Canis lupus hominis

Posted in dog breeds | Tagged clumber spaniel | 14 Comments

14 Responses

1. on March 3, 2011 at 9:19 pm landauer

   Why would you cut a tail like that off? It’s awesome.

   
   
2. on March 4, 2011 at 6:24 am tracey

   why would you cut any tail off. i do think they look better like this (and i dont mean my tail bias) they perhaps would not be on the vunerable breeds list if they all looked like these. but people dont want these heavy small dogs, except bassets ofcourse. they must be quite a sight ploughing through undergrowth doing what ever working job it is they were bred to do, a bit like white bulldozers.
   it is a most empresive tail, you have to admit.

   
   
3. on March 4, 2011 at 6:25 am tracey

   sorry that should be impresive. posted before i checked.
   tracey

   
   
4. on March 4, 2011 at 6:26 am HTTrainer

   It is a beautiful tail, but many upland hunters say it would be destroyed if the dog worked in heavy cover. Same reason dew claws are removed, the time the dog is injured it can’t work.

   
   
   • on March 4, 2011 at 8:27 am retrieverman

     I think in the case of Clumbers, they would be wrong. That’s a very thick tail, more like a retriever’s. And the dogs don’t move that fast at all. Springers, a different story. And the HPR’s from the European continent, very different story.

     I’ve never understood the dewclaw thing. Most gun dogs have tight, small dewclaws on the front legs that are next to impossible to tear. If you can see them on goldens, you’ll see what I mean. Where I live is nothing but thick, dense bush, and steep mountains, and I’ve never had a dog of any breed tear a dew claw. And they have always run the cover hard.

     The dewclaws on the hindlegs that some dogs have are quite different, and should be removed. They just lightly ‘stitched’ on.

     I think if you’re going to do any “pre-emptive amputation” you better have a good reason for it.

     And in the case of front dewclaws, there are studies that suggest that removing them predispose the dogs to arthritis in their wrists.

     
     
   • on March 4, 2011 at 8:36 am retrieverman

     http://www.angelfire.com/nc2/Mestena/dewclawsInjury.pdf

     The only reason why Clumbers are docked is because they are spaniels.

     I don’t think anyone looked at the tail of the mature dogs.

     Anyway, cuts on the tail are de rigueur for dogs that run in heavy cover.

     Dewclaw removal on the front legs I think is more based upon common injuries to those on the hind legs, which is not a fair comparison.

     I’d like to see some real statistics that dogs with front dewclaws injury them regularly.

     I think the arthritis issue is enough for me to question the tradition.

     
     
     • on March 4, 2011 at 11:24 am M.R.S.

       Excellent article by Dr. Zink on front dewclaws. I might add, that possibly the most common source of problems in field-trial retrievers is in the carpal joints — and these dogs almost invariably have had the dewclaws removed. “To prevent injury”, Hah. Many of these dogs have to wear support bandages when training…and still come up sore.

       
       
     • on March 4, 2011 at 11:57 am Jess

       I do not remove dewclaws on my pups. If you watch a dog run flat out, the dewclaw is in contact with the ground, and it grips.

       

       Occasionally we will get an injury, usually a broken or pulled out dewclaw. Interestingly, it is always the same dogs, and always the same toe, usually on the left leg. They are obviously doing something or moving in a way that causes a problem.

       They also use their dewclaws to pick eyeboogers out of their eyes.

       
       
       • on March 4, 2011 at 12:36 pm HTTrainer

         Eyeboogers, lol, that’s true. Can they drive a car with ’em?

         
         
         • on March 4, 2011 at 1:25 pm Jess

           I hope I never find out.

           They do use them to manipulate objects, and for gripping when climbing.

           
           
       • on March 7, 2011 at 1:46 pm M.R.S.

         I knew a Golden who could turn doorknobs using his “thumbs” to get a grasp. Yes, he was an escape artist. If he could have found and gripped a key, he would have opened the padlocks needed on the kennel gates!

         
         
5. on March 4, 2011 at 3:49 pm CM

   The retriever should have tight dewclaws and the front dewclaws are often used like a thumb in agility dogs – they grab and balance. The tight turns and the speed on the contact obstacles is more of a challenge for a dog who is lacking dew claws.

   I much prefer the Clumber with a tail – it’s a lovely tail and makes the dog far more appealing.

   
   
6. on March 5, 2011 at 8:21 am Lane Batot

   I have always heard the dew-claw-gets-torn-theory myself, mostly from hound people–so it is a widespread belief. I personally have had numerous dogs with dewclaws that I never bothered to have removed, who ripped through all kinds of thick brush and rugged terrain all their lives, with never a dewclaw torn–but maybe we were just lucky all those years. I DO try to keep the claw part of the dewclaw clipped close–perhaps neglected and overgrown nails on dewclaws would predispose them to catching on stuff and getting ripped off…..As for the docking of tails, and the belief that it prevents tails from getting mangled in thick brush and briars–shoudn’t beagles and other hounds get their tails docked too, then? Nobody tears through briars and thick brush like hounds on a hot scent! Although it is obviously mostly just a weird human cosmetic preference in some dogs now, I have read old accounts of bird dogs before guns were much in use, and the hunters caught the birds when they were flushed by tossing a net over the dog onto the birds, and the long, upright pointing tails tended to foul the net. After guns made nets obsolete, people were already so used to seeing docked tails in some of these breeds/types, that they just continued–to be picked up by the conformation people and added to their standards. But why don’t setters and English Pointers have THEIR tails docked, if the brush-theory is such an issue? I’ve seen way more English Pointers and Setters working tough, brambly conditions than the docked breeds, with never a mangled tail…….

   
   
7. on April 11, 2011 at 10:19 am Phyllis in WV

   I have two Clumber Spaniels — one docked and one un-docked. Both are companion dogs and do not hunt. Clumbers are a breed that is not split in the United States. Dogs that show in conformation one day, may go hunting or be entered in hunt tests the next. Most, but not all, avid Clumber hunters still prefer the docked tail and insist that it might be injured in underbrush and thickets, etc. My personal opinion is that while it might be a pain to get all the burrs out of the thick coat on the tail, the preference for docked tails is more a tradition but as I am not in the field I must leave the judgment to others.

   
   

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