gay tail, - Page 2

Which is much the same as Susie and I were saying; many young, esp. males, fly their tails as an expression of excitement / dominance / testosterone. And you can 'work' them out of it, if you don't want to just wait & see if they mature out of doing it. But none of the exercises or training will help, if the tail is genetically too poorly-set.

I guess there are different definitions of "Gay"" tail. I apologize again for not seeing the "non-surgical" part.

If it's an excitable male running around being a male with a high carriage that settles down then it would not be considered gay in my part to the country.

I have heard of breaking the tail, not sure I believe it happens.

good luck,
Rk

Depends how often the tail carriage is too high, just on testosterone !
When Taz was 18 months and I'd just taken him on, his was flying every minute he was outside. I looked at it and KNEW there'd be no point putting him in a Ring if he was going to do that. I was even concerned that it would go against him when Surveyed (UK version of Korung). But yes, given a bit of 'settling' and some boundaries, it got a lot better. As can be seen cos he's not flying it in my avatar, when he was approx. 3 years. (No Vet needed). OP's own description could relate to either state, its ambiguous (as such enquiries often are, 'cos where they have to ask the question, they often don't know exactly how to describe the problem.) That's why I recommend the OP to take a proper look at exactly what their dog is doing with it's tail ...

A dog with a "gay tail" is a dog with a happy tail. That is the original meaning of the word gay, happy. This just means the dog is overly happy or excited in other words and raises it tail upward to curl slightly above the back. Like how they wag their tails when excited. Working the dog a bit so it's wore out the excitement it has and training it to keep calm at shows/events will stop the dog from having a gay tail. Just to clarify, a gay tail is not something the dog is born with like a curled tail, which would be a fault in GSDs. So, no need to try any risky surgeries. There are also dog treats you can find at pet supply stores that are all natural and made with calming herbs to keep a dog calm when needed. I had a rescue GSD that liked to curl her tail up a lot when we first got her as she was so happy to have a safe home. After a few weeks she calmed down and she rarely ever had a gay tail unless she got super excited. So it's not something to get stressed over, and it's very easy to fix naturally as I have already said.

Lunastar, "gay tail" has ALSO evolved over the years to become a
specific reference in Showing to indicate where the dog's tail is carried ABOVE the level specified for a breed in its Standard. These answers are in that context, not just the general one. In those circumstances, it does become something of a 'fault' as it can make the difference in a Judge placing one dog over another.

what i mean is without surgery. Like to train the tail to make it lower with a splint, tape, or whatever. I see people training their dog's ear ear to stand up to rehabilitate injured cartillage. puppy's tail carried high from both normal parents could be imbalance muscle growth or injury, or maybe mutation.

Having never tried to weigh a dogs tail down with lead fishing weights, I am not sure how successful that method is - I can see that it might work for a little while, i.e. the short time a dog is in its Class in a Show ring. I cannot imagine it being any kind of permanent fix, for on a day to day basis I would expect the dog would get used to the additional weight and probably manage to gradually start carrying the tail higher again. Apart from the demotivating effect of training the dog to be calmer and less full of himself (see what Susie said ^^^), I cannot think that any other method, e.g. of tying the tail down (to what ? a back leg ?), could be particularly successful. Or lasting. And it would certainly look very odd.

Tail bones are part of the spine, they are not in the least like the cartilage in the ear pinnae. There is no 'bendy' cartilage in the tail structure. So the two are not really comparable. (Also: I have never been completely convinced of the value of ear splinting, most ears will eventually come up unaided, if they are ever going to do so. I am prepared to be corrected, but I am not aware of anyone successfully supporting an adult, injured ear in this way to get a damaged ear to stand again.) A 'gay' tail is natural to the dog, either emotionally or conformationally, and therefore is not an injury.