Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all,

I have a Doberman puppy that her ears are not cropped and the Judges are giving me a hard time in the ring about it. What I need to know is if ANYONE HAS HAD ANY SUCCESS IN CROPPING AT 6 MTHS OF AGE?. Oops! Cap lock was on.

Please no comments on not to crop. Just on if they have ever had any success in cropping at a later age.

Thanks

Gemdia

I show my dobermann too but I do it in Scotland and we are not allowed to crop ears, only tails (and that will soon be banned). I think they look nicer and have a better outline with uncropped ears but thats just my opinion. Is the reason they crop ears at a young age due to the pain factor or due to the cropping acually working?? One of my friends has an imported dobermann from Belgium and she had her ears cropped too late and one of them is fine but the other one flaps over to the side. Sorry I have not been much help but as I say I have only ever had contact with one cropped dobermann.xx

Ears are usually cropped between 7-10 weeks. Most talented, competent ear cropping vets have a limit of 12 weeks-after that it becomes questionable if the ears will ever stand.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/11341

You might think about trying your question on this forum that I have provided to you. That one seems to get a little more traffic than this one. You may find that you get a larger variety of answers to your question to better help you deside.

There are over 300 people approved to judge dobermans. While you don't see a lot of uncropped dobes being shown in this country, there are a number of dogs right now being shown successfully with natural ears...one in particular I'm thinking of picked up a major her first weekend in the ring from the puppy classes.

IOW-if the dog is good enough, natural ears shouldnt and doesn't stand in their way.

Unless you cropped the ears down to pit bull type ears (not too attractive on a doberman) it's unlikely you'd get them to stand on a dog of six months of age or older.

Thanks for your opinion.

What state are you in?

We are in Canada

Gemdia

I'm in the US, where the DPCA standard makes no allowance for uncropped ears; they're a fault. All dogs have faults-when a very good dog is shown with uncropped ears, they can rise above the fault of uncropped ears.

The standard used by the DPCC makes no penalty for uncropped ears-either natural or cropped ears are accepted.

Before you do something as drastic as cropping a puppy that old, I'd suggest you get someone like a pro handler to evaluate your dog for you-in most cases the problem *isn't* uncropped ears, it's in the areas of lack of quality or inexperienced presentation of the dog by a novice, or both.

No the ears won't stand if they are cropped now, Doberman ears are heavy, so they need to be cropped before 4 months, or there is not much of a chance they will stand. I wouldnt waste the money on it. If you get another dobe, make sure it is cropped before you get it, or shortly after (before 4 months) sometimes they wont even stand after 3 months! most pups need to be cropped around 7 weeks, to get a good crop on them.