In an adult dog it is considered amputation and not docking. Think twice.
There are over fifty breeds of dog, which have had their tails docked, since the inception of the breed. The original reason for docking some breeds is well documented, for some, the reasons have been lost over the fullness of time. The vast majority of breeders and prospective puppy purchasers continue to want these breeds docked for a variety of reasons. Many reasons are given for the different breeds and range from the need to protect certain breeds from tail damage, for hygiene reasons, to protect breed standards, to ensure that puppies can be sold or exported.
Tails are normally docked at 2 to 5 days of age without anaesthetic being used. When carried out correctly, the procedure causes no more than momentary discomfort since the neonate puppy does not have a fully developed nervous system. When the pup is placed back with its littermates, it quickly falls asleep or starts feeding from mum again. This is in contrast to a puppy in pain, who would exhibit continuous crying, restlessness, crawl around in pointless circles and fail to suckle.
The older the animal, the larger the tail, and therefore the more traumatic the procedure becomes. If the puppy is more than 10 days old, the procedure should only be performed under anaesthesia, preferably not before 8 weeks of age. Many undocked adult animals undergo the tail docking procedure out of necessity when their tail has been traumatised.
How is docking carried out ?
There are two methods of docking. The majority of breeders used the technique known as "banding", in which a ligature, normally an orthodontic band, was placed over the end of the puppies tail at 24-96 hours old. This effectively cuts off the blood supply to the end of the tail, which comes away within 3 days.
Most vets used to cut the tail with surgical scissors.
Answered by ManAge : 49 1 month ago
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