My husband has working spaniels and labs and he would never work a spaniel with a full tail. Ours are trialing bred and their back ends are articulated (typical spaniel action lol!), if they had a full tail there would be nothing left by the end of a working day.
Our labs quite often bust the tips of their tails and it takes ages to heal and it is so messy and bloody. Also you cant really treat a bleeding tail, we have cream to help it heal but one knock and it starts again, its a right pest.
Never had a prob with our spaniels as they are all docked. Also they are 1/3 docked (to the hock) and have no probs with body language as they still have a respectable length tail (that always crops up in these debates!) - i dont personally like to see a dog with a stump
I have seen vids of docking and the ones i saw the pups continued suckling from mum - not a squeak. Done properly and at the right age i dont think its cruel at all, bettewr than loads of suffering further down the line and possible painful amputation.
Ang x