Dog Ear Cropping

If you are looking to present your dog as a show animal you may be looking at cropping their ears so they stand perfectly erect. The procedure provides no health benefit and can be extremely painful for the animal, so unless it is for show purposes avoid having your dog's ears cropped.

Puppies

A dog's ears can be cropped when its age is between 10 and 14 weeks old. This is because the older the dog becomes the softer the ears are and the harder it is to actually keep the cropped ears upright. Contact your vet to see if he/she actually performs ear cropping (many vets do not do this operation). You may have to call around to a few different vet offices until you find one who performs the procedure.

The Procedure

The dog is placed under complete anesthesia. Looking at your dogs ears and holding them, you can feel about midway up where the ears become floppy and have less cartilage. This is about where the cut is made. The cut curves up towards the back of the ear, removing a large chunk of the ear away. The process is repeated on the other ear. Do not perform these procedures yourself. Some breeders do this procedures, however a vet users sterile equipment and has more experience with cropping ears. Avoid having a breeder perform this action because most are not certified to perform the operation and can actually lead to more health risks.

Splintering

The last phase of the ear cropping is to splinter the dog's ears. This insures they heal upright and in the desired fashion. After the surgery is complete (but while the dog is still under the medication) a large cast is created to prop the ears straight up. The casts need to be left on for several weeks, all of which the puppy will be under a considerable amount of pain. You need to place a cone around your dog's head. This prevents them from scratching at their ears. You also need to keep them away from other dogs due to their likelihood of playing with each other and damaging the ears.
Although this procedure is required for show dogs if you want to crop the ears, your puppy can not play with other dogs for several months, otherwise the ears can rebreak and the splintering procedure needs to be repeated. If you want your young dog to enjoy being a puppy you should avoid having their ears cropped.