What the heck?

Took me a while to find what you were talking about:

Jeffers® Nail Clippers

Quality, plier-style nail clippers with spring-loaded action, stopper tap screw & hanging hole. Allows you to trim nails with ease. larger size thick blade may also be used for docking tails & declaw removal. Thin Blade for light duty work or Thick Blade for heavy duty work.

OUCH! Why would anyone want to that themselfs! Only a vet should be allowed to do that stuff and only under pain meds and the such.

I do my own dewclaws using a hemostat. Wouldn't use that.

yea i can see someone doing the dew claws at home, i know plenty that do it. But come on, tail docking? Doesnt the tail docking require stitches also?

Personally, I couldn't do either, but I knew a lot of cocker breeders who did them themselves.  Tails dont' require stutures.

No, tail docking doesn't usually require stitches.  Docking at home is done at 2-3 days of age.  Some people band the tail so the end just falls off, other people clip it themselves and use a styptic powder or other antibiotic blood coagulator to stop the minimal bleeding and put the pup back with mum

I've just seen the whole docking thing gone wrong too many times. Unless your absolutly know what to do I don't think it should be done at home. The latest one I can think of is a pup only a week old lost it's entire leg because the owner did not know how to take off the dew claw properly. We have had to put puppies down because the owner docked the tail to close and sniped off a little extra, not something for just anyone to do.

Lordy.  I'm not sure I could do nails, much less dew claws or tails.

Joyce

I think that it's perfectly fine for an experienced breeder to do tails and dews.

I know that I wouldn't want a brand new litter of babies in the vet's office, full of germs.

ORIGINAL: jennie_c_d

I know that I wouldn't want a brand new litter of babies in the vet's office, full of germs.

The vet I work for does outcalls to peoples houses if need be.

Also, I would say the clinc I work at is by far cleaner than any human doctor office I've been to. We completly cleen the entire building with bleach every week from top to botten and every corner. After an animal leaves the table is wiped off and walls cleened. The clinic is by far cleaner than most peoples home. We also have a seperat Isolation room for serious cases and only wear bunny suite while in there. We keep the place cleen and germ free as possible! Just one of my pet peeves when someone says vet clincs are full of germs!

Yeah, the workers keep it clean, but what happens when a person brings newborn pups into a waiting room where a dog with parvo or some other highly contagious thing just was?  I think that was jennie_c_d's point.
 
I cringe to see it advertized as something to dock tails. If an experienced breeder, who knows what they are doing, wants to do it, fine.  However, I see this as something that any Joe Schmoe can buy and say "Hey, when I breed my unregistered bitch, I can dock the puppies' tails, and that will be one less expense." 
 
But I guess that could be say about anything.

We completly cleen the entire building with bleach every week from top to botten and every corner.

Sure, every week. Parvo is carried around on shoes and clothing. If you have a parvo puppy in the waiting room, and I bring in my 3 day old litter of puppies, how is that cleaning last Thursday going to help them?

There are germs in all vet's offices, and all dr's offices, no matter how well they're cleaned.

I have to agree, as long as the breeder knows waht they are doing, they are fine to be done at home.  And for the ends I have also seen the glue used to seal up the end.

Ok so you have a point on the germ thing, I just don't like it when people think clinics are dirty and refuse to take their dog in because of it. Belive me we do our very best to keep it clean - mop every night and at lunch, 5 vet techs working full time to keep the place spotless, 3 of which were only hired to just clean the other 2 of us help the Dr. with the animals and also do a lot of cleaning.

But my point is if you don't know what your doing you better take thoes pups to a vet instead of guessing where to cut. Yes an experianced breeder should know how to do it on their own but there are many who don't. There are many more who cut wrong than thoes who do it right. If you don't want to take the pup in at such a young age then don't, pay a little more and do it latter or ask the vet to do an outcall to your house and ask him to remove his shoes befor walking in the door. Just don't cut if you don't know how.

Most who do it themselfs and do it wrong should not be breeding in the first place. But they do and the vets have to clean up after their mess. By all mean if you know how or can get someone who does then do that. But if for any reason you secound guess yourself, call a vet.

you make some very valid points Xebby, and I agree fully, that you shouldn't do it unless you know what you are doing