[quote1328920387=Astibus] Do you think the rather modest contribution to balance could be a result of merely evaluating the tail's impact in the assault of human adversaries? Could it be different for other cases, i.e. in the chase of game or perhaps in combating large animals? [/quote1328920387] For dogs, I really don't think the tail makes a significant contribution. We have had several of our dogs catch hogs. Here is another pair of photos I got just today from a hog hunter. The dog on the right is Lava Girl, who is from our program and has a cropped tail (just a bit over 1/3rd full length) [center] [/center]