When I read through peoples posts on this forum and I see a breed of dog i am unsure of, I google a picture to have a look :) well someone mentioned a Cane Corso (mis-spelt?) so I had a look at a few pictures (beautiful looking breed) and found what I thought to be two different types! One with sticky up ears one with Labrador-ish ears. On closer inspection is seems they had snipped off the tops/sides of the dogs ears :( Just wondering, why would they do this? Is it just this breed? Im not planning on getting one, ive got enough (1) :) But i was quite curious as the two pictures of the dogs looked very different.

>Just wondering, why would they do this?

Some countries still allow the cropping of dogs' ears. It's been banned in the UK for over a century.

> Is it just this breed?

No - in the US dobermanns, great danes and boxers, among others, are routinely cropped at about 3 months old. The procedure takes several weeks of post-operative care to make the ears stand up.

The picture with erect ears was most likely of a dog in the USA or other country where ear cropping is still practised on certain breeds (e.g. Dobermann, Great Dane, Pit-Bull, Boxer).  Thankfully, cropping has been illegal in the UK (and parts of Europe) for some time so it's uncommon to see them here.

Typing quicker than me as usual, JG :D

> Just wondering, why would they do this? Is it just this breed?

It's called copping (cropped ears), where a portion (or in some cases ALL) of the ear is removed, I think it also needs splinting, which over-time will result in the sticky-up ears (different than dogs with naturally pointed ears). It's not just this breed :(

It was used in fighting dogs to save thier ears from damage in fights and to stop the other dog dragging then down by the ears :( If you look at pics of pit-bulls, you will see a lot with thier ears cropped right off :(

It does completely change the look of the dog:(

Horrible, horrible, mutilation that there is NO need for :( (obviously some dog that have had injuries/disease in thier ear flaps will have to have thier ears cropped off, but that would be for a medicle reason).

I think some breed standards in other countires call for the ear cropping, but I could be wrong on that. It is illegal in Europe.

ETA, wow I must type slow, there were no other answers when I started typing, LOl!!

It was most prob me that spelt it wrong, yep they crop like the others say, they also remove the dew claws and dock the tail, not a very nice practice and thankfully banned in this country.

Infact our cane coso has a slightly cropped ear not by choice, when she was a pup a jack russel bit part of it off, I was horrified and now her lovely long ears have a great big bit missing. Stupid Woman should have had it on the lead as mine was.

>they also remove the dew claws and dock the tail, not a very nice practice and thankfully banned in this country.

The removal of dewclaws is perfectly legal in the UK, and tail-docking is allowed in certain circumstances with certain breeds.

Ear-cropping is totally banned, and has been for over 100 years.

Wow, thats horrific. It really does make the breed look much scarier. Which I supose is why many people is those countries do it (?) Cant say I agree in the slightest with mutilation of any degree (docking etc) I just wondered why on earth they would!
Thank you for your responses.

> Cant say I agree in the slightest with mutilation of any degree (docking etc)

for working breeds its needed to prevent far worse later on. new born pups barely notice where as a split tail as an adult is very painful. the same argument can be made about dew claws.

cropping is another matter.

at a local school fete 2 weeks ago and a guy was wandering around with a Dobe with pointed erect ears, didn't get chance to speak but as we have USAF houing in the village I assume that he has come over and brought the cropped dog with him. It made the dog look far 'harder' than what we are used to seeing.
Chris