Australian Shepherd Tail Docking: Why + How?
INTRO
Hello to all our past and perspective families! One important decision that we provide each waitlisted family the opportunity to make is that of a docked versus undocked tail. Many breeders make this decision for their families. In our eyes, this decision is acceptable to be made on a case-by-case situation. The term “docking” refers to the process of severing a dogs tail at birth via banding. Some other notable breeds that traditionally participate in tail docking are Spaniels, Terriers, Poodles, Boxers, and Rottweilers.
OLLIE | UNDOCKED
CEDAR | DOCKED
WHY?
Australian Shepherd tail docking is a process that originates from the breed’s roots on both rural and commercial farmland. As many of you know, the Australian Shepherd breed has been encouraged to utilize their instinct and ability to herd livestock for centuries. As an Aussie herds these livestock, often times, the animals will resist by biting the working dogs’ tail. This biting caused many serious injuries to Aussies that frequently led to amputation of their tails. As one can imagine, amputation of a working-aged dog’s tail on a farm was not a painless or clean process. Eventually, farmers began to remove tails at birth, when the environment and pain could be much more easily managed.
HOW?
There are a few different methods of removing tails. We prefer to use banding, which involves cinching the blood flow to the tail via elastic string. At the age of 4 to 6 days when the operation is performed, very few nerve endings have become strong enough to send pain signals to the puppy’s brain. It is important to realize that at the age docking takes place, virtually no bone has formed within the puppy’s tail. This means that both pain and sterility can be protected at the same time. After about a week, the tail dries up, and the mother usually removes it the same as she would an umbilical cord.
CONCLUSION
Ultimately, there is not much benefit to either side of this decision for our non-working families. We tend to observe less “wiggle-butt” in our families who choose to leave their pup’s tail in tact. However, there is something quite majestic about an Australian Shepherd’s natural fly-swatter, isn’t there? For those families looking to utilizes our parent’s background in farm-style herding, we suggest receiving a docked-tail pup.