At Nothing Better Than Standard Poodles, we leave TAILS and Dewclaws Natural. Here's Why:
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When I first started breeding Poodles all my poodles had show docked tails, and dew claws removed. Back then, if you did not remove and dock you were flagged as a bad breeder. I like the look of docked tails and I personally haven't seen any long term effects of docked tails, like phantom pains, etc.
My problems with docking tails all started with this girl:
You might have noticed that she is dressed as a pirate with a peg leg. This is because she lost that leg due to injury when she was just over 2 years old. I was amazed when she walked out the vet the next day without even seeming to miss the leg. and I started to notice that SHE USED HER TAIL A LOT! Most noticeable is when she wrapped her tail around my leg or arm as leaned on me or when I picked her up. It seems reasonable that a dog with three legs would use their tail more, right? but then I noticed some of the puppies in a litter doing the same thing, wrapping their tail around my back as I carried them football-style. It tugged on my little heart strings.
But since it is the breed standard in AKC I continued docking tails. However, when I started hearing that it was becoming illegal to dock tails (and remove declaws, but we'll get to that) in other countries, I was happy. The arguments go both ways, some saying it might prevent injuries from "Happy tail" and others saying it is only cosmetic. In poodles, I side with the Only cosmetic argument. Sure, a few have injured their tails, but far more do not. As I decided that if it is to change in the US breeders will have to be the ones to make the change. it was a hard decision to make but I asked around and found pictures and success stories of poodles in the showring with natural tails in UKC mostly, but in AKC sometimes now too. Their Tails are there for a reason and I believe they help with their balance, which may, in turn, help with sporting events such as agility, hunting, lure coursing, swimming etc, etc.
Vendetta is one of our puppies who is now a UKC champion, showing with a natural tail.
It was a little harder for me to decide to leave dew claws. I grew up hearing vets and Breeders alike say that if you left the dew claws on it WOULD get caught, rip off, and be very painful for the dog. Would, not could. It even happened to one of my puppies whose dew claws were left on because she was sick when it was time to remove them. one of them got caught in grass, and tore pretty badly, ,they did a surgery and it was much longer recovery then if they had been removed at 3 days. So I didn't take it lightly. But I started seeing articles about carpal tunnel. some said that 90 % of the dogs that came in with pain in the front wrists had their dew claws removed. so again, arguments both ways but I decided that if I wanted to leave the tails natural I should also leave the dew claws natural, They do have a purpose as well. I will try to find a few of the articles that I read and link them below. Have a great day, and remember, this is just my two cents, and why I stopped removing dewclaws and docking tails.
