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Just got chewed out by a stranger at a PetSmart…

3K views 47 replies 31 participants last post by  Jazi 
#1 ·
I went into PetSmart to buy dog food and to talk to the trainer there to get information on their puppy socialization classes. A woman overheard me talking to the trainer saying the dog would be coming home from the breeder in two weeks. She made a sound behind me like a “pfffhh” but the trainer and I ignored her. We continued talking and I mentioned the pups were getting their ears done that day. This woman said “excuse me? I wasn’t going to say anything about you getting a dog from a breeder because many people are ignorant like that, but I draw the line at puppy mutilation. You wouldn’t do that to him would you?” (Pointing at my son in the shopping cart.) The trainer and I were both speechless. I said “ma’am, he is not a puppy.” and the woman walked away mumbling about calling DFCS on me!

I’ve always had rescue dogs. I know the rescue community is pretty toxic right now, very high and mighty. But never in my life would I criticize someone’s parenting because they had their dog’s ears cropped!

Anyway, is this a standard reaction people have seeing a Doberman with cropped ears in public? I’m going to socialize my pup whether or not people judge me about his ears, I just want to know if I should prepare for it.
 
#2 · (Edited)
I wouldn't quite call it a standard reaction and it sounds a little more extreme than most who do make comments, but some people definitely do respond negatively about ear cropping. Folks make comments about cropped dogs. especially when the dog is a puppy.

You need to develop a thick skin if you're going to have a cropped dobe.

If you feel like it, you can mention that spaying and neutering are much more invasive and can be just as cosmetic (if they are done because folks don't want to have to fool with entire dogs and bitches in heat) or you can even bring up the topic of circumcision, but usually ignoring comments or walking away is easier.
 
#4 ·
ABC, your story is not unheard of by Doberman owners on DT. Just search past threads. In my experience the adverse reaction is rare, at least down here in S. Texas.

Besides prejudice against buying from breeders and then cropping ears, Doberman owners must also contend with outright breed discrimination as being "vicious" On our block when we first were waiting on our puppy Neo to come home, a lady admonished us with the "Adopt don't Shop" mantra when I told her about our new Doberman puppy coming soon. I said his ears were getting cropped as well by breeder's vet and she almost had a conniption fit! I explained it was the breed standard. However, later when she saw Neo after he finished ear posting, she gave him nothing but compliments over how handsome and affectionate he was! :unsure:
 
#9 ·
She pointed at my kid!

I didn’t mention she had a crusty little white dog in her cart. Could have used a bath and haircut for sure!
ABC, your story is not unheard of by Doberman owners on DT. Just search past threads. In my experience the adverse reaction is rare, at least down here in S. Texas.

Besides prejudice against buying from breeders and then cropping ears, Doberman owners must also contend with outright breed discrimination as being "vicious" On our block when we first were waiting on our puppy Neo to come home, a lady admonished us with the "Adopt don't Shop" mantra when I told her about our new Doberman puppy coming soon. I said his ears were getting cropped as well by breeder's vet and she almost had a conniption fit! I explained it was the breed standard. However, later when she saw Neo after he finished ear posting, she gave him nothing but compliments over how handsome and affectionate he was! :unsure:
I worked at the animal shelter in Atlanta for a few months a while back in the kennel. I loved the dogs, but goodness the ADOPT DONT SHOP people were crazy. And when you see all these poor dogs come in from backyard breeders you can’t help but agree in most ways. Almost nobody has any business breeding their dogs.

I wouldn't quite call it a standard reaction and it sounds a little more extreme than most who do make comments, but some people definitely do respond negatively about ear cropping. Folks make comments while cropped dogs. especially when the dog is a puppy.

You need to develop a thick skin if you're going to have a cropped dobe.

If you feel like it, you can mention that spaying and neutering are much more invasive and can just as cosmetic (if they are done because folks don't want to have to fool with entire dogs and bitches in heat) or you can even bring up the topic of circumcision, but usually ignoring comments or walking away is easier.
Dog people have very strong opinions about things. I mentioned in a comment on Reddit a few weeks ago that it’s “not necessarily irresponsible to keep your dog intact, as long as you’re vigilant and not letting your dog breed.” You would have thought I said something absolutely evil from the replies I got to that.

Circumcision is the first thing that popped in my head when she pointed at my son and asked if I’d crop his ears. I’m pretty level headed so I didn’t let my internal dialogue come out, and she probably wouldn’t have listened anyway. Guess I’m working on that thick skin already.
 
#8 ·
Yeah I have had it happen several times - along with the right act about prone collars ,.

So I will jink myself , It is been several years since the last one , maybe because of the lock down ,

Glad you brought his up so I can work on some new smart azz relies
 
#11 ·
Maybe it depends on where in the U.S. you live. I'm in Colorado and no one ever said a word to me about Gibbs the German Pinscher's cropped ears. Nor has anyone ever given me a hard time about buying a puppy. The closest to that I've ever experienced is a description of their wonderful adopted dog that seems kind of unnecessary. Of course it also may be that when the person on the end of leash is obviously a TOB (Tough Old Broad or other B word depending), people decide to take their opinion elsewhere.

On the other hand, I got a lecture on words are violence from some jerk in a PetsMart once when I told his kid to quit it the 3d time she ran herself and her Golden puppy into Schara. Sometimes I wish we lived in different times so one could bloody a deserving person's nose without needing a lawyer. That crap is so insane he left me speechless, but I'd have liked to show him what real violence is. Not every Rottweiler, not every dog period, would tolerate what the best Rottweiler God ever created did.
 
#12 ·
When they pay my bills, they can tell me what to do with my property. It is indeed not mutilation; it's done under the supervision of a licensed veterinarian and is virtually painless to the puppy. So maybe they shouldn't speak on something they know nothing about and next time they should do proper research before opening their mouth and vomiting ignorance. better to not speak and appear the fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt.

I support rescue, I'm on the board of the local dobe rescue and I currently have a foster. With that said, in essence, rescuing is supporting BYB's and puppy mills because those are the only kind of dogs that end up in rescue. My response to those kinds of people are, "I support reputable breeders, not puppy mills and BYBs that rescues support. My dogs are co-owned, under contracts and the breeder offers a lifetime of support". If you want to leave the temperament and health of your dogs to chance, good for you, but I choose not to."

On top of this almost every volunteer for our rescue has a dog from a reputable breeder as well.
 
#15 ·
The "Adopt don't shop" is relatively new and it irritates me to be told that's what I should be doing...but I've had people telling me all about how I was abusing and mutilating my Dobermans by cropping them. A friend whose first language was not English taught me an all purpose Spanish insult to go with the one that starts out "No habla Englis..."

dobebug--that worked surprisingly well...
 
#19 ·
Roll off your back. I like rescue dogs but have no issue with choosing from reputable breeders (my step brothers do this; love their dogs) - this lady just sounds like she feels best in grumpy mode, getting her only satisfaction from criticizing others or finding a way to look down on them. Probably she’d chew me out for not composting chewing gum wrappers. I’d feel sorry for her except I wouldn’t
 
#31 ·
^What Mary said. Really not worth engaging with someone who thinks it's appropriate to accost you with a strong opinion. I have had a TON of people, though, who ask a question when ears are in posts. Something like, oh, what's up with his ears, or, something less, aggressive? I usually respond politely that you have to "train" a Doberman's ears to stand up, and that the tape just supports his ears in the standing up position. Those are generally very friendly conversations and people are like, oh! I had no idea that's how you get them to stand up. I don't go into details about cropping.

In North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, probably Iowa - it’s pretty typical to polite smile and only complain about someone behind their back....
I'm in Minnesota...believe me, plenty of people feel more than free to comment directly about a Doberman puppy and their ears!

Wow! You do not have possession of a dobe and you are getting grief. Some are so proud of their ignorance!
On few occasions ,me and my cropped dobe have been thanked for leaving his ears natural.;):)
but
most encounters with people are very positive and a story about their dobe of days past and how special that Doberman was to them.
Same, Alan, same. Too funny. Sometimes I correct them and say, oh, the ears are actually cropped. Sometimes I just stay quiet.


To the OP - I have found that cupheads are the most likely to get comments, then puppies in posts, and then it's pretty rare once you are done posting. Part of owning the breed, I guess. I wouldn't stress about it.
 
#24 ·
Welcome to owning a Dobermans, a dog from a breeder instead of a shelter, a purebred period, and honestly any working type breed. I've had people think my German shepherd had her ears cropped and be mad at me about it. My Aussie I had, every single person took it upon themselves to "educate" me on how high energy of a dog that was and that an 18 yr old had no business owning her. News flash, that was why I chose the breed, I had had plans to do agility with her. The automatic question is "what rescue did you get her from?" For any of my dogs. When I respond none they're absolutely disgusted 😁 Though perks of a full grown GSD here, nobody asks me anything about that or sneers anymore they're too busy trying not to crap their pants just seeing her.
 
#25 ·
I had a training vest for Sünje that I got from my trainer, and it really did help keep people from insisting on petting her while we were out, b/c in stores I was usually training and didn't want to be bothered. After a while I realized that people thought she was a service dog that I was training (I was training her for schutzhund/IGP)--that worked well. And nobody ever asked me or screamed at me about her cropped ears or the fact that she was purebred. So you might consider getting a training vest and use that and go about your business w/ your dog. Then if someone tries to start something, you can interrupt their rant with "Excuse me, I'm busy training my dog and really don't want to be bothered."
 
#30 ·
People thought Arrow was a SD when she was young with the vest, but now they actually just assume protection dog lol. Idk what changed, but maybe her "grown up" vest is more that line, her one she has as a younger pup was hot pink 🤣 I did have more specific patches when she was younger that said Working Dog, which to my brain at the time meant she was training and working towards protection, But when people at the parks assumed service dog I took those off and had the just Do Not Pet. I had never realized any service dog people used the word Working I had thought it was just for sniffer dogs and I've seen a lot on Malinois and protection dogs that go out, which was why I chose it was since I'd seen it a lot on protection dogs and thought it would just be for that line of work since everyone normally here just blazons a service dog with all the patches Service Dog, generally disability patches, and ones along those lines. Or no vest at all even. In Training doesn't work for me, that seems to almost be an encouragement for people to pet 😅 I still get feed store employees who just ignore it, but most people are very respectful and give us space. The one guy who didn't last trip got a giant wet slobbery lick on the hand when he walked too close to us 🤣🤣🤣
 
#26 · (Edited)
To be clear, just as Sunje said--do NOT get a vest that implies that you are training for service/therapy/emotional support or that your dog actually is trained for that already. But you can find vests labeled that way with removable patches so you can get a "do not pet" or an "in training" patch. Or, I just saw this one--"ask to pet". Every dog should have one of those.
 
#27 ·
That sucks, some people can be so rude. I've gotten comments before about cropping my last Dobe's ears. I do prefer cropped ears when it comes to Dobermans, it gives them a whole different look. That being said, I have Cane Corsos and I prefer their floppy ears. I guess I just don't like the really short crops and I've seen so many of them that just look awful. But it's a personal decision and as long as you're going about it the right way, I have no issues with it. I've also gotten comments on docking the tails too but I sure love them little nubs lol.
 
#28 ·
I travel by car with my Dober bc its just me and him. I have gone from one coast to the other several times. Generally people compliment me on how well behaved my boy is when they see him sitting patiently waiting for me as I load/unload, etc. I like to think I have been a good “breed ambassador” to the normies over the last 25/6 years w my Dobers.

Yes, ppl will comment on the cropped ears and docked tails but its always an emotional plea. I have yet to hear anyone who has brought up the subject w a rationale other than along the lines of “unnecessary suffering” for the puppy. They generally know very little about the subject. As long as they are not rude about it, I try to explain the origins of the breed and why the standard calls for docked tail and cropped ears.

The few times people were rude, I just ignore them.

Personally, if I wanted big floppy ears I’d get snoopy 🤪
 
#32 ·
I have finally reached a point in my life where, unless someone is truly trying to learn/understand, I just ignore and move on. Most people who are being rude and forcing their opinions on you are not going to change their minds after a 2 minute convo. Yes, it bugs me when people imply I've tortured my puppy whose ears are posted, but I can't help that the people are ignorant to what is actually going on with posts. I only engage if they just will not stop chattering on and on.
 
#35 ·
Here's another one I tried out yesterday online w/ a newer friend who I think has the rescue mentality. I mentioned that I'd lost my dog recently and was planning to get a competition puppy sometime later this year, and that I missed having a dog around to train. Her response was very accepting and supportive, and I've found this overall that people seem to be more accepting of a purebred if you say that you'll be showing/competing with the dog (which I will be).
 
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