Some people simply should not be allowed to own dogs.

[HannsG]

Walking Max again this morning. 4 months old and self gratuitous pic down below.


Few days back I saw a guy and his daughter with a young doberman pup. At first sight the tail looked docked. Anyway said hello and socialised both dogs to some extent

Saw them this morning and both ears were splinted. Is the cropping of ears still allowed?

He lives on a residential street and works in a factory. Doubt the dog is used for hunting or tracking or farming.

His pup said hello again, but wanted to play.... He had no control on his lead, the collar was not suitable and in all honesty a pup that boisterous probably requires a harness?

God knows, but when I saw him trying to get his pup to walk away and him smacking him. Yes smacking him to redirect him to the park.

I was just like wtf. Ain't had the dog barely a week and already shouting and smacking him and mutilating him.

I am far from perfect, and I will get off my perch. But I honestly was shocked.

Edited by HannsG on Thursday 6th August 09:48

[Chainsaw Rebuild]

I have often thought you should need to meet some kind of criteria to have a dog, just to stop idiots mis treating them. If you think you need to then contact the RSPCA.

[Unknown_User]

Any person that mutilates a dog in order to make it look 'hard' is an utter and should never be allowed anywhere near a dog.

fking cowardly bds.

[Audicab]

I've had my dog for 2 years and I'm shocked by the owners of some poor animals that I've met on walks.

The amount of aggressive dogs that can't be let off leads, uncontrollable pulling when on leads and owners that have no idea how to manage their pet.

I'm certainly no expert but we paid for a few sessions with a dog psychologist not to train the dog but to teach us as owners how to train and manage a dog. It has certainly paid off.

It must be incredibly stressful to have a badly behaved dog that you can't trust around other dogs/people.

[Pieman68]

Awful to hear. Out of interest any idea of why you would do that to the ears?

We have a cocker - the number of them that you see that are docked is ridiculous. Obviously understand if they are working dogs but it appears that many are done as puppies

Fortunately, our Cooper has his full tail. Stunned he hasn't damaged it yet though with the amount of back-end wiggle we get

We're still undecided on the full mutilation though. Although we don't plan to breed him at all (luxating patella is genetic I believe so would not be the right thing to do anyway), and aware of the medical advantages of neutering, I just find it difficult to chop the lads balls off

[Muzzer79]

Audicab said:

I've had my dog for 2 years and I'm shocked by the owners of some poor animals that I've met on walks.

The amount of aggressive dogs that can't be let off leads, uncontrollable pulling when on leads and owners that have no idea how to manage their pet.

I'm certainly no expert but we paid for a few sessions with a dog psychologist not to train the dog but to teach us as owners how to train and manage a dog. It has certainly paid off.

It must be incredibly stressful to have a badly behaved dog that you can't trust around other dogs/people.

Be careful how quick you are to judge.

My dog can't be let off a lead. He also may appear aggressive to you - if I was on a walk and saw you and your dog, my dog would go absolutely spare.

The reason? He was mis-treated as a puppy and also never socialised properly. We rescued him at 18 months old, 18 months ago.

We work with a dog psychologist regularly and he's made lots of progress, but it's a long, hard road.

It's worth it to see the small, gradual improvements in him but one of my frustrations is other dog owners tutting at me, rolling their eyes and/or not controlling their off-lead dogs around us because they think my dog is badly behaved.

Yes, it is incredibly stressful.

[Dodsy]

Ear cropping is illegal in the uk i know some vets are now taking a stand and refuse to take on anyone who has a cropped dog.

[Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area]

Pieman68 said:

We have a cocker - the number of them that you see that are docked is ridiculous. Obviously understand if they are working dogs but it appears that many are done as puppies

Fortunately, our Cooper has his full tail. Stunned he hasn't damaged it yet though with the amount of back-end wiggle we get

You’ve kind of answered your own question there. My old Springer had a full tail and would regularly wound it with excess wagging, so we had our current one docked by a third by her breeder to prevent this. She’s only made it bleed once in over 3 years, and I wouldn’t hesitate to have it done to future Spaniels.

OP - maybe the RSPCA would like to hear about your neighbour’s dog.

[Unknown_User]

Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area said:

Pieman68 said:

We have a cocker - the number of them that you see that are docked is ridiculous. Obviously understand if they are working dogs but it appears that many are done as puppies

Fortunately, our Cooper has his full tail. Stunned he hasn't damaged it yet though with the amount of back-end wiggle we get

You’ve kind of answered your own question there. My old Springer had a full tail and would regularly wound it with excess wagging, so we had our current one docked by a third by her breeder to prevent this. She’s only made it bleed once in over 3 years, and I wouldn’t hesitate to have it done to future Spaniels.

OP - maybe the RSPCA would like to hear about your neighbour’s dog.

Yep, Pieman68 clearly proves the fact that you don't have to butcher a puppy.

Please supply the name of the butchering breeder so we can avoid them.

[Chainsaw Rebuild]

Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area said:

You’ve kind of answered your own question there. My old Springer had a full tail and would regularly wound it with excess wagging, so we had our current one docked by a third by her breeder to prevent this. She’s only made it bleed once in over 3 years, and I wouldn’t hesitate to have it done to future Spaniels.

OP - maybe the RSPCA would like to hear about your neighbour’s dog.

Both my Dad's spaniels were partially docked, probably about 1/3 or 1/4 off as puppies before he had even been to see them for this reason. The second one came with some kind of ticket from a vet to say it was legit.

[HannsG]

Dodsy said:

Ear cropping is illegal in the uk i know some vets are now taking a stand and refuse to take on anyone who has a cropped dog.

Who would have carried out the procedure you think? The puppies ears were cropped within 2 days of obtaining him it seems.

Surely not come backyard hack job? Has to be a vet right?

[Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area]

Unknown_User said:

Yep, Pieman68 clearly proves the fact that you don't have to butcher a puppy.

Please supply the name of the butchering breeder so we can avoid them.

That makes no sense. Would you rather my dog thrashed her tail around and cut it like my old one used to do quite frequently, possibly leading to it becoming infected?

[Unknown_User]

Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area said:

Unknown_User said:

Yep, Pieman68 clearly proves the fact that you don't have to butcher a puppy.

Please supply the name of the butchering breeder so we can avoid them.

That makes no sense. Would you rather my dog thrashed her tail around and cut it like my old one used to do quite frequently, possibly leading to it becoming infected?

At the time, your breeder would have no idea if your dog would damage its tail. As Pieman68 clearly states, his dog has not damaged its tail. Whilst in some circumstances I agree that butchering and mutilating dogs can stop injuries from becoming infected or worsening, however I strongly disagree with the practise because 'just in case'.

You may find butchering and mutilating puppies acceptable, others may disagree.

[bexVN]

HannsG said:

Dodsy said:

Ear cropping is illegal in the uk i know some vets are now taking a stand and refuse to take on anyone who has a cropped dog.

Who would have carried out the procedure you think? The puppies ears were cropped within 2 days of obtaining him it seems.

Surely not come backyard hack job? Has to be a vet right?

Sadly there are breeders who will do it though still rare. If a vet is doing it they are doing it illegally and I can't see how they wouldn't get found out. Some pups are imported from countries that do allow it.

Ear cropping seems to be gaining fashion in this country (it was basically never seen in this country until more recent years) which is distressing.

Tail docking should only be done on a working breed where the pups are likely to go to a working home, though that is never going to be a 100% guarantee as pups need to be docked usually before a home is found for them.

https://www.rspca.org.uk/-/dog-breeder-to-little-m...

[Dodsy]

HannsG said:

Dodsy said:

Ear cropping is illegal in the uk i know some vets are now taking a stand and refuse to take on anyone who has a cropped dog.

Who would have carried out the procedure you think? The puppies ears were cropped within 2 days of obtaining him it seems.

Surely not come backyard hack job? Has to be a vet right?

Breeder with a razor blade and no anaesthetic . No vet would do it as its up to £20k fine and a year jail time.

Or he may have done it DIY there are plenty of youtube videos showing how to do it yourself.

Edited by Dodsy on Thursday 6th August 13:21

[rev-erend]

Ear and tail cropping are illegal these days. Think tails can be docked if there is a medical reason.

I find dogs on a harnesses harder to control than on a collar, on a harness they have much more strength and side to side control
is much harder.

I have 2 huskies and use harnesses is we are running but for walking in busy area's like towns I always switch the lead
to their collar.

[bexVN]

rev-erend said:

Ear and tail cropping are illegal these days. Think tails can be docked if there is a medical reason.

I find dogs on a harnesses harder to control than on a collar, on a harness they have much more strength and side to side control
is much harder.

I have 2 huskies and use harnesses is we are running but for walking in busy area's like towns I always switch the lead
to their collar.

Ear cropping has been illegal for years in the UK and even before the welfare act it was rarely ever done in the UK, it just wasn't part of the aesthetics and was very much frowned upon in veterinary circles. In my 30yrs as a vet nurse I only ever saw procedures on ears for medical reasons.

Tail docking is illegal but has exemptions the breeder is supposed to show proof (and a licence) that the puppies being docked are born of working stock and intended for working homes (this is not 100 fullproof though)

[Unknown_User]

bexVN said:

rev-erend said:

Ear and tail cropping are illegal these days. Think tails can be docked if there is a medical reason.

I find dogs on a harnesses harder to control than on a collar, on a harness they have much more strength and side to side control
is much harder.

I have 2 huskies and use harnesses is we are running but for walking in busy area's like towns I always switch the lead
to their collar.

Ear cropping has been illegal for years in the UK and even before the welfare act it was rarely ever done in the UK, it just wasn't part of the aesthetics and was very much frowned upon in veterinary circles. In my 30yrs as a vet nurse I only ever saw procedures on ears for medical reasons.

Tail docking is illegal but has exemptions the breeder is supposed to show proof (and a licence) that the puppies being docked are born of working stock and intended for working homes (this is not 100 fullproof though)

When I see dogs in the USA, sadly it appears that large numbers of them have their tails and ears butchered. It appears to my untrained eyes that large muscular dogs are popular in the USA and could this large, muscular cropped ears/tail dog thing be spilling over to the UK?

[Boosted LS1]

By coincidence I've just had a walk round some gravel pits and bumped into 2 dobermans with cropped ears. I asked the owners about it and they said they like to buy eastern european dogs. The woman had an accent so maybe from that region. It used to be done to make the dogs look fearsome like a devil dog but is pointless and no doubt painful.

[Nezquick]

HannsG said:

Walking Max again this morning. 4 months old and self gratuitous pic down below.


Few days back I saw a guy and his daughter with a young doberman pup. At first sight the tail looked docked. Anyway said hello and socialised both dogs to some extent

Saw them this morning and both ears were splinted. Is the cropping of ears still allowed?

He lives on a residential street and works in a factory. Doubt the dog is used for hunting or tracking or farming.

His pup said hello again, but wanted to play.... He had no control on his lead, the collar was not suitable and in all honesty a pup that boisterous probably requires a harness?

God knows, but when I saw him trying to get his pup to walk away and him smacking him. Yes smacking him to redirect him to the park.

I was just like wtf. Ain't had the dog barely a week and already shouting and smacking him and mutilating him.

I am far from perfect, and I will get off my perch. But I honestly was shocked.

Edited by HannsG on Thursday 6th August 09:48

He's a lovely looking dog!