Bad Crop

Dobie Wan Knobie

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This is what we got - and the vet we used has been doing this 30 years - and I showed him a photo of what we would like. We are NOT happy at all!!!
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Needless to say we are going have this corrected by another vet. This is what I am going to ask for, I don't want to get to complicated, so I think I'll just try and keep the correction as simple as I can. The ear on the left has the correction and the other one shows what needs to be cut off.
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What do you think about this?
 
Well he will grow into them and they are standing. I know nothing about the show crop but I do know that the only thing worse than a bad crop is one that falls, just be sure before you go cutting again, I have seen one dog that finally lost a portion of the ear and it fell with the part that was left. Good luck
 
9 days old and they are standing that well? I am not an expert on cropping or posting but show crops are long. The new vet that will fix the crop....what is their opinion on this? Also is there a time frame that this has to be done or can it be done at a more adult age? I have not heard of a correction causing an ear to flop...but it makes sense that if you cut off scar tissue and cartalidge that it might happen. I would ask the vet you have chosen to correct the crop what the likelihood of that happening is.

Its not that bad. But I see what you mean in the pictures. One of the many reasons why I didnt crop.
 
They are standing good for only 9 days, she had a good strong "lift" to them before we cropped. So far, the new vet that will do the crop has only seen photos, my wife took her in and they took lots of photos of her, as he was out on a call for a horse. But I did talk to him on the phone, and he said we have plenty of time to correct this, and he said this is not the first time he has had to do this. I am going to keep the correction to a minimum, but the ear is to wide at the base for sure - I could put several earrings in those lobes.
 
They are a bit wide at the base but they are healthy and are starting to stand. Did the breeder have all the puppies ears cropped? Are you showing puppy in conformation? They do grow into their ears but yes the base is wide, if I had a puppy for just a pet I would really think about putting my puppy through the surgery again.

What does the breeders puppy think about the crop?
 
remember he has to grow so much more they will look totally different on an adult dog, mine are both natural but I have seen lots of crops all different, please think hard before you put him through more surgery.
 
I purchased the pup at 8 weeks and the breeder is not involved with the crop in any way. One thing to consider is that one ear is cut a bit different than the other, so this also is a concern.
 
I can empathize with you. I also had a problem with my vet not cropping the way I asked. The good news is, if you decide not to crop again, chances are they will look better when she gets bigger. Here is a picture of Daisy's ears right after crop 2013-10-13 16.55.29.webp and this is her a week ago 2014-03-20 17.42.24.webp . I can't say I love her ears but it isn't the end of the world for me. At least now they don't stick out so far on the side of her head anymore..
 
It does have a little more bell than some but I agree that he will grow into them and the shape really isn't bad. I've seen quite a few crops with wider bells anyway.

He's a cutie and they're really standing nice already. :)
 
I agree the shape I would not be happy with. The ears are up to you, it doesn't seem like it would take much to correct them. Much better that he left too much on than too little. Ear cropping is an art and I think a lot of vets do not know what to do with the bell so instead of removing it and stitching a smaller one, they avoid that all together. Either way, I'd definitely leave a review wherever you can (like on a site such as Yelp) on the first vet you used so that others may avoid the same mistake. Good luck with whatever you decide to do! She's a cutie for sure :)
 
First off congrats on following the standard and helping preserve our rights to c/d.

The ears are to wide and your drawing will not correct the problem completely unless you cure in near the middle of the ear and on up. Think of a tulip leaf -that is the shape of the ears posted and why they do not look great- it will not be pretty without that little curve in or narrower near the top half of the ear.

It is much harder to completely correct once they are cropped so you will need to find a really GOOD DOBERMAN vet to make it work.

This is one of the biggest reason I believe good breeders will crop ALL puppies before they leave their home. Then they know they are done right. JMHO
 
I completely understand how you feel. The vet that did Ozzy's ears was fairly new to cropping and left too much bell also. On top of that they never would stand unposted. He had them cropped a second time by the same vet free of charge and the now stand very well but there is still too much bell considering how a show crop looks. But, honestly unless he's being judged by someone who knows about show crops, he's still a very handsome doberman and gets compliments from everyone that meets him. Whatever you decide to do I completely understand. I was agonized when Ozzy's ears weren't how I thought they should be. Good luck and I hope things work out for you.
 
First off congrats on following the standard and helping preserve our rights to c/d.

The ears are to wide and your drawing will not correct the problem completely unless you cure in near the middle of the ear and on up. Think of a tulip leaf -that is the shape of the ears posted and why they do not look great- it will not be pretty without that little curve in or narrower near the top half of the ear.

It is much harder to completely correct once they are cropped so you will need to find a really GOOD DOBERMAN vet to make it work.

This is one of the biggest reason I believe good breeders will crop ALL puppies before they leave their home. Then they know they are done right. JMHO
I am glad that breeders dont crop their ears. I support people that do, but I also loke the look of them natural. I dont want to deal with any posting...plus with my dobie being trained as a service dog it just looks less threatening to have the ears not done. I dont mind the good breeders that crop the ears, but I also like the responsible ones that give you an option
 
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It doesn't look like a bad crop to me. Definitely too much width at the bell, but there's a nice curve and I think he'll grow into those ears. I'd be mad too if the vet didn't go by a photo example but wouldn't recrop those standing ears.
 
A lot of vets use the standard template and that does have a wider bell, but if he said he'd give you what you gave him a photo of it's a different story.

I sent a pic to the vet in TX who did Della's ears when she was still with the breeder and he did a very nice job even though he was skeptical of going as long as I wanted because many people won't do the aftercare needed and it reflects poorly on him.

One of the pics I sent him as an example.
Cinnia side.webp

And what he did, which was very close but just a little shorter. I'm happy with it though and that's the main thing. :)
Head shot by tree close from side sized June 30 13.webp
 
As of right now she is back in posts, as the ears were shrinking up and folding inward - and we don't want that. I will wait on a decision on what I will do until after I have a really good one on one with the new vet about this. Do not want to make a knee jerk reaction on this, but you can see the large bell still even with them up in posts.
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I don't mind the crop too much myself, but it would look better more narrow like in that pic you show. I don't like the real wide triangle crops that point out far to the sides, not appealing to me at all. Whatever you choose to do, I think they will ultimately stand great which is the most important thing to me good luck!
 
They do grow into their ears if you get a medium-show or long show cropped. At first I thought Max's ears were way too big for him but hes really grown into them nicely. Here's a comparison pic.

This is him at 6 months. Couldn't find earlier pics but they looked bigger than this.
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Photo(3).webp at 11 months old.
 

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