Interested to see what you guys think...

     Hmmm ... the tail crook is more often a congenital/genetic defect than indicator of breed. A friend of mine used to have a stud dog that passed on this trait - probably about half of his litters were affected with a crook at the end of the tail, almost identical to what your dog has. Albeit, it's rare, but the afformentiond stud was not the only one I've heard of who passed this, and it can happen in several breeds. It shouldn't cause him any problems though, and really doesn't seem to be caused by a home made docking or accident. Shouldn't cause him any problems, it's just one of those things :)

I had a litter of aussie/german shepherd pups lat year. The mom and aussie was born without her tail. Well all 5 pups were born with half tails. They look like Jack Russel tails now. You should be able to see a scar if his tail had be docked. I can see Jayde's scar where her's was docked.  

My Pom has the same thing!!

Vet says she was either (a) born with it (b) it's dislocated and no use locating it back because it may cause more harm then good

We had a cat with the crooked tail defect.  ACtually, my in-laws did.  She was entire and in each litter there were some with the kinked tail, and occasionally one or two with a short tail.

NBT (naturally bobbed tail) appears to be a polygenic trait, meaning there's more than one gene series that governs the trait.   It's a mutation that can be "lethal" meaning breeding like to like results in a non-adaptive trait (open spine in this case).  That's why Aussies are docked rather than breeding for the NBT.

I know some Australian Cattle Dogs have a stumpy tail kind of like that, but I'm not sure if they are actually born like that or if their tails are docked...

The way it's bent kind of looks like it was broken at one point and never healed properly, but I'm not really sure...if there's not scarring I'd just assume it's a genetic defect... but I really don't know 

Whatever it is - it's cute! I've seen a few bulldogs with tails like that, but I doubt your guy has bulldog in him.
(ETA) Actually... we have a greyhound in now with a tail like that. I wouldn't worry about it - it's probably nothing really breed-specific.

Casey has a kink in the end of his tail - was probably just broken when he was a pup.

HoundMusic

     Hmmm ... the tail crook is more often a congenital/genetic defect than indicator of breed. A friend of mine used to have a stud dog that passed on this trait - probably about half of his litters were affected with a crook at the end of the tail, almost identical to what your dog has. Albeit, it's rare, but the afformentiond stud was not the only one I've heard of who passed this, and it can happen in several breeds. It shouldn't cause him any problems though, and really doesn't seem to be caused by a home made docking or accident. Shouldn't cause him any problems, it's just one of those things :)

The first thing I thought of was Boston terrier!  LOL!  I kind of doubt that, but I suppose there's always a possibility.

Is the tail crooked, or is that just longer fur hanging off the end of it?

2shelties

Is the tail crooked, or is that just longer fur hanging off the end of it?

Man, I haven't even looked at this thread in days...I had no idea so many people had replied!  Cool!!

His tail is crooked as well as short.  If you look at him from behind when his tail is laying down normally, you can tell it also kinda kinks to the right a bit at the crook.  At puppy class this past Sunday, the instructor said there was a good possibility that his tail was broken and didn't heal properly (no point in fixing it now!).  He doesn't like it when you touch his tail, so it's hard for me to really feel it and see if I can tell anything from that.  With some help from the puppy class instructor, I've been working on getting him to let me touch it (he will do anything for a treat!).  So....hmmm...possibly he was born with a short tail (congenital), and it was also broken when he was a wee babe?  Or both are congenital traits?  Or maybe it was broken in two places, and the lower break was so bad it was amputated?  So many possibilites!!  I guess the only real way to know for sure would be through x-rays, but that's not a practical expense just to satisfy a curiosity.

I enjoyed reading everyone's input, so thanks guys!!

Stumpy tail cattle dogs aren't even common in Australia! Their tails don't really look like that, either. That tail reminds me more of one of those JRT tails, or even the flag type from Swedish Vallhunds, although that's pretty wildly improbable. Having said that, I came across an undersized, poorly bred, possibly crossbred SV in a shelter, once, and I've only visited a shelter a handful of times. I'm going for the defect with that kink.