They are now 8 days old

Maven's puppies are now 8 days old. They had their tail docked last thursday. My sister cleaned their wound first before she sent the pictures. They also had their dewclaw removed.

Docking in dogs is the cutting or removal of a certain body part. Tail docking is a term commonly used in cutting the tail of a dog. Cropping is the term used in cutting a portion of the ear. There are two ways of tail docking. The first one is by using a rubber. The rubber will constrict the blood supply until the tail falls of after several days. The other one is by surgical process using a surgical scissor or a scalpel. This process is said to be more hygienic and safe. Docking has always been an issue in many countries. Animal rights groups like PAWS are against this practice. As a member of PAWS and who also happens to be very fascinated in dog shows, I am not against nor in favor of this practice hehehe. Nowadays, docking is done only for show purposes.

Maven with her newly docked puppies

Dewclaw is located on inner sides of a dog's front legs. Like tail docking and ear cropping, there are also some issues and debate wheter is it neccessary or not to remove dewclaws. Same as to tail docking and ear cropping, removing of dewclaw is done for show purposes only.

Letter 'D' shows the dewclaw on the front leg of a dog

(picture taken from wikipedia)