, and one flyball video.
My breed is usually too heavy to do agility safely and gawd help me I hope we don't have any flyball enthusiasts out there, but some of our lighter females have rocked an agility course.