[Disfoolritehere]

Hi all,

I have an 8 month old Cane Corso, and am thinking about getting his ears cropped. Is it too late? Hennessy weighs about 80lbs. Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Canyx]

I suggest appreciating your pup's cute ears and not cropping them. I doubt any vets would perform the surgery at that age. Most cropping is done when the puppy is very young, like 7ish weeks of age. Your dog's ear cartilage is pretty much fully formed at this point. Cropping will likely not get you the appearance you want, unless it's a very short crop (like pretty much cutting the whole ear off), and the procedure would definitely be more painful and traumatic for your dog.

 

[LeoRose]

Yes, it's too late. He should have been cropped between 8 and 12 weeks if you wanted him cropped. Cropping him now will be many times more difficult and painful, and would result in ears that would likely never stand properly.

 

[parus]

He's too old. His ears won't stand if you crop them. If you're not crazy about the look of floppy ears now, imagine tiny malformed floppy ears - not handsome or intimidating at all.

Handsome boy, by the way.

 

[pandora]

In more civilised parts of the world this un-neccessay practice is banned. Ears are part of a dogs method of communication . By cropping ears and docking tails you rob your dog of vital body languge.

Besides this in the vast majority and I mean 99.999999% the cropping has no benefit to the dog and mearly serves as an ego boost to the owner.

Which is pathetic

 

[storyist]

Besides this in the vast majority and I mean 99.999999% the cropping has no benefit to the dog and mearly serves as an ego boost to the owner.

I always thought it was done to dogs of the fighting breeds for no other reason than to make them look intimidating. Then two of my dogs got into a major fight. One lost the tip of one ear. The other's ears were all there but looked as if they'd been skinned. The ER vet actually refused to work on him that night - said she had no idea what to do and we needed to wait until the next day when the more experienced vet came on duty. Fortunately for me (and Ruff, who had other injuries) by early morning I got hold of my own vet and took him there. He ended up having both ears amputated, close and ugly, kind of what you see on a lot of pit bulls.

So I do think there was a real purpose in cutting the ears on the fighting breeds - to keep what happened to my guy from happening. It's an ugly purpose and IMO an ugly look. The ears that are cut longer like a Doberman must either be something that mutated from the really short no ear flap left cut or maybe that look is just for intimidation.

 

[Knute]

IMHO. Please don't crop the ears......

Generally, the ear cropping was done to either make the dog look more alert and intimidating or to prevent fighting injury.

Tail docking was done to protect the tail from injury during hunting or fighting.

Both of these practices are falling out of favor.

My mini-schnauzer has a docked tail, ears are natural. The tail was docked long before I met him as a puppy and his litter mates.

 

[LeoRose]

Besides this in the vast majority and I mean 99.999999% the cropping has no benefit to the dog and mearly serves as an ego boost to the owner.

There are a lot of reasons that some breeds are traditionally cropped and/or docked. While I much prefer a natural dog, I'd rather see it just go out of style, rather than be banned outright, because people who really want their dogs cropped and.or docked are going to do it regardless. Having it done by a vet who uses proper anesthesia and surgical techniques, and providing proper aftercare, is much preferable to most of the options I can think of.

And yes, sometimes ears and/or tails are amputated (fully or partially) at a later date, due to injury or tumors. I had a car who had an ear cropped when she was spayed at 6-ish months, because she had some kind of growth on it (she had it when I got her at 6 weeks), and it was bothering her.

 

[Kyllobernese]

Cropping, docking and removing dew claws, is banned in our Province. The Vets cannot do it or they could lose their license.

 

[christine_72]

Cropping, docking and removing dew claws, is banned in our Province. The Vets cannot do it or they could lose their license.

Exactly the same here in Australia. Ear cropping and declawing cats has ALWAYS been illegal. Tail docking was banned years ago.