Doberman Puppies Blog

Most people consider it obvious that a Doberman’s tail should be docked… but why? What is this tradition? Is it really useful or only a useless pain for the puppy?

Originally, their tails were docked to prevent injuries of this working dog. Tails can get easily broken or hurt – either by chance or by people on purpose… so the purpose to have it docked was to ‘protect’ the dog from injuries. As the docking itself happen within 48 hours after birth, the pups normally don’t suffer pain or shock.

On the other hand, there are some people who think it is totally useless to dock the tail and that it is not biologically acceptable to “take a part of the dog’s body away”, practically for fashion and tradition. Some people also believe that the tail does have its functions, helping the balance, for example.

All in all, if you wish to have a long-tailed Doberman pup, you should talk with the breeder in advance, before the pups are born. If you have doubts how a Doberman looks like without having the tail docked and ears cropped, here is an example.

Although we usually see Dobermans with a short tail, they are actually born with a tail that is longer than that of many breeds. The short tail is a result of a procedure called: ” Docking”. In this proceedure, the majority of the tail is surgically removed within days of the dog’s birth. These days, docking is illegal in a number of countries. Exceptions are: North America, France, Russia, Japan and some other countries where there is a large population of Dobermans. Docking is normally done soon after the dog’s birth. This means that the breeder nearly always makes the decision before the dogs are even put on the market. Some believe that docking a Doberman’s tail creates a sleek look that the dog is supposed to have. By “supposed to have”, I mean how Louis Dobermann originally envisioned the dog to look. Nature had other ideas it seems, but that does not stop people from docking a Dobie’s tail.

A Dobie with a long tail…as nature intended…

A Dobie with a docked tail….as humans intended…