Tail curl on the "wrong" side

[JazzysMom]

@etzbseder:

There is no right or wrong side to curl.

They meant for shows, as in on the judge's side not the side of the person doing the showing.

It just gives a nicer look for the tail to be curling toward the judge and is easily visible rather than curling the other way not not "showing off" how tightly curled it is.

[snorky998]

Interesting information. I never thought about the 'correct' side for a curl, but it makes sense in the show ring. Learn something new everyday. Thanks!

Is there such a thing as an upright curl? Directly over the spine, curled within itself?

[lvoss]

I must disagree that about the tightness of the curl dictating whether a tail can be easily placed on one side or the other. My girl Rio has a very tightly curled tail, nearly 3 full turns in her tail. I train my puppies from very young to accept people handling their tails and they relax and the tails can be moved. Nicky, whose tail is not as tightly curled, has fused bones. This is different then tightness of curl. It has permanent kinks that if you force, you would actually break bone. His tail can not be placed on either side, because of the fused bones, it only looks natural on his non-show side. He is also trained to allow handling of his tail though he will just drop his tail if a person repeatedly messes with it.

[chiya]

**And if the tail would curl to either side,
it looks "prettier" to curl the tail on the show side,
and it also give an optical illusion of a shorter back.
But a judge should always judge the tail SET not the tail curl.

Basenjis tend to shake when you put them from the table back on
the floor after the examination. Try to get into a habit of
fixing the tail if it curls on the show side before you do your down
and back then your go around.

**

[tanza]

@lvoss:

I must disagree that about the tightness of the curl dictating whether a tail can be easily placed on one side or the other. My girl Rio has a very tightly curled tail, nearly 3 full turns in her tail. I train my puppies from very young to accept people handling their tails and they relax and the tails can be moved. Nicky, whose tail is not as tightly curled, has fused bones. This is different then tightness of curl. It has permanent kinks that if you force, you would actually break bone. His tail can not be placed on either side, because of the fused bones, it only looks natural on his non-show side. He is also trained to allow handling of his tail though he will just drop his tail if a person repeatedly messes with it.

And I can verify that…. ggg.. I show Nicky lots... and it is just fine on the off side.... I don't even try to mess with it

It is not worth it... if the dog is happier with it on the off show side, leave it alone

[Robin_n_Jack]

hehe….if I pet Jacks tail, which I do sometimes, he turns around and starts biting his tail like he wants it to be straight.....like he is fixing his hair, it is really funny...

[Eli_and_Me]

Thanks everyone for your input. Eli doesn't mind you changing his tail, but it falls naturally to the non-show side usually. Sometimes it will curl in the middle. A friend who has Shibas suggested I encourage him to put it on the show side, but I didn't think it was a big deal.

[YodelDogs]

@lvoss:

Nicky, whose tail is not as tightly curled, has fused bones. This is different then tightness of curl. It has permanent kinks that if you force, you would actually break bone. His tail can not be placed on either side, because of the fused bones, it only looks natural on his non-show side.

Fused bones…that was what I meant by bones breaking when forced into unnatural positions. And you are correct, I should have used fused bones, not the term tightness, in that respect. (I was tired when I wrote that.)

[dmcarty]

As Stephy says the most important thing is the set - where is the tail coming out of the body.
In actuality a tail that does not have the flexibility to unfurl would be a pretty significant flaw in the old form follows function arguement. The tail needs to be flexible enough so it doesn't get hung up in the brush in the hunt.

If I've gotten down to who has the best tail curl - I will be very happy because if that's the deciding factore I must have some wonderful animals in the ring.

[lvoss]

Nicky's tail unfurls fine but there are two permanent kinks in his tail. These kinks are small but do prevent the tail from looking natural if curled to the opposite side.