Before even discussing ear cropping with a vet, please find out everything you can about the cropping procedure, the after effects on the health of the dog, and what happens if the surgery goes wrong.

Please remember some of the downsides of ear cropping. For instance, expression. No matter what some people have commented on here, dogs who have cropped ears show less expression than dogs with floppy ears. Statistically speaking dogs with cropped ears are more likely to be attacked by other dogs, because the dog mistakes the other dogs body language. A dog will often hold its ears high, if it can see something interesting, or if it wants to show aggression towards another dog. If your dog has cropped ears another dog can easily think that your dog is trying to show dominance over it, if the other dog happens to be a very dominant dog it may react aggressively until the ears go down. Since the dogs ears are not able to go down the other dog may react in one of three ways (depending on how it was raised and its temperament) the first is to back off, this is because the dog has accepted your dogs dominance, the second is to completely ignore the signs, some dogs do not understand dog body language and will approach and want to play with any dog whom they happen to come across, and the third is for the dog to attempt to tear your dogs throat out. Tail docking often causes similar results, because a dog which is displaying dominance will hold its tail straight behind them and tail docking can make it look as though this is what the dog is doing.

So basically you will never be able to socialise your dog with random dogs on the street, because you never know when one of them might turn. Even a dog who has never shown any aggression in its life can still try to injure and even kill a dog who is trying to be dominant over it.

Also if you decide to go through with the surgery, fully research the vet who will be doing the operation. Ask the vet to show you photos of previous crops that they have done, if you vet refuses try someone else. Too many dogs are put through needles pain everyday because of bad vet choices.

Unless your dog is a hunter (which dobermans hardly ever are), the amount of sound a floppy eared dog gets through its ears is enough. I say this to a lot of people thinking about having their dogs ears cropped, but the crop will not help your dog be a better guard dog. A dog with decent hearing will be able to hear a person trying to climb over your fence or beak in through the door easily. To test this try sneaking up on a floppy eared dog, the only time I have ever been successful with catching any sort of dog off guard was my cousins bloodhound who happened to be 11 years old and half deaf at the time. The only reason why having a cropped doberman would help to deter a housebreaker is because a cropped doberman looks more menacing that a floppy eared doberman.

To finnish I would like to to talk about my own experience with ear cropping. Three years ago I adopted a doberman puppy about 6 months old from a local pound. He had been dumped on the streets after a bad ear crop hadn’t set properly. I took little Joey to my vet, he told me that the only way we could save the ears was to try and crop them a second time. Unfortunately when the vet started to the surgery he noticed a horrible smell, he made a small incision in his ear and found the remnants of the previous stitched from his last crop which had never been removed. The stitches had become infected and as his ear had started to heal, it had healed around the stitches obscuring them from view. Essentially Joey’s ear was rotting from the inside out. My vet couldn’t see any way of stopping the infection before it spread, so he decided to amputate. Poor Joey had both his ear amputated, unfortunately during the surgery Joey died while under anaesthesia. I think that it was good that Joey died when he did, because the pain it would have caused him would have been terrible and it would have continued for the rest of his life.

A combination of abuse, neglect and ear cropping killed poor little Joey. I love dobermans, I now own 8 month old Logan who is an uncropped and undocked doberman. I am sure that many doberman owners who decide to go through with the cropping process are really good people and want the best for their dog, but whenever I see any sort of dog who has cropped ears I think of Joey and about how his death could have been prevented if his owner had not decided to crop.

I would just like to enforce the fact that I am not trying to make people who have cropped dobermans feel bad or insult them in any way, all I am trying to do is express my own opinion. Just because my opinion is different to most people commenting on this site, does not mean that any of you have the right to bully me. I have told you my opinion, I have tried to include as much information as possible and advice about cropping, but remember I am biased because of my experiences, but really anyone who happens to own a cropped doberman is probably biased as well. In fact anyone in the world who owns a doberman is biased in their opinion.

So if you have a doberman puppy and you are wondering whether or not you should crop, read all the information you can find, see everyones side of the argument and come to your own conclusion by yourself.

Sorry for the long post, I tend to rant a bit.

Thankyou

I had my doberman’s ears cropped (short, military) at the vet when he was 11 weeks of age. Around the same time I had MY ears pinned back – by a reputable surgeon and not a vet, of course. It was something I had been planning to do for awhile, so overlapping the surgeries was more of a coincedence.

Both of our surgeries were quick and, for the most part, painless. At times I would wake up in the evening with a bit of pain, but a quick painkiller would end it. On that note, pay attention to your dobie’s expressions. If it looks like he/she is in pain, don’t hesitate to use the cream that the vet gives you right away!

After our surgeries, my dobie and I would sit on the couch while loopy on our meds and watch movies. Being a “tough guy” breed, he never showed any signs of significant pain. Both of our ears were patched up, so we looked after each other in a sense. We bonded, and he’s been (at times a little too much) the definition of a velcro dog.

I wholeheartilly agree with one of the posts above about cropping being an opportunity to “vet train” your dog. I’ve had my dobie for eight years now, and all the vets I’ve been to can’t help but compliment his behavior when being examined. He has never had an ear infection and uses his ears as a queue to alert me if something isn’t right or if he wants my attention.

On that note, both of our ears were sensitive for about two years after the operation. Once the tape is off, your dogs ears will STILL be sensitive to touch. Of course, a good scratch behind the ears is heaven for the dog! Now it has been seven years after our surgeries, and neither of us have any pain from our ears. Plus we look damn good.