Tail ends
 

How many of you have been really paying attention when your dog defaecates.....?!
Those of you who have will notice that the tail muscle elevates at the time of evacuation thus in the normal course of events giving clearance for the faeces. If the dog unfortunately has diarrhoea then it is not quite so streamlined over the buttocks! When amputated the tail muscles can atrophy (waste) and this can make the faeces less well formed or even incontinence can occur when done too close to the spinal cord. To keep it clean - best to leave the tail intact and start breeding for tail set and length. (not tailless as this is another problem area).
Working (principally gundogs) have only been incorporated into some countries' laws (e.g.not Scotland) because of a strong field sports lobby when the Bill was going through legislative procedure. In England (and Wales) only 6 more votes in Parliament would have made a total ban. In the UK, Veterinary research shows that in these exempted groups statistics show a very noticeable evidence of lameness injury (besides one dog being run over and killed and another jumped off a cliff) so injury in these groups is a lot to do with what is expected of the dog which may not in normal circumstance be entirely welfare friendly.

Now there's a question you don't get very often. :grin2:

No, not often. But, in answer to the question....I do keep track and monitor each and everyone of my dog's eliminating functions. And I won't go into the graphics.

Thank You!:D

HaHa...me too...it really can tell you the health of your dog(s).:)

LOL...without getting graphic, I'll just say that my dogs' 'pump handles' work just fine, even with a docked tail. I see it in my girls when whelping, too.

I would think that the simple act of wagging the tail would prevent muscle atrophy, though I've never given it much thought. Maybe because it's never been a problem??

It is one of the ways I monitor the health of their digestive and urinary tracts.

Yup ditto that! I see no problems in that area ;)

Thanks for posting this links, I've read statistics before, but didn't save anything. According to the link you cited:

Since docking was banned in Sweden in 1989, there has been a massive increase in tail injuries amongst previously docked breeds. Within the 50 undocked Pointer litters registered in that year with the Swedish Kennel Club, 38% of dogs suffered tail injury before they were 18 months old and two years later, by 1991, the number of individuals with tail injuries had increased to 51% in the same group (Gunilla Strejffert, Report to the Swedish Breed Council for German Shorthaired Pointers, 1992, Borlange, Sweden). Even more alarming is the finding that only 16% of injury cases had improved, 40% showed no improvement and more than half of dogs with tail injuries had regressed during the two-year period


It takes a while to gather statistics, and it has to be done by someone who cares about the breed, so it's not unusual for studies to be done by people who may appear to have a "special interest" in the cause. I mean if the YTCA does a study on injuries, does it automatically mean that the study is tainted? I do believe that that are members of the YTCA whose only interest is the future of the breed. Changes in standard should NOT even considered until we know the safety of the issue. SAFETY and health should be the number one area of concern.

I haven't read up on the issues of ear cropping, it's one of those things, I've just been automatically against, just because I read a little about it, and it grosses me out. However, I do know that perky ear dogs have WAY less ear infections, than long ear dogs, and things like that should be factored into the decision when about ear docking. Is this a breed who spends much time in the water? I won't comment any more on ear docking because it turns my stomach, I just think that people who study these things should make the decisions, not the average pet owner, unless they truly are studying all the information available, and really do have the dog's best interest at heart.

You can find statistics for anything on the web. There's nothing on the site that actually backs these numbers up. If it was a national veterinarian's association, then we'd be talking.

As for ear cropping, it is absolutely not in the best interest of the dog.

From a popular book here, "The Joy of Breeding Your Own Show Dog":

In almost all countries except America ear cropping is considered barbaric. It was abolished by the English Kennel Club and Australia early this century. The operation is painful for the puppy, even though the actual cropping is performed under anesthetic....

The American Kennel Club is strict in policing the use of any artificial means of enhancing the appearance of a dog in the show ring. It seems incongruous to permit the alteration of the normal appearance of a breed by ear cropping.

If yours is one of the unfortunate breeds which requires its puppies to suffer this tortuous experience, your bitch's breeder is the one to advise you where then operation should be performed....

I should add, so that I don't mislead the newbie, that the Yorkshire Terrier breed has naturally perky ears, so ear cropping is not something that is ever done with this breed.