The Cropping and Docking topic rears its head again

Dogster.com had an article this week, written by Annie Phenix of "Ask the Trainer" columnship, on her stance of cropping and docking. She seems to be of the opinion that it causes behavioral, emotional, and social problems for dogs, which is an interesting topic, to be sure, though not one any actual scientific research has been done on (that I know of; the body of research I have at my fingertips could be considered limited. I'd love to read it if such studies have been done and published!)

However, she also opens the article with the obviously-meant-to-be-facetious comparison that she wanted her (grown) German Shepherd to "look more tough", so decided to dock and crop the (adult) dog. This is simply not done. A tail dock at an adult age is a full on amputation, and that dog will miss his or her tail. A tail dock done to a puppy is minimal, done at 3ish days before the bones have ossified, and with appropriate pain management and anesthetic. Ears must be cropped prior to 12 weeks, or you'll end up with a crop and flop, so might as well have gone natural anyway. I also found the article to be rather anthropomorphic, but as I attribute thoughts and feelings to Elka all the time, I don't really want to be a hypocrite. Just thought I'd mention.

The ONE thing

I see this topic a lot on dog message boards. I figured I'd ask it here, because after all, you guys are my "dog people" too!

What is the ONE thing you wish you knew before you brought your dog home?

I of course can't limit it to one. But I've got a solid five, anyway.

"Just a dog"

There are times new members come on to Doberman Talk, and I truly hope these individuals are trolls. I'm not sure why people troll Doberman boards of all places, but it happens. But, why do I hope they're trolls? Because they disregard things that members, members who are more experienced and learned and all of that than I, who have had the infinite heartbreak of their dogs being sick and dying too early, and only want the best for the breed, and the best for individual puppies. And those new people? They say "You guys are too serious." They say "It's just a dog."

I mean, yes. It is "just a dog". But don't you want the best dog? Don't you want the dog who will last you the longest, have a great temperament, have the fewest health problems?

Doberman Health: Hips and Elbows

In my "Picking a Breeder" page (you'll see it up top there), I state that you want to look for a breeder who has gone through either OFA or Penn Hip for their dogs. Hip dysplasia and elbow dysplasia are crippling and painful conditions that can affect dogs. In addition to the (to me) obvious quality of life concern, a dog crippled by one or both of these conditions is not a dog that does well in conformation competitions (or should not, anyway), and cannot adequately perform in working venues.

(an x-ray of normal hips, from Wikipedia Commons)

The Doberman: Ear Cropping and Posting

In The Doberman: Do the Looks Make the Breed? I talked about cropping and docking. Today I thought I would take it a little bit further and talk about ear cropping and the aftercare, posting specifically.

Before I got Elka, I didn't really think much about how Doberman ears got that way. When I learned that it was a surgery at around 7-12 weeks, I wasn't too bothered by it, clearly. I wasn't even too phased by the notion of posting the ears (which is what you call it when you have them taped like that), though I should have given that more thought, I think. Imagine a 16 week puppy whose had the post pop out of place, whining as you fix her up again. It was a process, and we got off easy! Elka was cropped in July, and by the end of August, we were no longer taping her ears. Some people have to tape them for a year or more!