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Quick answer
Thirteen breeds are born with a natural bobtail, no surgery involved, among them the Australian Shepherd, Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog, Boston Terrier, Brittany Spaniel, French and English Bulldog, Jack Russell Terrier, Miniature Schnauzer, Old English Sheepdog and Pembroke Welsh Corgi. Any other short tail you see is docking, an amputation done days after birth and now banned or restricted across much of Europe. The bobtail is a gene, not a defect.
Plenty of dogs get around with no tail at all, or just a stub where one would be. With some of them, the tail was removed days after birth. With others, it was never there to begin with.
Those second ones are the natural bobtails: dogs born with no tail or a very short one, no surgery involved.
Interest in dog breeds born without tails has climbed as more countries restrict or outright ban tail docking, which pushes the spotlight onto the dogs that come by the trait honestly.
Dog Tail Docking
Docking is the amputation of part of a dog’s tail.
The old justifications ran the gamut. People claimed it warded off rabies or made a dog faster. For working dogs, the hunters, terriers, and herders, the real argument was avoiding torn or infected tails out in the field.
These days the practice is generally chalked up to looks, nothing more.
That’s also why it’s now banned across a long list of countries. Without a medical reason behind it, docking gets treated as needless, painful, and cruel.
Natural Bobtails in Dogs
A natural bobtail is a tail that grows in short, or barely grows at all, thanks to a genetic mutation rather than a knife.
In several breeds that have been studied, a mutation in the T-box transcription factor T gene (C189G) turns out to be the culprit. In other breeds, nobody has nailed down the cause yet.
Dog Breeds Born Without Tails
Here are some of the breeds that naturally turn up tailless, or close to it:
Australian Shepherd
The Australian Shepherd is a medium-sized herder, and like most working breeds, it runs hot on energy and needs a lot of exercise to match.
This is a sharp, spirited dog that wants activity, problems to solve, and your attention. Leave one understimulated and bored, and it will invent its own entertainment, usually the kind you’d rather it didn’t.
A handful of Aussies arrive with natural bobtails, but the large majority are born with full-length tails.
Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog
The Stumpy, as people tend to call it, is a medium-sized herder bred in Australia to move cattle.
It’s high energy and constantly switched on, watchful, alert, and quick to obey. Devoted to its own family, and standoffish with strangers.
The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog is a true natural bobtail, the product of generations of breeding from dogs that already carried short or absent tails.
Boston Terrier
A cross between the English Bulldog and the now-extinct White English Terrier, the Boston Terrier is a natural bobtail.
Nicknamed the “American Gentleman”, it’s a small dog with a sociable, easygoing streak.
Smart and eager to please, the Boston trains up easily and stays watchful over its family. A natural little watchdog, and a loyal one.
Brittany Spaniel
Built originally to hunt birds, the Brittany is a live-wire breed with an obvious zest for life.
Medium-sized and friendly by nature, they make excellent family dogs. The catch is the workload. They demand serious daily exercise, which rules them out for some households.
Roughly half of Brittany pups are born with a short tail or none at all; the rest arrive with a full-length tail, and those are still commonly docked where the law allows it.
English Bulldog
Bulldogs are patient and friendly, with a stubborn streak baked right in.
They’re known as great family dogs that bond hard with their owners. Low energy, adaptable to just about any home, and easygoing around kids and other pets.
The breed naturally comes with a short tail.
French Bulldog
A descendant of the English Bulldog, the Frenchie is a small breed that shines as a companion dog.
Patient, affectionate, and a born goofball, it’s earned the nickname “clown dog” for good reason.
He’s protective of his family and his home, and even though he’s a quiet dog, he makes a decent watchdog.
Old English Sheepdog
Descended from a mix of European herding breeds, the Old English Sheepdog is thought to have been raised by English sheep farmers.
It’s a good-natured dog with no real streak of shyness or aggression. Social, affectionate, and adaptable, it slots into family life whether you’re rural or in the middle of a city.
The nickname “Bobtail” comes straight from that short tail.
Pembroke Welsh Corgi
The Pembroke is one of the two Welsh Corgi breeds. The other is the Cardigan Welsh Corgi.
Welsh Corgis are herders at heart, busy little dogs that are also affectionate and tender pets.
The tail is one of the clearest tells between the two. The Cardigan keeps a long tail, while the Pembroke is born without one or with only a stub.
Spanish Water Dog
In Spain, the Spanish Water Dog has long pulled double duty as a sheepdog and, when needed, a capable water retriever for hunters.
Guarding and herding instincts come standard.
On one hand, he’s loyal, devoted, and protective of his family and his patch of ground. On the other, he’ll try to herd anything that moves in front of him, kids and other pets included.
Swedish Vallhund
The Swedish Vallhund is a herding dog from Sweden, once known as the Viking Dog.
Friendly and energetic, they’re excellent herders and double as solid guard dogs.
One quirk of the breed is the range of tails: some pups come out with no tail, some with a short stub, some with a full long tail. That variety is exactly why people so often assume they’ve been docked.
Breeds That Get Mistaken for Natural Bobtails
These three show up on nearly every list of dogs born without a tail, including an earlier version of this one. They don’t belong there. All three are born with a full tail, and the stub you see is the work of a scalpel.
Jack Russell Terrier
A small terrier out of England, originally bred to chase foxes.
Bred to hunt, Jack Russells need a lot of outdoor time and exercise. Skip it, and they turn destructive fast. An understimulated Jack Russell will find trouble.
They’ve got a personality all their own: clever, affectionate, and fearless. Also a bit headstrong, and capable of getting scrappy with other pets and small animals.
Jack Russells are born with a full tail. It was docked to leave a handle the hunter could grab when hauling the dog back out of a burrow. Where docking is banned, long-tailed Jack Russells are the norm.
King Charles Spaniel
Also called the English Toy Spaniel, the King Charles Spaniel is a small breed that wants to be glued to its family, and it makes a wonderful lapdog.
It descends from several hunting dogs, but at this size, the King Charles was never cut out for the hunt itself.
Friendly and bright, with a steady temperament that makes it a good therapy dog.
The King Charles Spaniel is born with an ordinary tail as well. The short tails that showed up in the ring came from docking, and they have largely disappeared wherever the practice is outlawed.
Miniature Schnauzer
The Miniature Schnauzer is friendly, affectionate, and good-natured, but also alert and loyal enough to pull watchdog duty.
Training comes easy with this one: smart, obedient, and keen to please.
He’s an active dog that needs regular exercise, yet he settles into city or country life without much fuss.
Same story here: a Miniature Schnauzer is born with a long tail, shortened by convention rather than genetics. Rottweilers, Boxers, Dobermans and Cocker Spaniels round out the list of breeds people regularly mistake for natural bobtails.
Related Questions
What Is the Purpose of Dog’s Tails?
It’s also a communication tool, mostly aimed at other dogs. A high, wagging tail reads as happy, while a tail tucked between the legs signals fear.
And in water breeds, the tail acts like a rudder, steering the dog as it swims.
What Happens If a Dog Doesn’t Have a Tail?
There’s a physical cost too. In breeds where the tail does real work, steering in the water or balancing on the run, losing it makes those jobs harder.
Tailless dogs simply have to work a little harder to make up the difference.
Can Dogs Without Tails Swim?
Is It Cruel to Dock a Dog’s Tail?
Cutting off a tail purely for looks is hard to defend. It’s needless and painful, and it can leave a dog at a real disadvantage when it tries to socialize.
Are Rottweilers Born With Tails?
Final Thoughts
Worth being clear about one thing: in nearly all of these breeds, puppies can still be born with long tails. Even within a single litter, not every pup inherits the short-tail trait.
Every old, original dog breed had a tail. Centuries of selective breeding and the odd genetic mutation are why we’ve got naturally tailless dogs walking around today.
Resources
- Why Do Dogs Have Tails? by AKC
- Ancestral T-Box Mutation Is Present in Many, but Not All, Short-Tailed Dog Breeds from the Journal of Heredity
Frequently asked questions
Which dog breeds are born without a tail?
Thirteen breeds carry the natural bobtail, among them the Australian Shepherd, Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog, Boston Terrier, Brittany Spaniel, English and French Bulldog, Jack Russell Terrier, King Charles Spaniel, Miniature Schnauzer, Old English Sheepdog and Pembroke Welsh Corgi.
What is the difference between a bobtail and a docked tail?
A bobtail is genetic and there from birth. Docking is the amputation of part of the tail a few days after the puppy is born, so a short tail on a breed that is not a natural bobtail almost always means surgery.
Why was tail docking done in the first place?
The old arguments ran from warding off rabies to making a dog faster. For hunters, terriers and herders the honest reason was avoiding torn or infected tails out in the field. Today it is close to purely cosmetic, which is why more countries keep restricting it.