A ban was issued on tail docking in Scotland. Violators face stiff fines and possible jail time. Although our rat terriers came with docked tailed, we never considered why (other than maintaining breed standards) one would want to have their dog’s tail docked. So, we did a web search and found the following. Most of which came from Dog Trust.
Historical reasons include:
1. Increasing the speed of the dog
2. Preventing damage in fights
3. Prevention of rabies
4. Prevention of back injuries
Current reasons for docking seem to focus on:
1. hygiene issues related to less of accumulation fecal matter in and around the tail
2. safety
Current reasons against docking include:
1. Increased urinary incontinence in females
2. Possible perineal hernias from weakened anal muscles
3. Complications from the actual docking
4. Less obvious communication from tail wagging
Although, there do appear to be many reasons for not docking tails, for some dogs that are around farm machinery, safety issues associated with tails be caught in machinery may be a real concern. But of course, we don’t live on a farm and have no real life experience with these matters.
What do you readers think?
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