To dock or not to dock?

[Shoshido]

Hi! Im brand new to this forum and need some help asap. I was given a 7 or 8 week old rottie pup whose tail has not been docked. Is it too late??? Should I just forget about it??? Help!!!!!

[Nancy Estes]

I, personally, would not recommend having a puppy's tail docked at this age. If you'll click on "search" in upper right of page you'll find several previous discussions on this.

Nancy

------------------
von Dorow Rottweilers
doggo1@apex2000.net

[antonschinkel]

Hi,

Usually the tail is docked within days from birth. I guess you leave the tail on as it is now. Just remember, you gave your dog a really important social dog feature, namely a tail.

Anton

[Jay]

At this age it is best for the pup, to leave the tail as is, it does not take long to get used to the pup being undocked (word?) at all.

[Starsmom]

Shoshido, I had the same dicision to make. We got Starr at 5 weeks with her tail. She was much to young to be away from her mother at that age and I later found out that her mother was put to sleep because the jerk my husband got her from claims he didn't have the room to keep her, which was the reason he got rid of the puppies so young. Anyway I talked with some of the people in this group and looked at past post and bonded with Starr and decided that she had a beautiful tail and I couldn't see the point in causing her any pain just for cosmetic purposes or to prove to anyone that she is a real Rottweiler. I know what my dog is and she know's what she is. A beautiful, perfect Rottweiler who just happens to have a tail. We just tell people she's German http://www.rottweiler.net/rottie/smile.gif