Tail Docking

The eighteenth century Olde English Bulldogges traditionally had their tails docked because they were used to hunt and for bullbaiting. Owners began docking tails and cropping ears to avoid injuries since a lot of injuries would lead to infection and possible death.

Today's Olde English Bulldogge was recreated by David Leavitt in the 1970's to look similar to the eighteenth century bulldog, but with a calmer disposition. One of the breeds used to create the Olde English Bulldogge was the English Bulldog which have corkscrew tails. The corkscrew tail genetics causes a lot of OEB's to be born with kinks in their tails, sometime extreme kinks. Since tail kinks can lead to medical problems, the tails are docked. David Leavitt was able to work out the kinks due to selective breeding which is why Leavitt Bulldogs have tails. In recent years people have added more English Bulldog genetics to the OEB causing their tails to become kinked again.

When I first started breeding Olde English Bulldogges most of my puppies born had kinked tails, so they had to be docked, however, my goal has always been to straighten out their tails through selective breeding. I'm happy to announce that I have gotten to the point where most of my puppies are now being born with nice straight tails, so I've made the decision that from now on I will only have tails docked when it is medically necessary due to kinks. 

My goal in breeding is to remain true to the breed and the breed standard actually says that the OEB should have a natural pump handle tail, however, docking is acceptable.