Tails, dew claws & ears!

Why don't we dock, dew claw or crop?

  We once offered docking if individuals asked for it at birth.  We had one client ask for the procedure to be done.  It was fairly simple: go in, have the vet clip it with scissors, stitch it, and go home.  Ignore the fact that puppies have both efferent and afferent neurons that transfer pain signals to the brain. So, we looked into it further. Why was it a tradition, was it still useful, and did we want to continue this in our breeding?

The following two weeks were not simple at all.  I had to keep Fairlight from doing her job of pulling out the stitches when she cleaned the puppy stools (though that wasn't successful).  Then I had to keep a sharp eye on the pup and put Tea Tree Oil on it to keep it from getting infected.  It was a nightmare that I will never inflict upon a dog or our family!

Every dog coming from our home will have a delighful tail to tell the tales of his or her emotions.  We made the conscious decision to fall deeply in love with tails!

As I have researched online and discussed docking with a veterinarian my concerns have been confirmed that they do have neurons in their tails detecting pain at birth. 

Docking of a Miniature Schnauzer is purely for an aesthetic purpose.  In Europe an enormous study followed dogs of all sizes and breeds to see if tails needed to be docked.  This was done after the ban was enacted.  The conclusion was that dogs that are getting injured are large breeds with tails that either hit against a wall or get stuck in a door. 

Also included in that study was information on Dew claw removal.  It was also apparent that only the big dogs really had a major portion of the problem with them.  The large dogs had an enormous amount of weight so occasionally when a large dog would jump up on something they would injure their dewclaws.  

 In millions of dogs only 3% of any of the dogs had injuries that required any medical intervention; and most of those dogs were not breeds that normally had tail docking or dew claw removal.

A different vet we spoke to said that rear dew claws can be very painful if caught, so we went and had them removed in our 2nd litter of puppies.  After reading the documentation given to us post "surgery" I was shocked to discover that the vet had on the information page that this procedure was done for a purely aesthetic purpose common in Schnauzers.

Bodies have afferent (pick up sensory information) and efferent (tell our muscles to do things) neurons.  When our puppies are born and I gently pulled or touched their tails they exhibit that they have the use of both.  Some vets argue that their pain receptors are not yet connected. 

I was not present, my husband Brian was, and the vet had convinced him to have the front dew claws taken as well.  At this point I think he did that it for monetary gain.  I am very disappointed in that vet and will certainly not visit that clinic again.

Some breeders will crop ears to make them stand up. Medically this helps then get fewer ear infections from the moisture being captured by a folded ear. You can also just get ear drops and leave floppy darling ears! Our schnauzers tend to have ears that stand up already...we just don't think surgery for such a small lifeform is very nice.

Extra info

The Finish Schnauzer Pinscher club had their specialty in Helsinki Saturday the 10th of June.

Cropping and docking is forbidden in Finland. All dogs at the specialty show had to have natural tails and ears, unless the dog was born before 2001 when the ban was executed.

 (A white miniature schnauzer placed in the competition.  This information is from a competition in Finland, it has great pictures of Miniature Schnauzers with tails.)

The following breeders make different choices than we do.  Our choices are deliberate and we feel very important.  Both links are provided to give you information about Schnauzers and do not reflect the personal beliefs of our breeding.

The following is a pages are from other breederss  they choose to keep tails and allow toy dogs to go to their new homes too soon.  other than that they have some good information as far as I have read.  I have not scoured their site so they may have other differences that I am unaware of.

http://www.bettsenterprises.com/Schnauzers/docked.htm

The homepage is http://bettsenterprises.com/Schnauzers/Taildocking.html

Here is another link that has information on coat, history, tails/ears/tails, and temperment of healthy Schnauzers.

http://uk.ask.com/wiki/Standard_Schnauzer