Trimming hair, taping ears,Whats the difference? - Page 1

It seems to me that the same people who are screaming abour trimming or stripping a little hair are the first to give advise about how to tape weak ears, thus attempting to disguise another major DQ genetic fault. As I have said, I don't show conformation and this is one of the reasons, the hypocrisy.

I do agree with this to an extent. Ears should come up on their own, and if they are not up by a certain age, I do not think they should be bothered with. Let the dog go to a pet home and do not breed it. It seems the dogs who have the most difficulty with their ears are the American lines, followed by the German showlines and last, the working lines. I wonder why that is?

as I said in another posting - taping ears and breeding from the dog is like dieting and only fooling yourself when you cheat.... it will perpetuate the problem to breed from the dog, hence the circle that becomes an epidemic !!! tape em if it is a beloved pet never to be bred from and if it works, great. Let nature take its course if it is a breeding dog, and dont meddle to hide a hereditory fault, cos the next generation of puppies wont know you did that, and their ears can be soft too !!! wont be long before it is regulatory taping of ears, as in the Shar-Oei breed that have to have their eye-lids sutured at birth so they can see YUK !!! Mo - Mascani.

I had a litter amaze me with ears up by 5 weeks old, that was fast, it was Virgo Von Ryan's littermates. Smart pups too, the kind that tilt their heads when you speak to them! I also like very little human intervention when it comes to things like that, years ago I was in a hurry for my dogs ears to stand, and I taped them, and one ear got a funny crease in it, it was going to go up anyway, I just couldn't wait, and yucked it up!!! Poor dogs, they have patience, their owners could learn a thing or two!

Air, I would say the answer to your question is that these affected dogs are bred for the interpreted "conformation" standard of each group's show-ring judges, rather than for conformation to the true F.C.I. standard and breeding for a lifetime of excellent health and vigor. Ears should rise on their own-that is a given. Some lines produce "weak" ears-that is also a given. Good lines occassionally produce "weak" ears-that is also a given. Personally I have no ethical issue bracing a puppy's ears to improve his appearance, but strongly agree that puppy will be a poor candidate for future breeding and perhaps the combination of sire and dam should not be used again unless this was just a one-time occurrence over several litters. We will always have an occassional problem with ears. And, many puppy owners are a bit impatient about the ears because some ears are still not firm and erect at the age of three (3) months, and at the age of six (6) months they should definitely be up. Many dogs have been secretly altered over the years, hence we still have faults appearing that should not be present in the current magnitude. That is the thing I do like about about the ability to sell a puppy with limited registration. Regards, Bob-O

Limited reg. is a great tool, how can one predict the direction a puppy will grow, I always look at the stud dogs ears and his progeny's ears I even look at the way they are set on the dogs head, you can have ears that go up, but are too close together or pointed to the side, also breeding to a dog with good looking ears helps too!

All I can say right now is I love youuuuu ProudShepherdPoppa, lol. : - }

WARNING: I DIGRESS FROM THE SUBJECT "Smart pups too, the kind that tilt their heads when you speak to them!" (mirasmom) Then I must have doggie Einstein - he practically turns his head upside down & twists & contorts it when ever I talk to him. I never saw it as intelligent but it sure does make me laugh! BACK TO TOPIC: I have been lucky with my working line dogs. All their ears have stood on their own, but it seems like the ones with large ears took longer. The ears on my Arkane stood permanently at a little over 3 months.

When I was a teenager I had a GSD that had dew claws on his back feet, now when I have litters of pups I never see any dew claws on the rear legs, I wonder if anyone has pups nowadays with dew claws on the back????

Mirasmom, a friend of mine had a litter where every female puppy had one (1) rear dew claw-all had it on the same rear leg. The trait for rear dew claws has largely disappeared, but occassionally it surfaces. I think the removal of a rear dew claw is the ONE (1) cosmetic surgical alteration that passes muster with me. I never had any puppies with rear dew claws, but I have not produced many litters. Regards, Bob-O