I would not even consider buying a Spaniel with a full tail.

Not because I either like or dislike full tails.

Purely because my dogs are worked on, and exercised on, heath land that consists of a lot of brambles. They thrash their way through the cover and come out with cuts on their faces, tongues bleeding but a wagging docked tail that is undamaged.

I have had a full tailed Springer who damaged her tail so badly in her first 18 months of life, filled with pain from her damaged tail, that she had to have a GA to have her tail amputated. Whilst she was under she had her dew claws removed also as she had damaged these over and over again.

All that pain and trauma of an operation could have been avoided by a very small procedure at 1 or 2 days old.

Have people who decry the docking of spaniels ever witnessed the damage they do to their tails, because if they have and still say it's best not to dock then I'm sorry but I do not think they have the dog's best interest at heart.

And as for foxes damaging their tails, you will never see a fox charging through cover as a spaniel does. They hunt relatively open ground.

Steve