| babydungeon,
thanks for adding to the list. that's a pretty reliable explanation as to why the Germans started to dock their tails. I just found an article that went a bit further. It discussed how, when herding, they wanted to dock the tails of the dogs because they always dragged through cow manure and would get infected, especially if they were scratched up already.
There's another interesting story about taxation. If a dog had a tail, it was taxed, so local farmers would dock the tails of their dogs to prove they were working dogs, so they wouldn't get taxed. I guess if you had a dog with an undocked tail, it was considered a luxury item at the time.
I tried to locate the story you alluded to, but I couldn't find it in the archives. Any idea where it is?
Mark |