Docking?

[mwood322]

I've actually never had a problem with family pets being spayed and neutered. Too many pet owners know nothing about breeding dogs, and there are already way too many unwanted / uncared for dogs to let the population keep expanding like it is. I think my dog is wonderful, but there isn't much demand for spaniel mixed breeds with obsessive compulsive disorders and skin allergies. Most people wouldn't be able to handle her anyway. Much as I love her she should not breed. So she is spayed. For the "average" dog owner neutering should be a prerequisite of getting the dog.

However I make exceptions for certain dogs. I believe that working dogs, who are good in all of their job traits should be bred to the betterment of working dogs. I believe a show dog that could actually both win confirnmation points and do the job the dog was originally bred for with no physical problems should be bred for the betterment of their breed.

I don't think most of the dogs that ever bred in a puppymill should have been let out of their original breeders hands without being spayed or neutered. I don't think the cute hip dysplasic rottweiller down the street, no matter what his paperwork says, should ever be bred. Dogs with poor temperment, again no matter what their papers say should not be bred. All pet quality dogs, no matter how sweet they can be should not be bred. Yes, they are wonderful, but there are millions more of them right now dying for lack of homes. If you want a dog just like yours, get one bred from the same parents. People need to keep in mind a dog only gets half it's traits from each parent, so siblings are way more likely to be similar than pups to parents.

And the only way to be absolutely sure that bad tempered, or genetically poor quality dogs can be prevented from breeding is neutering them. Until we get pet overpopulation under control neutering is going to stay very important.

--Mia

[Athe]

Yeah and I'm sure they would want their testicles and ovaries back too, if they could talk

Boxer*Mom, I am sure they would But, being realistic if we didn't spay and casterate boy would we have an overpopulation problem There is a BIG HUGE difference between fashionable statements such as docking and cropping and nessessary surgerys which prevent over population.

It makes me absolutley enraged to hear it does nothing for them. My poor dobe was in pain for weeks from an ear infection when he was little. The vets couldn't get it to go waay and the meds did nothing. they finally cropped him anyway and he was 98% better the next day. If I couldn't have cropped him what would we have done?! If it was illegal he would have been put down. He was in constant pain and never wanted his head touched. I ma so lucky they went ahead and did it. Now most dogs might not have that happen but for the few it happens to its more than worth getting done.

joce, just to fill you in. My last Dobe had her ears cropped...she suffered from ear infections quite often. She had one major one when she was younger (with cropped ears). I went through heck to get rid of it, we went through some serious ear treatments to get rid of the infection. The cropping did nothing to stop her ears from getting infection. Plus cropped ears do not keep foxtails and other problem things out of the ear which I think is more serious.
I have seen many dogs with cropped ears and naturally erect ears suffer from ear infections. I have also seen dogs with docked tails have problems with the end of the tail (never healing properly etc.)

[Boxer*Mom]

YES I know I was just adding to this ridiculous comment "oh, if only our dogs could talk...would they ever give these cruel people who amputate their wonderful tails a peice of their mind"