Dr Liesel van der Merwe is a small animal medicine specialist. Send her your questions: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Dr Liesel van der Merwe

Remember the days when tail docking was commonplace? It just makes you think about why we do things and how force of habit can affect our decision making. Ear cropping is even more contentious. It is much more painful for a three to five day old puppy and takes weeks to heal.

As a vet I used to hate docking tails, especially in those breeds that required short tails, such as the boerboel and Rottweiler. The litters are normally large; the tail is clipped and cut with sharp scissors without local or general anaesthesia, because puppies don’t really have “properly developed nerves” yet. 

A stitch is then placed to close the skin over the stump. After the procedure the puppies indeed seemed to be minimally affected by the whole drama, but they’d squirm and squeal while being held. After doing your 12th puppy, one really starts thinking that this is not the reason why you studied to be a vet. I am glad that tail docking and ear cropping are nowadays considered illegal veterinary procedures.

Reasons
One of the initial reasons for tail docking was related to injury in hunting dogs and probably also in fighting dogs – less place to grip. We do not use dogs for these purposes any more, and I must say that I do not see many hunting dogs with tail injuries.

Tails often get injured in dogs which live in kennels or spend a lot of time barking in the corner of two walls. The continual trauma of hitting the tail against the wall can cause a lot of injury to the tip.

Because the dog can chew on it, and keeps re-injuring it, the wound can take a long time to heal. In these situations and in bite-wounds or accidents it may be necessary to amputate the tail. In an adult dog this is obviously done under a full general anaesthetic.

Sheep
Docking has valid reasons in sheep – the long woolly tails cause a build-up of faeces and a condition called fly strike where maggots infect the hind section of the sheep and cause great discomfort. Pigs’ tails are docked because pigs chew on each other’s tails. 

Sometimes, however, we will still see young dogs that have had their tails docked, sometimes even by the breeders. Puppies with tails docked by non-medical persons often present with infection, and the skin is seldom closed over the stump.

I would like to urge future pet owners to question or report the breeder if this occurs and to request that no docking is performed. If people stop asking for it or accepting it, the practice will eventually be totally eradicated and our dogs can show their happiness with a nice good wag of the tail. Viva the tails!