WorkingInSTL

With regard to the ears, I have to reluctantly admit that the procedure is purely cosmetic and not really necessary. That being said, I have been through ear crops several times, and my personal observations have been that it is simply not that big an ordeal. It is a relatively simple procedure and almost never leads to any problems with the proper aftercare. Any puppy I have ever had cropped showed at the most, extremely mild discomfort, and by the second day out, never showed any signs they were even aware the surgery had been done. As far as health, I'm not certain I am ready to believe that cropped OR natural has much effect on things like ear infections either way. There are others (and the number of these people is growing) who do not like the practice. I respect their right to hold that opinion. Is it shallow ? Perhaps a tiny bit, but I do not condone any legislation that outlaws the practice. It's too much of a "slippery slope" imho. The irony of the legislation in Germany is, although cropping and docking is illegal for dobes, the politicians made sure that they could still dock the tails on their hunting dogs...you explain that one to me.

Tails are a different story. Dobermanns were never bred to have a tail, meaning that breeders never paid attention to the structure of it, so it's my understanding that their natural tails tend to be very fragile and tend to break easily when left undocked, often needing to be surgically removed due to physical trauma later in life. I've never had an undocked dog, so I can't comment on this personally, but I know this is an argument that is often presented, and it makes sense to me.

Edit: I just read the post from GunnersMom...I was not aware of some of the things you posted in regard to the ears. I'll have to put that in my little "bag-o-knowledge".