naturally docked

What breeds of dogs could have naturally docked tails? We are going to get a dog at SAD and he has a naturally docked tail but does not look like the breeds I know of that have them. Here he is, what do you think?

Why do you think he's an NBT? To me, he looks like a Weimereiner mix and someone went ahead and did his tail.

The woman who runs the rescue said it's a natural dock, is there any way to tell?

I've been told (no idea if it is true) that if they have a bit of hair sticking off the end, like a tiny ponytail, that it has been docked, not that it is natural. Meg, according to that, has been docked, which I assume is correct.

I wouldn't go by that, BB. My little Terrier, Mickey, was born tail-less. She pretty much just had one little snub vertebra beyond her butt, and it had the little tuft. She had a brother born with about two inches of tail and his was the same way.

My guess, though, on that dog, is that it had an accident when it was a pup and lost part of its tail.

I had a foster dog with a funny tail once-- Her name was Remi. Her tail was naturally like that... It was a little bit curly, though.

Buster has a funny little tail, we just found him with it. Will add a pic tomorow.

When you meet him, check the end of the stump, if he is a NBT then there shouldn't be a scar, there should only be fur, if it was docked, there will more than likely be a small (or large, depending on when it was done) scar.

You can't really depend on a scar, though, because tails can be docked around 3 days old. They tend to heal faster / show less of a scar when done at a young age. In my experience, the same goes for when they are spayed.
Maddie certainly has no scar on her wiggly butt...

As for breeds that are born with a naturally docked tail, I think anybreed whose tail is docked surgically can be. I've heard of Welsh Corgis, Brittanies, Australian Shepherds and OESs born that way.

That's true of the 2 Brittanies I know born with a naturally docked tails. I don't know about other breeds, tho. From talking to some Aussie people once, they were saying an Aussie with a naturally docked tail is a little more agile in the backend than one that was surgically docked. Not sure how true that is, either, since tails are dcked before puppies have a chance to use them for balance.

If he's an NBT, the very last bone will be either tapered or slightly kinked. The only way to really be *sure* is to x-ray it.

Mick'smom, I haven't heard that...mainly because of the followup statement you made. And Sawyer is an NBT and he's...less than agile sometimes on his backend. :lol-sign:

hmm...i wonder if i could figure out if Milo's tail is a NBT or was docked....

I thought JRT's were a traditionally docked breed and didn't have an NBT gene? I could very well be wrong, I don't know that much about JRT's, but either Dekka or Adojrts said something one time about how the tail was docked to a specific length as to be a "handle" to pull the dog out of the hole.

That's true i think, about them being docked at a specific length. it's probably not a NBT. it's long too. by far too short to be a proper JRT handle, but longer than most little bob-tails.

I've really gotten into this, because Aussies are both an NBT breed AND traditionally docked. You can get quite a few tail lengths in any given litter, from the NBT, to 1/4, 1/2 and even 3/4 length before hitting a full tail. I've been seeing a ton of pictures of full-tailed Aussies and I have to say...I still prefer the NBT/docked look. What's crazy though, is that over in Europe with this dock/crop ban they've got going, you can't even import an NBT into some/many countries. Has to be fully-tailed.

And at least in Aussies, somewhere in the pedigrees/papers it makes mention of whether the dog was tailed or NBT at birth, because you're not supposed to breed two NBT's together...apparently increases the risk of spinal defects. I wish I could find this link I'm thinking of, it was a case study on 20 odd Aussie litters and revolved around tails.

That's really interesting, we decided Buster's was a little deformed tail because the last bone can be fiddled around to pretty much any direction. Plus I've seen ACD mixes with tails with rights angles in them so his isn't as bad as it could be.

Plus I can't imagine who would take the time to do a crappy docking on him then leave him in a car park?

omg that is crazy

Actually thats the same wiht manx cats, and you also can't breed 2 scottish folds together, you breed a scottish fold to a british shorthair. Then you have some scottish folds and some scottish shorthairs (i thik thats what they're called)

I know of very few dogs born with a tail like that, I think he may have injured it and had it amputated, or been docked purposely as a puppy.