Bob Tail or Docked Tail?

When you are fostering a mixed breed dog everyone always wants to know what breed it is. As a rescuer, most of us know there is no real way of knowing what breeds your dog might be unless you run a DNA test. And in rescue there is no money or time for a DNA test. We try our best to give a good guess.

One of my adopted mixed breed rescue dogs has a shortened tail and so does one of my foster dogs. Of my owned dog, my vet isn't sure if it is a bob tail or if it was docked. However he is leaning toward bobbed. This can give a clue to her breed.

What is the difference? A dog is born with a bob tail. Tails are docked or cut off when the dogs are pups on some breeds for aesthetic and breed conformity purposes. Some believe that hunting breeds' tails are docked so they don't "break" while out in the field by getting caught on brush.

Pay attention also to where the tail is on the body and how they cary it. This can also gives clues to the dogs parentage.

Any dog can be born with a bob tail as a result of a genetic mutation. However there are some breeds that the bob tail is the norm and some that cary the bob tail gene and it is expressed frequently. Here is a list of some of them:

Australian Shepherd
Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog
Boston Terrier
Braque du Bourbonnais
Brittany Spaniel
English Bulldog
French Bulldog
Pembroke Welsh Corgi
Polish Lowland Sheepdog
Rat Terrier
Schipperke
Spanish Water Dog
Tenterfield Terrier

Good Times Benefitting the Animals

It occurred to me that almost every weekend there is a benefit to raise funds for one of the local animal rescues. You could attend a play, concert, trivia night, art show, Texas holdem tournament, bowling and all kinds of other fun things!

If you're going to spend money going out anyway, why not help rescue animals at the same time by attending fun fundraising events. Plus you'll know you're in the company of like minded people!

Wouldn't it be great if all the events were listed in one place? STL animal lovers' social calendars could easily be full.

I've populated Shelter Buddies' calendar with some of the events I've noticed on Facebook. You can see a summary of it at the bottom of this page or see the calendar at: http://tinyurl.com/FR-Calendar.
If your organization or one of your volunteers has an online calendar - probably attached to an e-mail account, you can e-mail a calendar generated invitation to our calendar. Send invitations generated by your online calendar to moshelterbuddies@gmail.com. It would be great if you would put the name of the rescue the event benefits first with a dash and then the name of the event for the title of the event, i.e. XYZ Rescue - Trivia Night. A link to your web page with more details about the event would also be helpful.

Let's help raise funds for the animals! Please pass the word around about our fund raising calendar.