She is on Taste of the Wild, pacific stream salmon blend. Low in protein, great for her coat, and its for all life stages and breeds. My Chi’s also adore the food! I have yet to supplement her with anything, though I plan on adding plain yogurt to her diet.

I think the ears standing is all based on the dog itself. Like I said – Gretchen has a VERY long crop, and her ears are already standing relatively well. I post for a week, then retape. I don’t find it necessary to repost every 3-5 days as others do.

I am not a breeder, just a Dobe fancier.

An Added Note:

My dog was perfectly fine the day of her surgery. We dropped her off at a HIGHLY recommended, experienced vet at 9 in the morning. We picked her back up around 5pm later that day. She wasn’t in pain, was running, active and alert. Her ears did not look hot or bothersome, though the foam that was glued to her head was slightly irritating her.

I would not recommend having your dogs ears done by your local, or average run of the mill veterinarian. Look around and call some breeders for a recommended vet who knows what they are doing.

Ear cropping is an art form that should only be left to the elite professionals. Natural ears are much better than a poorly done crop.

Please feel free to email me with any questions or concerns! I would be happy to supply pictures the day of surgery, to present

adorabull.xo@hotmail.com

I was wondering if anyone supplements with anything? He is currently on Orijen large breed puppy food (2009-2010 dog food of the year) but I read on a clinics web page to blend up a hardboiled egg, shell and all once a day.

I see someone said plain gelatin, any others reccommendations?

Thanks guys!

As for him not being able to hear as well because his ears are floppy…I think that’s bull. My dog is also used as a working dog and he has NO problems hearing whatsoever. Most working dogs and retrieving dogs for that matter, who depend on their hearing have floppy ears.

Dogs were born with an incredible gift of accute hearing, and most dogs are floppy eared. I think that’s a myth. Also, I have heard nonsense about the dog’s ears ripping because of their weight and infections and what not…again, pure bull. I assume the people that came up with these rumours are the same that think a doberman’s brain becomes to large for its skull and then goes crazy! lol. What can be proved, is a lot of complications from ear cropping going bad because of vets that don’t really know what they’re doing. So I would suggest to contact a registered breeder (even over the internet) and ask them for a contact – you will pay more, but for the health of your pup, it’s worth it!

Don’t get me wrong, I am in no way anti-cropping. I still love the look, I just personally couldn’t put my dog through it myself. If I got him that way I would have been happy, but I didn’t want to physically take him.

Any-hoo…that’s my opinion.

The worst part of the crop procedure for my puppy was just having to stay confined for the 7 days. He had prescription tranqulizers though that kept him knocked out for the most part though. He never seemed to be in pain, but he was pretty doped up. All in all, I don’t think it was anymore traumatizing or painful that spaying or neutering.

My advice is to find a vet that will tape and post the ears for you if you’re a novice like I was. Once your puppy is used to the process, it’s easier to attempt posting yourself.

I’ve found using regular sized cardboard app tampons wrapped in bandage tape to be a good post. Plus the cotton on the end provides a cushion for the ear. It’s cheap and easy and sturdy.

My vet wanted to do the crop no earlier than 11 weeks. He prefers to do it between 11 and 12 weeks, but no later than 14 weeks. According to him, after 14 weeks the cartiledge starts to thicken and it makes it a long difficult process to get the ears to stand, and there’s no guarantee they’ll ever stand. Before 11 weeks the ears are not developed well enough so it makes it more difficult to make them look right at maturity.

Keep in mind, this is all my vet’s opinion. I don’t have any solid answers from personal knowledge. We posted our puppy’s ears for about a month and a half, and now they’ve been standing for over a week. Here’s hoping they stay that way.

To Jill – I wasn’t suggesting that people that crop don’t love their dogs. Remember I chose to crop as well, although I am a bit bitter over the lack of real honest information out there and feel that I was not honestly informed about the downside of the procedure because both sides are more worried about defending their opinions than giving unbiased, accurate information. I don’t agree about the hearing. My other dog with floppy ears has excellent hearing.