The American Beagler Forum

I AM KEEPING A MALE PUP OUT OF A LITTER I HAVE AND WANT TO DOCK HIS TAIL CAUSE IT LOOKS GOOD PLUS BOTH PARENTS TEAR THEIR TAILS UP BAD AND I HEARD NOW IS THE TIME TO DO IT,HE IS 5 DAYS OLD,WHAT DO I NEED TO DO?

danny vansickle wrote:I AM KEEPING A MALE PUP OUT OF A LITTER I HAVE AND WANT TO DOCK HIS TAIL CAUSE IT LOOKS GOOD PLUS BOTH PARENTS TEAR THEIR TAILS UP BAD AND I HEARD NOW IS THE TIME TO DO IT,HE IS 5 DAYS OLD,WHAT DO I NEED TO DO?

I can tell you how we do cocker spaniel tails at that age. clamp down with a pair of forceps where you want the tail docked. This will crush the tail and you can twist and snip off with scissors. Hold the forceps in place for about 30 seconds. It may bleed a little but, not much and will heal nicely.

Leah

I recommend that you take a very small rubber bad and put around the base of the tail for a few minutes then take a very sharp pair of scissors and cut it to the desired length. Pull the rubber bad off and it will be fine but this needs be done before they are three days old. May bleed a little but it should stop in a few minutes.

he is five days,i think i will just take him to a vet if there is no for sure safe way at this age.

I dock alot of puppies tails and it is BEST to do it when they are 2 to 3 days old and no later. Here's how I do it, take a sharp knife and cut it, take flour or baby powder to clot the blood and they should be fine, I have never had any problems.

T&T KENNELS wrote:I dock alot of puppies tails and it is BEST to do it when they are 2 to 3 days old and no later. Here's how I do it, take a sharp knife and cut it, take flour or baby powder to clot the blood and they should be fine, I have never had any problems.

Not saying this is right or wrong but, what kind of ends do you get? I found that if I crush them with forceps they healed much nicer and were covered with hair. I also found that I'd have a few get weak if I did it at 2 or 3 days so, I started doing it at 5 days and it made a world of difference and didn't seem to matter to the puppy.. as a matter of fact they cried less.

Leah

Back when I was raising mtn. curs I would cut the tails at 2 or 3 days old and apply corn starch to assist with the clotting. I always kept them seperate from the female for an hour or so to keep her from licking before it had time to clot up good.

I'm not at all for all this tail docking going on, but will offer a little advice. If you just take off no more than just the very tip of a 3-5 day old pups tail, it will only grow to about 3/4 full length when full grown. I only know this from having a tiny bit of afterbirth dry up on the tip of Bob Patch's tail and when cutting off his front dewcalws at 5 days old, I picked off the crusty scab on the tip of his tail. It looked like only the hair on the tip had become matted but there must have been a vertabrae or two in the matte that the blood was cut off too. When he grew, his tail was only 3/4 full length, so this may be the look what most of you are after, taking off just a little as a puppy ='s a good bit when full grown...

A Brittany Spaniel, the tail is cut 3/4 inch from the base shortly after birth, when grown, the tail is hardly 2"s long...

i have to doctor bandit and tinas tails all the time and i figured that docking this dogs tail would help

Danny, my son and his wife raise rotties, they go to Southern States or Tractor Supply and purchase the small nutering bands for pigs, you can place them on your puppies tail at where you want to shorten it to and it will dock cleanly at 4 to 6 days. Hope this helps.

James

someone told me to wrap rubberbands around it and it would fall off but castation bands sounds cleaner,thanks james.

i dock austrilain sheps & yorkies i do it in 2 or 3 days i used sharp sissors cut them off put them back with mom and she will take care of them.

I have done pittbull tails at 3- 4 days old. Dont foget to pull the skin towards the body it covers the end nicely. I have even put a stitch or two in them. I used a surgical scissor from tractor supply