I may be dumb but... (questions you were always curious about)(please answer or ask)

For appearance sake, for the most part.  It gives a dog a more alert, thus a more intimidating look.  So it's especially valuable in working dogs.

i always thought it was cruel until i saw a picture of an uncropped doberman. they have the cutest little puppy face, oh so approachable, which is not a good idea for a dobie since most of them are very protective. i now have a different view on ear croppping since i learned that.

I breed Great Danes and all of mine have natural ears.  I agreed to have a pup cropped for a customer because she heard great things about my vet. The pup was perfectly healthy going into the surgery. Needless to say, he never woke up and his heart stopped when they were bringing him out of anesthesia.  I won't EVER put another pup through this.  My opinion is that the pup never asked to have cropped ears and that he gave his life because someone wanted him to look more "Dane" like. He died due to someone else's vanity and it breaks my heart. []

The only dumb question is a question not asked! 
gr8danzgirl,  that story just broke my heart.  We should all just be happy with things the way God created them. Long ears and all. LOL

I thought some breeds require pricked ears for show? I may be wrong on this.
 
Looks and for showing would be my guess.

no, it's optional. You can show with cropped ears or not, as you choose. It's fashion, pure and simple. People get used to the "cropped" look, and think natural ears look weird. If more people stopped doing it, the "natural" look would start appearing normal and the cropped dogs would seem odd. Around here it's rare to see cropped boxers, and dobes are around 50:50. I really prefer the uncropped look of the Doberman to cropped.

That's heart-breaking, gr8danzgirl.  Dead so young just for a more intimidating look. [] 
K.M.A, some used to.  But alot of the breed specification changed in that area, enabling you to show your dog without cropping whereas before you couldn't.

I could not even imagine Ella with her ADORABLE ears cropped.
No way, I'll take natural ears to cropped any day. UNLESS, and my in-law's did this to their schnauzer for this reason, it's done for health reasons. I believe with Schnauzers it's believed to help keep their ears clean or healthier or something.

I would never crop ears, if I had a breed that did that.  I am absolutely in LOVE with flop eared Danes and Dobies. 

Along the same lines...why do people crop Rotty tails?

cosemetic and for show now mostly...but not originally...
 
(useful for working dogs now I guess...) But I would not have it done!
 
[linkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docking_(animals)]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docking_(animals)[/link]

I love uncropped ears. They do not crop in Europe do they?

ORIGINAL: gr8danzgirl

I breed Great Danes and all of mine have natural ears.  I agreed to have a pup cropped for a customer because she heard great things about my vet. The pup was perfectly healthy going into the surgery. Needless to say, he never woke up and his heart stopped when they were bringing him out of anesthesia.  I won't EVER put another pup through this.  My opinion is that the pup never asked to have cropped ears and that he gave his life because someone wanted him to look more "Dane" like. He died due to someone else's vanity and it breaks my heart. []

 
Now I do feel bad for this pup but you can blame it on the 'vanity' of ear cropping.
The same thing couldve happened when the pup went it to get neutered, or for a dental cleaning. The anesthesia probably caused it, not the ear cropping itself.
 
As for the original question its done for vanity purposes. I LOVE a cropped dog. Ive never seen a pup exhibit pain because of an ear crop, so I dont think its cruel. JMO

I'm a fan of natural ears. I've heard the argument that a prick-eared dog looks more scary and thus you won't have the issue of people approaching a dog who may be posessive and dangerous. I think that argument has a lot of flaws, though.
 
Yes, natural-eared dobermans are adorable, but there are lots of other adorable breeds who never have cropped ears that are by temperment prone to being possesive and cranky. It's up to those dogs' owners to be responsible and warn people before they approach, and not take the dogs places where there may be a lot of people invading the dog's space. It sort of comes with choosing to care for one of those breeds.
 
No responsible dog-owner, whether they have a nippy dog or the world's greatest therapy dog, should be letting people, especially kids, just come up to their dog and have a pet-a-thon. If you have a friendly dog, it still sets a bad precedent. I have ridiculously friendly dogs, but if kids start to approach without asking, I tell them that they should always ask before approaching an unfamiliar dog, but yes, my dogs are friendly and you may pet them all you want.
 
In Europe, ear cropping is actually illegal, and don't think there's been a rash of doberman maulings caused by their cuteness. []

ORIGINAL: LizzieCollie


Now I do feel bad for this pup but you can blame it on the 'vanity' of ear cropping.
The same thing couldve happened when the pup went it to get neutered, or for a dental cleaning. The anesthesia probably caused it, not the ear cropping itself.

As for the original question its done for vanity purposes. I LOVE a cropped dog. Ive never seen a pup exhibit pain because of an ear crop, so I dont think its cruel. JMO

I think you CAN very much blame the ear-cropping. The ear surgery must be done before the pup starts to lose his/her puppy teeth, and is generally done no later than 8 weeks of age. Very, very few dogs are spayed/neutered that young (yes, I'm aware of many places doing pediatric spay/neuters, and their increasing popularity), and there would certainly be NO reason for a dental cleaning at that age. So yes, the death was caused by anesthesia, but anesthesia is far, far more risky in a very young pup than in a more mature animal.

How many pups have you seen/dealt with shortly after ear-cropping, and throughout the whole posting/taping phase? I would guess not too many, if you've not seen them in pain, if you've never seen the ears get infected, if you've never dealt with a reaction to the adhesive in the tape, if you've never seen a pup with posted ears run into something and jam the post into his/her ear, and if you've never met the dozens of rescue Danes I've seen with the edges of the ears lumpy with scar tissue, or even completely gone, due to infection. Perhaps the surgery itself, performed by a competent veterinarian is not painful for the pup, but there's generally quite a bit of pain involved during the aftercare and ongoing taping--some due to owner neglect, and some even with the best and most experienced of owners.