#docked tail

It has come to my attention that many of you have seen an image of my ancestor Araknak the Agile with his parents. And i am sure many wonder why his father has a longer tail.

There is one reason for this. And in telling you what this reason is most likely going to get me in trouble with the Conundrum Elders. Mostly because they regret ever implementing this into our society.

The Conundrum species used to dock or crop our tails. When it first started it was claimed it helped with stealth. Many believed them as they had secretly done the surgery on others and handed them a seemingly difficult missions, which in reality they were not, and they all came back successful.

But not all Conundrum families believed in this surgery. So as you saw with Ancestor Araknak parents, his mother had her tail cropped and his father did not. I believe Ancestor Araknak had his cropped later in life after he was chosen as trollhunter, but i have no evadance to prove either side.

Myself and Dictatious have cropped tails, because of our father. Our Mother, bless her, wanted us to have the choice later in life, but our father pestered and pestered until she caved and agreed to get our tails cropped.

I have added a section with this information in the book Dictatious and I have written together on our own species. I shall now let you read for yourself. Please do not read ahead if you are squeamish or are triggered by surgeries.

~[images and information are sensitive ahead.]~

All information recorded by Blinkous Galadrigal.

The Docking surgery of Conundrums.

First an example of an unDocked tail and a docked tail.

Surgeries done correctly leave no know effect on the docked tail. <But many were scammed by less professional healers, so i have also included so effects seen or felt by those who are effected>

<i, myself, had a seemingly had a correctly and successful docking done. But as i grew older i lost most sensations in my tail unless directly touch. When touched it can be extremely painful for me.>

1. A side effect of this surgery in some resulted in growths at the tail tip. Which requires more surgeries to remove them. <i saw a case where a troll had to have surgery twice a month to remove the growths.>

2. Only the tip bone was added back onto the tail, causeing no room to wag or wiggle. <which we all know is extremely important> This botched surgery often leads to pain an inability to express onesself correctly.

3. Tail was removed completely. Causing major pain and a lose of balance. Most with this are now what humans classify as disabled. Their lose of balance and pain make them unable to work or keep a house-hold.

There are many others, of course, but tjese are the few that stepped forward and reported their woes.

~Next is a diagram of the surgery(done correctly).~

~end here~

There are still families that still have this surgery done, but it is much less common now.

Had to draw my Gurty girl, she’s a dirty girl!

out of curiosity, what ARE the proper names?

I'm glad you asked!

Tails are "docked". Ears are "cropped". Dewclaws are simply "removed".

When someone says "I hate when people dock ears" or "I hate when people crop tails" it makes them sound like they don't actually know what goes into the procedures or why they are done, which bothers me immensely because when I take such a firm stance on something, I try to be as educated as possible on the subject.

In the controversy of cropping and docking you have a plethora of people who frankly do not know how to select a vet that does it correctly for the breed in question, you have people who use scissors (*shudder*) and butcher knives (*shudder more*) and rubber bands (*twitch*), you have people who don't realize that all of these surgeries MUST occur very young in order to remain "correct" and still be considered humane by veterinary medicine. I know of folks who have rescued traditionally-done breeds natural at a couple years old and have taken them in to have them cropped and/or docked. NO NO NO NO NO!!! With doberman, the tail and dewclaws are done at 2-3 days old, and the ears are done at 6-8 weeks old- 12 weeks being the absolute oldest and most highly recommend against it, harder on the pup and harder to get the ears to stand correctly. That means that reputable breeders will be cropping and docking and removing the dewclaws before the puppy even goes home, as they don't let their puppies go prior to 8 weeks (and some wait until 14-16!).

Well, the post was actually about people getting the names incorrect, and not the practice itself. Ears are “cropped”. Tails are “docked”. Dewclaws are neither cropped nor docked but instead just “removed”. For some reason that gets switched with a lot of people who are against the practice… not sure why but it aggravates me.

For the doberman, the breed I’m actually interested in, the idea was to create a dog that had as little hanging parts as necessary for when they were in combat with an attacker. The crops were MUCH shorter (now called military-crops) and tails nearly nonexistent, as well as no loose skin or long hair, for the adversary to grab and possibly hurt or control the dog with. However, when this practice was started, our knowledge of animal medical care and how much pain is ethical for them was… lackluster… and nowadays the medical care and pain management is significantly improved. Dogs seem to be more affected by their spay/neuter than their crop/dock, nowadays.

In addition it was once thought that cropping a loose floppy ear would help fight against ear infections. This has since been disproven. It is thought that the cropped ear has a significant improvement to hearing, this is neither disproven or proven but is widely regarded as either too minimal to matter or just a myth.

At the end of the day it boils down to tradition and standard- the American standard calls for crop&dock, the breed was originally cropped&docked, and even though certain countries have made it illegal, the general public still sees certain breeds (such as doberman) as being cropped&docked and (especially in America) are not willing to part with that tradition and will not adopt a doberman from a shelter or rescue if it’s not cropped&docked.

There are even some people (in all countries) that don’t know that doberman are not a naturally bob-tailed prick-earred breed. When I had my Skoll, who was rescued at 2.5yrs and already cropped&docked, I did have a few people thanking me for not cropping him. Like, seriously, they looked at his ears and said “thank you for leaving him natural”. Um, okay. According to several people on my dobe forum, that’s not all that uncommon.

As someone who doesn’t like the idea of surgery for pure owner benefit on any animal, while I’m on the fence about the practice as a whole I do lean more towards a natural dog. Luckily, my breeder also prefers a natural dog, which is very uncommon in reputable American breeders. I will be getting at least a natural-earred pup from her and I’m crossing my fingers for tail and dewclaws to remain attached as well. She takes a poll from her buyers and then acts accordingly to how many people also prefer a natural dog. She was frustrated this current litter, because, as she puts it, “it seems America is not ready for an all-natural litter”.

Also note, I put spays and neuters under “purely for owner benefit” surgeries, because contrary to popular belief, it actually is possible to keep an intact male and female separate and not contribute to the overpopulation problem. My future pup will not be considered to be neutered until he is at least 18-24mos, in which case it will depend how well he turns out as a sport prospect. Sport dogs are not commonly spayed or neutered, as it can affect their drives which affects their overall performance. In addition, large breed dogs such as doberman should not be spayed or neutered until they are done growing, which occurs at that age.