New to site! Examples of different types of ear cropping

Responsible breeders usually crop the ears of the whole litter before they leave for their new homes. I've never had to have a puppy cropped, they all came already cropped from the breeder. Sometimes the breeder will work with you as to what lenght you want, but they still have good croppers who they know will do a good job and they want their puppies' ears to be cropped attractively, and they want to be sure the aftercare is started correctly, so the puppies have the least amount of discomfort.

I take it your puppy is going to come uncropped. Have you discussed this with the breeder? There are not "three types" of crops available. Ear cropping done well is an art and the best croppers consider the shape of each puppy's head as well as the weight of the ear leather and the strength of cartilage when they do the crop.

What you seem to mean by "working" "medium", or "show" is short, medium, and long. I guess medium would be a good length for a pet puppy. But medium means different things to different people. Have you found a vet to do the cropping? And are you sure that s/he really knows what they're doing?

Like everyone else has said, if you have the option, choose a good breeder who crops the pups before they go to their homes. I am not saying that you have chosen a Back Yard Breeder because I don't know...but just in case you have, please take it from me (I own a backyard bred dog) that once you start really researching the breed, you will wish you had gotten a well bred puppy.

When I was looking for a puppy, I looked on the internet, found some of the commercial puppy mills, saw the prices and said "No way Jose" looked in the newspaper and found a litter that would be ready in a few weeks. The money I "saved" buying him this way, turned out to not be a discount at all.

Between the cost of the first vet who first cropped his ears, the taping supplies, the re-crop (The 2-3 hour drive to that vet about 4 times) the cost of the re-crop, the time involved, the medicines, and the worries I went through....I surely did not save any money.

Because I don’t know his health history, there is no telling the amount of money I will have to fork out in the future to make sure he is taken care of to the best of my ability. I understand this can happen with well bred dogs as well, but good breeders work to keep certain preventable problems from effecting their puppies (for example VonWillibrands) which we believe my dog has. They also will offer guidance throughout the life of the dog, which will prove to be VERY useful. I wish I had it! I wouldn’t trade him for any puppy in the world, but if I had the choice to do it over, I would have done alot more homework before deciding on a puppy.

If you do decide to get the ears done yourself, please, please, please find a vet who knows Dobermans, can help you with follow-up care, and knows how to do good ear crops. You don’t want to go through it twice, trust me.

Here is a picture of my puppy at 5 months old after getting his ears cropped for the second time....


If that isn't enough to make you do your homework, please visit the album:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2107133864

I really am not trying to be a bummer, I just hope that you can learn from my mistakes. Good Luck

Yes please do more research on the "breeder" side of getting a puppy. A lot of times we do a lot of research on the breed itself but not on the type of breeders.

I did all the research on Dobermans but not on breeders and even though I couldn't ask for a better dog I got Princess from a backyard breeder who just wanted to "sell" a puppy. I had to find the vet who crops and went through a lot of trouble as well. A breeder who has the experience and has built up a relationship with the vet that does all the croppings for the breeder will end a much better result.

Here a picture of Princess that shows the "long crop", and each vet has a different way of doing them as well:

The ears look long for the body and head but she has grown since then and they look great on her now.



Good Luck
Naveen

here is one of my boy.. his was a standard crop it only took 3 weeks to get his ears standing properly. The shorter the crop the faster they stand.

We did the shorter crop for reasons stated in other posts. but here is a pic of his as well. and he is almost 2yrs old in this pic.