Ear cropping is no longer a thing

If you’ve been into the topic of purebred pedigree dogs, you surely stumbled upon the subject of ear cropping and tail docking in some breeds. The Caucasian Shepherd is also one of the dog breeds which was subjected to ear cropping as a breed standard in its history. Now things are changing as new legislation is deeming this practice an unnecessary one.

Why was ear cropping a practice in some breeds?

There is a lot to investigate when it comes to how the history of dog breeding evolved and different methods that people adopted for changing the appearance of their canine friends. Ear cropping in guard dogs in particular, as well as tail docking, came as a measure of protection against possible injuries in cases of wild animal attacks. In the case of tail docking there are other reasons also but we will not go into that here, as it does not apply to the Caucasian Shepherd breed.

In time it became part of the Caucasian Shepherd breed design, their cropped ears. So in canine competitions most of the dogs we saw across the years had their ears cropped. We have also practiced it with the help of our veterinarian during the years as people mostly preferred the pups with their ears cropped. We had only positive experiences and all puppies got over the procedure very quickly with very little distress.

New measures and legislation

Since 1999 legislation started to be passed against ear cropping and tail docking, in both Europe and the United States, Some countries and states adopting it and others not. In the present moment Romania also has legislation against these practices. The evidence is quite clear that these practices no longer serve a practical purpose and are detrimental to the overall health of the dog, as well as to the human-dog communication.

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In time ear cropping and tail docking became breed standards for some specific breeds but only because they became a new aesthetic norm. Even if people became used to a certain look on a breed because maybe the dogs are made to look fierce with their ears cropped (take the case of Dobermans, Boxers or Amstaffs), that doesn’t mean it should stay like that.

As it is proved impractical, invasive and with no actual use in the present, ear cropping is slowly but surely disappearing from dog breeder’s practices.

The Titans Family approach

We have been always responding to clients’ requests and doing our best to breed healthy and beautiful puppies. In the 15+ years of experience with dogs we saw the safety of the ear cropping practice with our veterinarians and never had problems in this direction. We’ve always had requests for this aesthetic for puppies from people who liked this look of the breed. From this point onwards, however, we agree and subscribe to the decision and legislation of most countries to stop modifying the bodies of the dogs for aesthetic reasons. Titans Family is no longer selling cropped ear puppies, but only dogs in their natural state and looks. We assure you that the dog does not become less protective or modifies its behavior in any way if its ears remain natural, so you can take that off your mind.

We will continue answering your questions regarding this topic but will take this article as a point of reference from now onwards when details are necessary.

Wish you all the best!