What are your views on cropping and docking?

[AdrianneIsabel]

This month alone I have had three friends dogs die during a spay. It's frustrating that it is often sold as a harm free alternative to cancer. Life is a gamble either way.

This cute little blonde doodle died yesterday, her owner is a widower with a military son overseas and this dog was her best friend.
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...12049292_n.jpg
I do support altering by choice (just like the other surgeries listed), and encourage it for those who realize their lack of desire or inability to own intact dogs responsibly, but today is a bad day for me to feel prospeuter, rational or not.

[BostonBanker]

As I'm reading this I'm starting to wonder if my dogs are freaks, because neither of them had any issue with their spay and neuter.

Nah, mine didn't either, and I'm very grateful for it. Meg came from West Virginia freshly spayed, and my friend cut the stitches out a week or two later. I don't recall keeping her quiet (well, quieter than she is naturally) at all.

With Gusto, they brought him out on leash and said "be careful to limit his jumping and running for 14 days" and as they handed me the leash, he started rebounding off my chest. He never even wore a cone because he didn't bother the incision (and he got about 5 days of relative quiet before I let him really run).

But I fully recognize that things can go wrong at any time, whether your dog is put under for ear cropping or spaying or running off leash or in your yard or in your house. My heart breaks for anyone who loses a dog early. All you can do is educate yourself as much as possible, do what is right for you and your dog, and hope things turn out okay. Neutering my dogs was right for me; if cropping your dog is right for you, go to a good vet, stack the odds in your favor, and hope.

[sillysally]

When Jack had his elbow surgery he has 3 small incisions. When I took him to the vet to get them taken out she informed me that hr had actually removed his own stitches from one of them!

Unfortunately there are risks with lots of things we do with our dogs, both medical and non medical. Right now I'm looking at the tarter on Sally's teeth and wondering if I should ask about getting her a dental but don't like having her go under...

[Shai]

Originally Posted by BostonBanker

My heart breaks for anyone who loses a dog early. All you can do is educate yourself as much as possible, do what is right for you and your dog, and hope things turn out okay. Neutering my dogs was right for me; if cropping your dog is right for you, go to a good vet, stack the odds in your favor, and hope.

^This!

[LostAndConfused]

I'm of the live and let live opinion.

but lots of people want to know why I have such a funny dock on my Aussie / Border Collie

[Fran101]

Originally Posted by Linds

Personal choice and preference. I would hate to see it banned and I refuse to villainize people who crop and/or dock.

I do think sometimes people romanticize it more than it needs to and I would like to hear "I did it because I prefer how it looks" more often because I think deep down that's the truth for most people's decision to crop or dock. But I don't fault them for that at all.

There are some breed I like the look of cropped/docked and others I like not cropped/docked.

This.

That said.. I don't personally LOVE the idea. The whole reasoning and idea of it (just cosmetic surgery for no real reason) kind of rubs me the wrong way a little.

If I found a breeder I loved (like Merlin's) who cropped or docked, it wouldn't bother me. It isn't my favorite thing but it's certainly not a deal breaker.

I love Merlin's bunny but I sometimes feel a little sad and wonder what he would look like with a tail.
BUTT .

[Locke]

I'm neutral.

Poodles are generally docked, but the dog guide foundation that bred my poodle does not dock. I really like his full tail and if I ever were to get a poodle puppy, I would prefer the tail to be left natural. However, as someone already mentioned, if the breeder docks, I would have to choose my puppy before any evaluations were done and I'm not comfortable with that. More breeders are leaving their poodle litters natural though, so who knows.

[Flyinsbt]

Originally Posted by Aleron

Now for me, I couldn't see myself taking a puppy to be cropped. I like how it looks on some breeds but I would be sick with worry over putting my puppy through an elective surgery. Also, I don't know once I see their ears I'd feel bad having them cut off. Savvy's ears are so expressive! And besides, don't really like to put my dogs under for anything if it isn't necessary though.

The one I didn't get, when I worked for the vet that cropped, was this one couple dropping their Dobe puppy off to be cropped the next day, and the woman was all angsty because they'd not left their puppy anywhere overnight before. And I was thinking "you're stressing about leaving your puppy somewhere overnight, and you're having his ears cut off?!" Just didn't make sense to me, if you're that sensitive about your poor darling puppy, why would you want to do this? Of course, I didn't say anything like that. As long as I was accepting the paycheck, it wasn't my place to be critical.

The only time I really said anything; and that was in back, to coworkers, not to clients; was the time a GSD/Dobie cross came in for cropping. I found it harder to take that it was being done to a mixed breed dog. At least with the purebreds, there's the excuse of wanting the traditional look for the breed.

On the spay/neuters... the vast majority of dogs bounce back from those surgeries ridiculously fast. The "keep them quiet" thing is kind of a joke (though with more mature males, you really do have to try to do so, or they'll bleed into the scrotum and get a nasty hematoma). When I had Tess spayed, the vet hospital was calling me by early afternoon and basically begging me to come get my crazy dog.

[Xandra]

I don't like docks. I don't like long show crops. But on mastiff types, I almost always think a short crop looks better than natural ears. I wish they still cropped danes like the first one in Aleron's post!

I don't think I've ever seen a presa that wouldn't look better with a short crop. It makes them look fierce and if they have a proper temperament, that's a good thing.

[Saeleofu]

Personal choice and preference. I would hate to see it banned and I refuse to villainize people who crop and/or dock.

That exactly. Same goes for speutering.