Do you think this tail is docked?

[Samantha and Socrates]

Apologies for the poor photos, my mom sent me these and her phone has a crappy camera! So, I hope you can see these well enough to help :)

Her friend just got an F1 Goldendoodle puppy, and it's their first-ever dog. My mom is helping them out since she's very dog-experienced and is head over heels in love with the Doodle breeds now because my Socrates (her grandpuppy!)

They are wondering if his tail is docked, because it looks so short compared to mine. The female was the poodle, male was the retriever in this case, not sure if that makes a difference?

 

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

Looks pretty short, but is hard to tell in the photo.  Is it curled up at all?  I just went through and looked at some of AnnaBelle's puppy pics and her tail looked much longer than this.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It makes absolutely no difference which parent was which breed. And yes, from the photo, the tail looks docked to me. It's nowhere near the normal length of either a Golden or  Poodle's tail. 

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Yes, it looks docked to me, too!

[Linda, Charlie Brown and Beau]

Yes, it looks docked to me also.  An acquaintance recently bought a golden doodle from the a state in the south and its tail looks a similar length.  Cute puppy!

[Lori, Daphne, Lucy & Pippa]

It does look docked. Maybe they did that so he would match his poodle Mom? Poodles get their tails docked at birth or a young age.

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

Sure looks docked to me too. We saw a Doodle this past weekend that had a similar tail. It's strange, because normally a Poodle's tail is docked shorter. So why dock half way?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

This pup's tail looks like it was docked shorter than a Poodle's tail. The correct docking of a Poodle's tail is to remove only the upper third. 

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

LOL. Well I guess it's according to how long the tail is originally . ;). For Standards, this says LEAVE 1 1/2 inches.
Toy Poodle: Leave1/2 to 2/3 of length (approx. ½ inch) Miniature Poodle: Leave 1/2to 2/3 of length (approx. 1 1/8 inches)
Standard Poodle: Leave ½ to 2/3 of length (approx. 1 ½ inches)

http://www.allpoodleinfo.com/Poodle_Tail_Docking.html

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

They say to leave half to 2/3 of the tail. I think the 1 and a half inches refers to how much to remove, lol. If you look at photos of Standard Poodles, they have way more than an inch and a half of tail. 

[Lori, Winnie, Bob and Indie]

But the info. Ro shared was referring to the length of a puppy's tail at 3 days old, right? So it would make sense to leave 1.5 inches knowing that it is going to grow as the puppy grows.....just saying'..

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I don't know if the lengths in that article, which is not from the official breed standard, is referring to the length at 3 days.  I do know that I have had four purebred poodle puppies from very good poodle breeders, and all of their tails were longer than the pup in the poster's photo at the same age. They were absolutely longer than an inch and a half. Poodles tails are not stubs, like schnauzers or boxers. When you dock a tail, you remove vertebrae. Those don;t grow back. The remaining vertebrae do grow longer, though. 

But an inch and a half is absurd. My pinky finger is two and a half inches long, lol. 

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

Makes sense to me ! :)