To crop? Or not Crop?

[dobermansok]

Hi all! My little girl has an appointment first thing in the morning to get her ears cropped. I made the appointment the day after I got her. The vet seen her, gave her some booster shots and said she was healthy enough for the surgery. He also said he is very confident they will stand.

Now here's my problem. Up until today, I have been excited and ready for tomorrow. Now all of a sudden I have cold feet. She's just so cute with her perky little ears. Gives her character and she just looks so sweet. Will I be taking that away from her with the crop? And if I don't crop them, will they stay the way they are now, or will they get all floppy and lazy looking? I just have so many questions running through me. I just sit and stare at her and I can't come up with any answers.

So I was hoping for some opinions from the people who know best. This will be my first crop. I left the ears of my last dobie natural because I couldn't afford it at the time and I always regretted it (and her's were never as cute as my little Izzi's ). So now I have the opportunity to do it and I've put myself between a rock and a hard place.

 

[Apollo]

nobody can take away your desicion.
me personal prefer the cropped ears. i always would crop. but thats just me.
go to all the albums on here and look at the pic's, you will find dobe's with both, look at them, think about it and then make your desicion.
if you crop, you need to realize, that there will be a lot of posting will follow. ears not standing, just because they got cropped.after the stiches come out and the ears are healed, you need to post them probably til your puppy is finish teeting, what is around 5-6 month, sometimes you need to post longer, some post til a year, are you redy for it, if not, let them natural
is the vet one, who cropped alot of ears, did you saw his results, do you saw pic's of ears from dobe's he did?
do you know what kind of crop doyou want?
thats all those things you need to think about
but on the end ,its all on you

 

[Panama]

Cropped ears or natural ears are personal preference. With any pup I've ever bought, the breeder already had the ears cropped. With the way her ears are, yes, they will more than likely stand fairly easy. Personally, I prefer the cropped ears, but that's just my personal preference.

 

[hrd2gt]

CROP CROP CROP, LOL... sorry. I love cropped ears. I have my guys with cropped, and the rescue with floppy... 1 i think its more elegant... 2 its more intimidating (nobody needs to know they are cupcakes on a dark scary walk) 3 gives them more attitude, I think they have more expressions with ears up. 4, god forbid anything happens, seems easier to re-home cropped.

all are good reasons, but honestly my only reason for cropping is cuz they look cooler. i never said i wasnt vain

 

[JanS]

Don't worry, almost everyone gets the cold feet the night before cropping, but trust me, it bothers the owner a lot more than it does the pup. While we're worried sick about the horror, the pups are sort of acting like "what's wrong with you?"

There are lots of good posts up at the top of this section about how to take care of the ears after the crop, and some example photos of different styles. If you have a certain look in mind, check out this thread Crop Pics - Lets see your style! - Doberman Chat Forum to see the different styles of crops. I printed my preferred style out and sent it to the vet to tell him what I was looking for and he did a fine job at duplicating it.

Don't worry, she'll be fine and recovered before you know it.

 

[dobermansok]

Thanks all for your responses. I'm not worried about the pain she will be in, since I know it's minimal. I just love those floppy ears and I don't wanna take that cuteness away. But I know if I don't do it, I will regret it either. Plus, her ears probably won't look as cute when she's older as they do now. Anyway, I plan to make the vet sit down with me in the morning for a little chat before going through with anything. And I already have a picture in hand for him to see of the style I want done.

"honestly my only reason for cropping is cuz they look cooler. i never said i wasnt vain" Hrd, you sound like my kinda people. LOL

 

[apbtmom76]

I personally like floppy ears on all dogs and the only reason my future red bitch will be because she comes with them already cropped, I LOVE floppy ears and would leave them nautral, but I plan on showing her in confirmation so they don't have to be cropped but they will be, lol.

 

[MomToMany]

I say, do whatever you want to.. it's a free country!! But it sounds like you've just got cold feet as you said. I personally WAS like hrd with the "crop, crop, crop..." but I've since changed my mind because we got our pup so young and I just didn't want to do it "to her" myself. Does that make sense?

Another reason we didn't, is because my son (7) likes the floppy look, and I want him to be comfortable with the pup as well. He had a bad experience with our first trial dobe, who had a LOVELY and perfect show crop, and one way I convinced him to PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE give a puppy a chance was to agree to let it have floppy ears. I know, I was desparate. This particular dobe is to be a family dog, and I actually want her to look more inviting and less intimidating. But the next dobe will be when DS is all grown up, and it can be as "mean" looking as I want it to.. LOL

Anyway, if you don't have any silly reasons such as mine NOT to do it, then I say go for it! As long as you have an experienced, proven vet whom you trust to do the procedure, I think you and pup will be just fine and will look simply dashing in no time! Good luck!

Oh yeah- and not showing.. that was another reason I decided not to. I mean, I may end up doing some "small" fun stuff with Riley, but no confo or anything of course.

 

[MyBuddy]

"honestly my only reason for cropping is cuz they look cooler. i never said i wasnt vain" Hrd, you sound like my kinda people. LOL

LOL!!

Like everyone said here, it's a personal preference thing. I personally love the crop. You regretted not getting it done last time. You might regret this time too.

 

[BreesMom]

My first dobe I didn't get cropped and always regretted it, my second dobe I wanted to have done so badly and almost chickened out but my daughter took her in to the vet for me. I was so glad I got her done. When it came time to get my third dobe my daughter was no longer living at home so I got her from a breeder that had them done before I picked her up. I just really love the looks of cropped ears, and you don't have people asking what kind of dog it is all the time.

 

[Damasyn]

Sok.... I think you will have regrets like your other dobe. You must obviously lean toward the cropped look..so I would stick with it. And all pups are cute..ears or no... I got my girl after her ears were cropped but not posted...she was soooo cute, I really did consider not posting them, But I knew I would torture myself with "what ifs".

I so dont regret it..and as cute as she was with the floppy ears...she is waaayyy cuter now...I have had sooo many ppl come up to me and gush over her..even her breeder comes to see us once a month...Lexi was her favorite lol.

Just look at that picture of her cute little mug...now picture how cute that little face will be with little stand up ears, and she wont lose any of her expression !

 

[Ingrid H]

I actually want her to look more inviting and less intimidating.

I can totally relate to that. It's part of the reason Hans un-cropped. Since I take him to work with me every day and he meets clients as well as other workers all the time, I wanted him to look inviting and less intimidating too.

But I like ears either way. I might secretly lean toward the cropped look. I'm just glad we have the choice in the USA.

 

[MomToMany]

Ingrid, glad I'm not the only one. LOL. Many in my family are leary of Dobes in the first place- not just my son after his incident.. so I definitely want them to feel comfy with Riley's looks while they get used to Dobes in general. (my MOTHER asked me last week: "let me just ask you something.. aren't Dobermans the ones who will turn on children after a while?" I wanted to cry. )

Anyhow, yeah. That's the reason. And I forgot to add- I AM far more fond of floppy ears now that I have Riley. Still love the crop, but love the flop too.

---------- Post added at 08:15 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:15 AM ----------

I'm just glad we have the choice in the USA.

This, more than anything!!

 

[MyBuddy]

(my MOTHER asked me last week: "let me just ask you something.. aren't Dobermans the ones who will turn on children after a while?"

Funny, I remember something to that effect going back to my teens years! It wasn't just children, it was that 'they turn' on anyone! How that got started, I'll never know, but to STILL hear it, is incredible. Of course, it's from your mom, who is probably from my era! It's just that I found out it wasn't true by owning three!

 

[hall.christopher]

I personally like them floppy,unfortunetly it is outlawed here in the UK so i did not have the choice!! But i do like them floppy, i love playing with there ears when they are lying next to me and wanting a fuss they feel like suede.But i believe its every individuals own preference.

 

[dobermansok]

Ok, we missed our appointment this morning because she had me up all night while she was dry heaving. Then at 4:30 this morning I found myself cleaning up the nastiness mess I've ever seen in her kennel. Fun. So now we have a new appointment at 2:30 to see what's wrong with her.

As far as the ears go, I think my real reason for being so wishy washy on the whole subject is because I don't want her to look so much like a dobie. I mean, I'm not supposed to have her, and some silly part of me is thinking that if she has long ears, she won't be so noticeable. I know that's stupid. Ears or no ears, she's still a dobie. I feel like if we didn't live on post, I probably would have never had second thoughts about my decision to crop.

 

[MyBuddy]

So sorry to hear Izzi wasn't feeling well. I hope they can figure it out for you.

I certainly can understand your thought process regarding cropping and the Army rules on Dobermans. But, like you said, she's still a Doberman, regardless of the 'flop or crop'. It's hard to hide a dog. How are you going to keep her anyways?

 

[Apollo]

oh damn now i remember, LOL i was thinking the whole time about your name and why it sounded so similar. you are the one with petition
hmmmmm now you are really have a problem, because what happens if they find out and wnt that you get rid of her????
i hope the little one is ok and she maybe just ate something what disagree with her stomach, keep us updated please,

 

[BreesMom]

Hoping Izzi is feeling better and it isn't anything serious!! How do you plan to keep her if you live on base??? Cropped or uncropped she is still a dobe. Hope it all works out for you!!!

 

[dobermansok]

Well, so far everything has been ok with keeping her here. No one really comes around and checks things out. Plus, we have a house at the end of a culdesac and a hill right at our fence line that hides us. We're looking into buying a house right now. I think we should be ok with her here for a couple of months. I take her everywhere with me... I mean everywhere so we don't get caught. She's even been in a bathroom stall with me at the dealership (that was interesting), and had to stay in the waiting room with me for 3 hours while they were checking out my truck.

Anyway, her vet visit went well. They took samples, poked and violated..Lol. She's fine. Must have gotten into something in the yard last night. (Which cost me $65.) She only eats anything she can get her mouth around. Never had a dog like that before. She's really found of rocks too. Gotta watch her with that.