Is a dog incomplete without cropped ears or docked tails?

One of our clients called me to come to his home at once, his Rottweiler gave birth that morning. I don’t usually ask questions before getting to any client’s house with a newly delivered bitch. I got there and noticed the man was really worried but couldn’t tell why. I quickly went to work and started arranging the kennel for the bitch to breast feed the puppies properly. My work was easy because the bitch was very nice to me – I guess she knew I was helping her.

I returned to the owner to explain how they would carry on from where I stopped and met the man with his index finger in his front teeth thinking. I thought he was thinking about family issues or something that does not concern me so I tried to ignore him and went on with my advice.

When I was done, he calmly said:  â€œdoctor are these puppies pure, why do they have tails, do they have some genetic problem?”

I froze! I didn’t know where to start to explain to the man because I didn’t want to explode in laughter. According to him, the vendor that sold the dogs to him told him that they were born without tails.

I gave him a smile seeing the level of seriousness in his eyes and told him that ALL ROTTWEILERS ARE BORN WITH TAILS but that many of them had their tails removed or docked earlier in life, some as early as 3 days old. I brought out my dog breeds encyclopedia to show him the one with tail and explained to him that some countries have banned these practices but that we in Nigeria still practice it. He eventually asked me to dock the tails of all his puppies.

I have heard people over and over asking me to help them source for that dog without ears -Yes they are referring to Caucasian breed. Who told them that the dogs were born without ears?

If you conduct a survey right now in Nigeria it will surprise you to note that so many dog lovers do not know that Rottweiler dogs are born with tails and are removed to make them look like they are -without tails.

Sincerely speaking, I will love a Rottweiler without the tail or a Caucasian dog with cropped ears. I don’t like the idea of removing a part of a dog but I guess they look better that way. Many of us might have same preference because it has been widely practiced.

It might surprise you to know that if you refuse to dock the tail of your Rottweiler puppies or crop the ear of your Caucasian puppies that you may never be able to sell them or you might end up selling them at very reduced price.

To some Nigerians, leaving those parts of the dog is an aberration and reduces the value of the puppy.

I have seen so many other dog loving Nigerians that hate to hear about these practices and never does them to their own dogs.

Conclusion

As long as there is no law banning these mutilations on dogs, anyone is free to do it to his or her dog without any consequence. It is worthy to note that some countries will not allow such mutilation by law except they were done to save the dog from one ailment or the other.

Let me at that the docking a dog’s tail won’t make him aggressive or ‘wicked’ like some people might want to make you believe. There is no connection at all. It is strictly cosmetic.

Some people also say that cropping the ear of Caucasians was practiced to reduce the possibility of ear infections resulting from leaving the ear intact. I don’t know how true that is because I have seen so many of these dogs in our care living well without ear infections.