It’s not life threatening, it only happens occasionally, it doesn’t make them sick and it can easily be remedied with a quick and relatively painless surgery while they’re still babies. Sounds pretty harmless, nothing to be worried about or to take too seriously…or is it?

Photo by Bob Segal

Over the years I’ve been privy to a few conversations among Gordon Setter people about puppies born with a kink in their tail. I once heard someone say that the puppy’s tail was kinked because it was a huge litter and the puppy was crowded in the uterus, so the tail didn’t have room to grow properly….really? Another time I heard it said that the bitch was crazy wild while she was pregnant and her rough-housing probably broke the tail before the pup was born and the tail healed wrong…uhmmm no. So, understanding that there may be folks…