Docking Question?

So I was cruising Craigslist (I know, you think I would know better after Bella-with-a-penis), and saw an undocked Rott for sale, 7 months old.

That is not particularly surprising. What was surprising was that the person selling her claimed that she had placed 3rd and 4th in her previous 2 shows. Pictures of the parents show undocked dogs, and a picture of a group of rotts (at a show?) showed some natural tails, and some I couldn't properly see.

Where can you show a natural rott? I tried googling, but got bogged down in the dock/don't dock websites.

As a side note, the person claimed that they are selling her because her gums turned pink and she can no longer show. Is that a big deal?

It's really common to see undocked rotts in the PNW even at normal akc shows.

It's really a choice thing. Many breeders - especially those dealing with importing and exporting are no longer docking.

I'm not positive, but I think as of fairly recently (past few years) you can show most breeds natural in any AKC show.

How interesting. I was aware that most breeds could be shown uncropped, but I had no idea about docking.

You could always show them natural, natural is not a disqualification in any breed and never has been to my knowledge. But placing, much less winning, is another story. It has started getting more common to see natural dogs win because there are more of them showing so statistically that's what it is. However it's still not easy and many judges of docked and cropped breeds are sent letters by the breed clubs urging them not to give any awards to natural dogs that are entered in their ring.

I think there are Schutzhund type shows (I don't know the orgs for Rottis but for GSD it is the SV) that allow natural tails and they're becoming more common from what I've heard.

What about UKC? They seem more casual and open than AKC in general. I wouldn't be surprised if people were showed tailed rotties there.