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Bobtail |
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One
of the most characteristic features about the Aussie, is that bobtail is
naturally occurring. As docking tails (and ears) are banned by law in
Denmark and many other countries in Europe (in example Sweden, Norway,
Finland, Germany, Belgium, Holland) are dogs seen with out a tail in these
countries born like this. The length of the tail can range from normal tail, over ¾ length, ½ length, ¼ length, small bobtails to no tail at all (some dogs can even have a whole where the tail should have been). What defines a naturally bobtailed (in short NBT) is whether or not the white tip of the tail is missing, meaning that if the white tip is missing the dog is bobtailed regardless of how long the tail is. This is of course only valid if the dog is in possession of white markings and particually white markings on the tail. Below are shown four Aussies with different tail lengths.
Bobtail is a hereditary factor and is caused by a/several specific gene/s. Crossing between a bobtail dog and a dog with a normal length tail, will results in approximately half of the puppies being born with different length of bobtails. It is not possible to foreseen or select for a certain length of tail. Long tails will appear in every litter, even between to completely tailless dogs, like bobtail can occur in crosses between two long tailed dogs. Crossing two bobtailed dogs, regardless of the length of the tail, is something you should think about twice before doing and it can be mentioned that it in fact is forbidden in Germany. The reason to this is that such a mating will result in the death of about 25 % of the puppies while still carried by the mother. The mother will normally reabsorb these puppies; some though are able to survive to birth. These puppies will often be stillborn or die short after and will show severe defect like highly deformed skeleton, missing anus or decided wholes in the body because of missing tissues.
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