Why is it necassary to dock the tail of a short haired german pointer dog?
it isn’t necessary to dock any tail if you are going to show a dog that is akc registered and has tail docking as its requiremtents then you would dock the tail to the correct length at the age of 3-5 days old ONLY it is never recommended to dock a tail over this age unless it is damaged, deformed etc.
It is necessary in working dogs to prevent traumatic tail injuries. It is horrifically painful for an adult dog to injure their tail repeatedly until it is finally so badly damaged that it must be amputated. In order to avoid this trauma, dogs of working breeds are traditionally docked at 2-5 days of age. It’s not comfortable for the pups, but it is FAR kinder and more humane than risking the kind of injury that is so common if the tail is left intact and considerably less painful than a tail amputation later in life. Tails just don’t heal well at all and in countries where docking has been banned the number of injuries to working dogs resulting in tail amputation has risen significantly since the ban of docking. In dogs that are going to be just pets and are not going to be put through the same physical dangers as a working dog tail docking is usually not truly necessary but a breeder has no way of knowing which puppies are going to be great working dogs and which would be best suited
