Australia: tails but not dewclaws?

[Irena]

I've been wondering - if ears and tails (now) cannot be cropped/docked anymore, does it apply to removing dewclaws (esp. on the front legs) too? Or does the ban only concern tails, and removing dewclaws is seen as more humane/necessary or something?

(I am pro-docking, I'm just wondering)

[marjolein]

We've never removed dew-claws on the front legs over here. I do know the dew claws are removed shortly after birth in a lot of breeds. They still do it, but I'm not sure if that's legal or not.

[syrinx]

Ears have not been able to be cropped here in my lifetime (don't be rude!) Dewclaws are still legal, front back and anywhere else. Although my vet did ask ME if he could still do it when I took my pups in!
Wendy

[anne]

That doesn't make sense to me... why are dewclaws allowed to be removed but not the tail? It's OK to "mutilate" one part of the body but not the other? That is strange. Can someone shed some light?

[Ingvild]

Here we are not allowed to remove tails or dew claws.

[syrinx]

Well, dewclaws are seen as getting caught on things and being easily damaged. We have an Australian Kelpie who has dewclaws that grow in a circle and grow into her legs. Not a nice thing at all. We got her as an adult, and she will not let anyone touch her feet. They are very fleshy ones that stand off her legs like thumbs. But don't worry, I am sure that dew claws will be on the list of things to ban. On my website I have a picture of the tail of our Bailey. She was born two weeks after the docking ban was brought in, so she has a long tail. She wags it very fast and hard, and splits the end of it regularly. Now she has a scar on both sides of her tail where hair no longer grows. She will not let you touch her tail at all, which would be a problem if she was a show girl. At the Sydney Royal Show in 2003 and 2004 we had to put up with abuse from people for having dogs with docked tails. Some people listened to the explanations about tail damage, but most were die hard animal rights people, or those who had read PETA propaganda, and didn't want to listen. So I have the pictures up there for people to see why.
Wendy

[daniela]

With a tail docking ban there, are you seeing a consistency with the length of undocked dogs' tails?

When I have seen the occasional few here (undocked), the majority have very long tails which come right down in between the hocks but there have been the odd one or two who have had naturally shorter tails. By that, I still mean long but nothing compared to those who have them in between their hocks.

[syrinx]

I got to see different lenghts in my own litter. My longhair girl's tail comes to just the top of the hock. The longhair pup got that length. The smooth girl has a tail that is, I swear, the length of a Great Dane! It is almost to the floor. Now why couldn't it have been the other way around?
At the shows, I am seeing long tails. My girl is from English (really German) lines, so maybe that's where her shorter tail comes from. Her Grandfather & GGrandfather is Eng Sh Ch Pondridge Practical Joker.
For a while, many breeders were still docking, then some were taking off the last few (thinnest) inches. Now there have been charges in some States, so I notice that many are just leaving them. I just HATE them. I want to only breed longhairs so I don't have long, thin, bleeding tails to deal with, but the gene pool of longhairs is really only about three or four lines, so long to long is not great, although with my girl Lara, she is of a quite different line to most, so genetically we could do it. I chose to use LHCs to try to widen our gene pool, so then I have to have the tails. Still, my next litter I am looking at keeping a long. My longhair boy, Riley Ratbag, is a Chip Great grandson. If someone will tell me how to put pics in the body of the message, I will be more than happy to put some in, including some interesting ones showing the puppies and the length of the tails.
Wendy

[marjolein]

That Pondridge dog is in the lines of the stud I'm about to use too... The world can be so small!!!

[smokeybear]

Gill Smith was a great breeder and then Ruth Williams perfected the working lines.

Not that I am biased at all