Survey of tail injuries sustained by working gundogs and terriers in Scotland

Abstract

Working dog owners in Scotland were invited to take part in an internet survey regarding the 2010/2011 shooting season, which was designed to estimate the prevalence of tail injuries; assess the risk of tail injuries in docked and undocked working dogs; and identify risk factors for owner-reported tail injuries. Of 2860 working dogs, 13.5 per cent sustained at least one tail injury during the 2010/2011 shooting season. Undocked spaniels and hunt point retrievers (HPRs) were at greatest risk of tail injury with 56.6 per cent of undocked spaniels and 38.5 per cent of undocked HPRs sustaining at least one tail injury during the season. There was no statistically significant difference in the risk of tail injury in dogs with tails docked by one-third, half or shorter. To prevent one tail injury in one shooting season, between two and 18 spaniels or HPRs would need to be docked as puppies. The authors believe that this work provides the best available evidence on which to base a consultation for changes to the legislation on tail docking in working dogs in Scotland. Docking the tails of HPRs and spaniels by one-third would significantly decrease the risk of tail injury sustained while working in these breeds.

The prevalence of tail injuries in working and non‐working breed dogs visiting veterinary practices in Scotland

“…This may be due to the likelihood that there were more actual true working dogs in the current study compared with the population studied by Diesel and others (2010). As expected the NNT calculated here is also considerably higher than the NNTs calculated in the accompanying paper, which reflected the number of puppies that would need to be docked to prevent one owner-reported tail injury, regardless of whether a veterinary examination was required (Lederer and others 2014). …”

“…It is also important to remember that despite the efforts made to include as many true working dogs as possible, an unknown proportion of dogs of working breeds are likely to have been pet dogs. This may have reduced the prevalence estimates calculated in the current study, assuming that the risk of tail injury while working was higher than at other times, which the accompanying paper, although only concerned with working dogs, would suggest is the case (Lederer and others 2014). The true prevalence of tail injury requiring veterinary treatment in active working dogs may be higher than reported in this work.…”

“…The true prevalence of tail injuries is therefore possibly higher than described in this study. Indeed the study based on an internet survey of working dog owners (Lederer and others 2014) indicated that the prevalence estimates presented here may represent approximately one-third of all tail injuries sustained by working dogs.…”

Management of gundog injuries

“…Lederer and others (2014) conducted a survey of any injuries sustained by dogs during the 2011/2012 shooting season in Scotland. They concluded that shortening the tails of hunt, point and retrieve (HPR) breeds and spaniels by one third significantly decreased the risk of tail injury sustained while working.…”

Retrograde step on tail docking

“…It was also found that docking the tails of hunt point retrievers and spaniels by one third would decrease the risk of tail injuries in these breeds while working, and that somewhere between two and 18 puppies would need to be docked to prevent one tail injury. The research, by workers at the University of Glasgow, was published in Veterinary Record (Cameron and others 2014, Lederer and others 2014). In an accompanying Editorial, David Morton questioned whether docking puppies could be justified, given the pain and distress involved and that more dogs need to be docked than are injured (Morton 2014).…”