Why do people cut the ears and/or tails of certain breeds of dog (and other animals)? Is this strictly an aesthetic (sp?) thing, and if so, why is only applied to certain animals. Or is it for some kind of health reason (like circumcision makes for a healthier human according to some doctors)? Are there any real reasons to do this? I think a dobermin with big floppy ears would be kind of cute, myself. What’s the deal? Anybody know?
The Council of Docked Breeds (which presents one side of the argument) says
I don’t know about ears.
I’ve heard that when dog fighting was common and not illegal, owners cut the dog’s ears off so the other dog didn’t have anything so easy to bite. I don’t have any cites, though. Sorry.
So, I would imagine that the breeds whose ears get docked are the ones bred for fighting.
Terriers are generally ratting dogs, and their ears are almost always cropped (and tails docked). The Argentine Dogo was raised to hunt boar. Also cropped ears, but natural tail. Daschunds were bred to hunt badgers, and their ears and tail are natural.
I think if you looked at enough dog breeds and what purposes the breeds were developed for, you will find that it is a mixture of function, style, and local preference.
In the UK the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is trying to have the practice of tail docking made illegal except for medical reasons. Opposition to this proposal has come from the Kennel Club and such people as the organises of the Crufts Dog Show.Most vetenarians have now come to the conclusion that tail docking is unnecessary and probably cruel.
What bibiopage said. We got our min-pin with the tail pre-docked, and just watching what she does with her stump it’s easy to see that she’d probably beat a tail off if she had one. We opted not to dock the ears though, mainly because of the maintenance involved, but also because we wanted her to have big radar dish ears. I’m glad we did because the big ears are pretty cute. She doesn’t look exactly like a little doberman so she’s kind of unique among min-pins, even though she’s an asshole of a dog.
Some sporting breeds traditionally have their tails docked to avoid the tail being caught or tangled in underbrush.
Also, ears are not docked; ears are cropped.
We used to have a Lab mix named Bear (rest his soul), and in retrospect, we really should have had his tail docked. He would wag it so hard against the walls and furniture that it bled, and subsequently splatter blood throughout the kitchen-- We’d come home, and it’d look like we had been visited by an axe murderer. He was also known to leave bruises on peoples’ shins, by wagging too close. Oddly enough he never seemed to notice, even when he was drawing blood, so I have to wonder if docking would really be as painful as the ASPCA claims.
I have a Westie, with her full tall-and she’s never had a problem.
I think tail docking and ear cropping are for our benefit more than anything. I never heard of dogs hurting their tails by overactive wagging, but it seems to make sense for bigger breeds. Then again, it’s because we take a big dog and stick it in a small crowded space (relativly) that they smack things with their tails. A silly example would be my parents having gotten a couple of my vertebrae removed or surgically grinding the top of my head down so I wouldn’t bump my head on low hanging things in the house rather than finding a place without low ceilings and beams. Guard dogs like dobermans look a lot slicker and meaner with no tails and pointy ears, and there are probably other examples. I can see doing some procedures for dogs that don’t quite fit their surroundings or who’ve been bred with less than desirable characteristics to begin with. But I don’t like the idea of picking up a scalpel to give the family pet a certain look, even if it’s for competition. The dog probably doesn’t care either way once it’s all done with, so just WHO does a such a procedure benefit?
>> Guard dogs like dobermans look a lot slicker and meaner with no tails and pointy ears, and there are probably other examples
Men’s foreskins? … ? 
Aside from how much meaner my penis appears without its foreskin, it’s really just a matter of cosmetics.
I raised dobermans for years and I cut all their little puppy tails off myself. I can guarentee that I was more traumatised by it than they were.
I’ve owned Rottweilers for 16 years, and know several excellent breeders. I’ve watched the 2 day old pups get their tails docked, and they seem pretty impervious to it. Ear cropping does seem rather unecessary, though. While there may have been historically practical reasons for this, it is done for purely cosmetic reasons now.
The ADRK in Germany does not accept Rottweilers with docked tails for show now. I like the tail-less look, it’s amazing how expressive those wiggly butts can be. 
I have a large GSDx who lost most of her tail in an unfortunate accident years ago, and I think she looks cute with her little stubby tail.
I once knew a Great Dane with a full tail. When she was happy, she would clear beers, ashtrays, and the Trivial Pursuit game off the coffee table. If she wagged against your shins, it felt like a fungo bat.
This happens to be a severe case of bullshit. What happened was that breeders claimed that their puppies had had all sorts of injuries to be able to keep mutilating them. A vet I asked said that there might have been a very slight increase, as the breeds in question (boxer, rottweiler, vorsteh and others) hadn’t been bred for tail durability, but that was extremly marginal.
Or does anyone else find it disturbingly funny that my fundamentalist neighbors, who would never dream of going counter to Jesus’ will in any matter, nonetheless got themselves a giant Schnauser and promptly had its ears cropped and tail docked.
Let’s see, God is correct in all that he does, except the design of our dog. What raving bullsh!t…
PS: The animal has a patch of white and can never be shown. So don’t hand me any of this “it’s for show” sorta garbage.