At what age do you dock tails?

[hntr4life]

I've got a litter on the ground and wondering when I can dock the tails. They're 3 weeks old today.

[ncmailman]

According to the vet book I've got it should be done at less than a week old.We used to do rat terriers at about 3 days old, before the bones get hard. Check with the vet , maybe he could still do it.

[Benny G]

The vet can always do it. I dock them the day that they are born, but because of things going on, have done them as old as three days. You can do them yourself right now if you use an elasterator band, but I have always doubled up on the bands when docking older dogs, just as an insurance policy.

[Ranger]

You can always take a dogs tail off. Just lop it off with an ax. Sounds bad but it seems safer to me than the bands. I killed a dog from massive infection doing the band thing. And he was on antibiotics to.
They will bleed what looks like alot but if u help them out and put pressure where is needed u can all but stop it till it clots up. Another thing is I have found if you pull on the skin of the tail sliding it towards the dogs rear then cut it off, It will have just enough extra skin to cover up the bony tip off the tail.

[pegleg]

my experience maybe different then others. the country I hunt is about as rough as I have seen between rocks and thorn covered vegetation. I don't dock tails on mine unless they are one of the rare ones that develop a real issue. only one in ten seem to really tear up their tales. if a real issue develops I'll have their tail docked by the vet, other then that I'd say it's mostly a aesthetic thing that I'm not into.

[jgagne57]

Pegleg I agree 100%. When you look at a dog run,it,s tail is allways spinning,they use it as a counter wieght. The few dogs (3 or 4) that I saw with their tail docked seem to be off-balance when running. JMO

[hemihound0713]

We use to dock the Rottweilers dew claws and tail between 3 and 5 days. They always looked good and healed fast. I also docked one of my last hound pups for its owner at 3 days but we did not do a full dock like a rottweiler we just too about 1/3 of the tail off like you would for a weimaraner.