Cropped Ears vs. Natural Ears: Which is Better?

Dogs shouldn’t need surgery on body parts to meet a breed standard.

If you have your dog's ears and tail cropped… You should turn yourself into a tree ornament, sing into Kurt Cobain's last microphone, or go out like Amy Winehouse.

Had to make the tough decision this week and I have joined the Floppy crew and left the cropping idea behind. Look I respect the breed standard and I understand the *want for the cosmetic appeal; however, I’m a care taker. I live with an individual with special needs and have done this work for a few years with intentions to stay in the field. The Doberman breed has always been a favorite of mine, but I did NOT get my dog to be a vicious dog or a dog that will be doing more work than he’s here for. He is going to be a “guard dog” but none more than an alert and deter. I have fallen in love with his floppy ears. It adds to his personality and he’s incredibly approachable. My dog is Pure Bread American Doberman. He does have the tail docked and due claw removed. The ears are a large part of communication to other dogs and to people, it was in my opinion important to keep them for the socialization process. I also did not trust my ability to properly care for the ears post surgery. This is the most important piece. For the dogs sake, and for yours, are you WILLING and ABLE to properly care for the aftercare of staging and cleaning the ears from used bandage and so on and so forth. Tough decision. I would rather have my dog happy and healthy, than my own selfish wants of the aesthetic appeal of having a breed standard Doberman. I am happy with my decision and my boy is too.

You rock John. Thanks for your videos man.

Idk how many people here have worked in vet clinics, but I used to assist vets at a shelter doing spay & neuter on the animals we adopted out (they were all done before leaving).
Spay & neuter surgeries are FAR more invasive! Far more risk as well. The young pups & kittens wake-up like nothing happened. I don't even know if they notice, as they heal so quickly and are so playful that you can't calm them down. The adults acted more like they actually had surgery. Idk if people realize this.

I have never seen a doberman with ears cropped. I doubt it is even legal in Nothern Europe. I think they look really bad with cropped ears. As in looking like they lost their ears to frostbite. A breed standard where owners have to surgically alter the animal, is a standard that needs to change.

My dog thanks me every day with slobbery kisses for not mutilating him.

I just broke up with a guy not over his Doberman’s cropped ears… But it definitely helped me make my decision 🚩 😂😂😂

Fun fact. Not that it makes any difference or not but domesticated dogs are the only mammals with floppy ears. Any mammal in the wild has erect ears. Could it be due to humans messing with Gods creation mixing genetics creating new breeds and using unethical breeding practices? Who knows.

The video is alarming to me, because it suggest essentially relying on a highly psychopathic way of gauging whether something is good to do or not. instead of relying on any ethical premises or considerations, it attempts to provide purely "practical" considerations from the perspective of an owner. It pretends that the ethical element is essentially outside of the picture, and that people judging you for having a cropped doberman is simply them being "disgusted for no reason", when in fact they are disgusted because they consider the dogs perspective and view it as being cruel to the animal. It's a subtle form of intellectual dishonesty about the topic of ear cropping, because it ignores the ethical component all together, and essentially replaces the ethical component with purely "practical" considerations. It's "right for you" because its "practical for your desires". This is how a psychopath sees the world and determines what sort of things they should do in life.

It's like a man debating the "practical" pros and cons of murdering their wife, while entirely ignoring the fact that it's completely wrong to murder his wife in the first place. Unless it's absolutely medically necessary, it's animal cruelty. It's forcing a bodily mutilation onto an animal not for the benefit of the dog, but purely for the appeasement of an owner. It's simply not right.

Savage vanity, all it is and all it will ever be

CROPPED … Kind of like like a discussion (that most if the time we DO NOT have) of a KID circumcised or not!!

Tell me one wild dog with floppy ears. There has to be a reason for ears that stand up.