Why tails of dogs are cut

In some countries, dog surgical procedures for cosmetic purposes are restricted or banned, but in others, the practices are rampant. For example, cosmetic tail-docking is banned throughout Australia and in numerous parts of Europe, which is why I saw my first natural Doberman in Italy.

In North America, things look a bit different. The American Veterinary Medical Association AVMA and the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association CVMA oppose these procedures, with the AVMA stating that these procedures "are not medically indicated nor of benefit to the patient," and "these procedures cause pain and distress, and, as with all surgical procedures, are accompanied by inherent risks of anesthesia, blood loss, and infection.

Only nine states regulate ear cropping. In addition to welfare concerns associated with docking and cropping , the surgeries could affect dog social communication. Numerous studies find that tails are gasp useful and meaningful in dog-dog communication more formally known as intraspecific communication, or communication between members of the same species.

Even Charles Darwin recognized that tail up has a different meaning than tail down, and dogs attend to long tails better than short ones. The side of the body that a tail wags can even be informative to another dog: a dog seen wagging more to his right-side would be perceived more positively than a dog wagging more to his left.

A stump is less informative. Their open access article in PLoS One finds that these appearance-altering procedures are not meaningless; they affect how dogs are perceived, independent of the dog's actual behavior or personality. The first three are in the top 20 of registered breeds, and the Brussels Griffon, while not as popular, was selected to include a small breed in the study.

Participants saw two different images of the same dog breed, one in the natural state long tail and unaltered ears and one modified docked tail and cropped ears. They were told that the dogs were siblings and asked to explain why the ears and tails looked different. Not so for the dogs in this study! Another experiment in the study found that these cosmetic surgeries are not meaningless to dogs or people; in fact, these procedures affect how participants perceived dog personality traits.

Generally speaking, surgically altered dogs were seen as more aggressive toward people and dogs than natural dogs, and natural dogs were seen as more playful and attractive than their altered counterparts. But when looking at the four breeds individually, something odd popped out about attractiveness.

For the Boxer, Doberman Pinscher, and Miniature Schnauzer, neither the natural or surgically altered dog was considered more attractive. Take the tail off, leave it on, crop those ears, whatever. For example, when a chronic neuroma forms at the amputation site. Neuromas are often very painful. The tail is a major communication tool between dogs. Thus the tail also serves as a protective mechanism for dogs, part of the various strategies employed by dogs to communicate with one another; establish boundaries and to avert aggressive encounters.

The tail also communicates important messages to humans during human-dog interactions. Thus the tail plays an important role in public health and safety. Therefore tails must not be removed for any reason other than for therapeutic purposes.

The few remaining advocates of tail docking give a range of unconvincing explanations to defend their views. For instance, they say that some heavy coated breeds need to have their tails docked for hygiene reasons even though many undocked breeds have thick coats and regular care is all that is necessary to maintain good hygiene. Another explanation is that docking prevents tail damage in hunting dogs.

But most docked puppies are kept as family pets and are never used for hunting and research has shown that docking does not reduce tail injury in the general dog population. Furthermore, many breeds of hunting dogs do not have docked tails, and the length of the tail in docked breeds varies according to the breed standard. The excuses put forward to support tail docking are plainly unfounded. There is simply no excuse for reviving this painful tradition. Cosmetic tail docking has also been banned in a number of countries including Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, Germany and Denmark.

Several other European countries including Cyprus, Greece, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Austria have also ratified a European Convention that prohibits the cosmetic docking of tails. In , Scotland reversed a decade-old ban on tail docking for some breeds of puppy if there is sufficient evidence that they will become working dog, despite concerns raised by veterinary and animal welfare organisations.

Tail docking should be banned as a procedure for all breeds of dogs, unless it is carried out by a veterinary surgeon for medical reasons eg injury. Puppies suffer unnecessary pain as a result of tail docking and are deprived of a vital form of canine expression in later life. Research published in Vet Record found that approximately dogs would need to be docked in order to prevent a single tail injury. We continue to call for a complete ban on tail docking of puppies for non-therapeutic reasons across the UK.

Read the guidance. Have a look at relevant legislation in England , Wales and Northern Ireland.