M A N R O S E Old English Sheepdogs

Origin of docking until today with tails

Why the dog has been docked? The reasons are varied. A risk of injury when short coated breeds were used for hunting and the main reason is tradition.

There are sources that say docking was already known in the ancient world and the practise was brought to England before the Norman war. From the historical point of view it was done to protect the animal from injury at the hunt and events like dog - and rat fights. They also believed it may help to protect the animal from rabies and worming.

There are different assumptions how it came about that the OES is docked. Here is one of them.

Because there were rude manners, destitution and hunger, poaching was penalized very hard. The landlords, the owners of the forests did not want to incur a loss from hunting dogs. So they only allowed their tenants dogs in a certain size for crop duster, which could not be dangerous to the rabbits and game. In the literature there is a forest law mentioned (1598-1796) which had a tax for dogs. Only those dogs that were used for work and did not hunt were exempt from taxation. The tails of the dogs were docked in the supposition that a dog with a bobbed tail would be so much more handicapped in balance and mobility so they would not be successful in hunting anymore.

So the attribute of the working dog was then that they were docked. When the tax was repealed in 1795 it was already tradition. People get used to the look of an OES being bobtailed. Even in the very first breed standard the docked tail was declared.

In old Books it's also written about the natural bob tailed puppies. They say it's a fact that one or two puppies could be born natural bobtailed in a litter, while the rest of them have a long tail. They also say that some stud dogs give more often birth to natural bobtailed puppies. It's also described, that it could happen that in a litter there were all varieties of tails. - normal ones, some with short tails which had to be docked as well and even some without tails. These days it is seen extremely rarely, but we also had one who was born with a natural bob tail.

To the End of the 1980's the numbers of breeders increased who didn't want to dock anymore, most of the time for ethical reasons. Between the years 1987 and 2007 in many countries of Europe tail docking was forbidden because they ratified the "European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals". In Switzerland we have the prohibition of tail docking since 1997; exceptions are made for medical reasons. Since 2007 in England tail docking is forbidden too. The FCI breed standard was accorded to the new circumstances. Very often those countries who have a law against tail docking also ban docked dogs from shows. (mostly corresponding to the date the law was published)

Contrarily there is in 2009 a discussion in the American Old English Sheepdog club to disadvantage undocked dogs at their shows. But maybe also there the docking ban will be adopted one day.





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