EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

i have a catch dog thats a pitt and his ears are croped.. he is a dang good catch dog and hardly misses.. the only thing about him is that i dont think he can hear very well.. i usaly try to get within 50 yards from the bay before turnen him loose and he will go straight to bay.. but the other night i sent him to catch and the hog broke right before he got there.. the bay dogs then bayed him 200 yards off.. and my catch dog was just running around and dint even hear the bay going... im just thinking is it because his ears are cut that is causing him not to hear well.. and if so what is a good way to clean a pitts ears if there cropped..

Alot of catchdogs with cropped hears have a hard time locating a bay.  You might clean his ears and it may help alil, but if he is having trouble, it'll have to be something you learn to live with.

yup mine can't tell where the barks are comin from right off, will never own another with cropped ears.

in what way is his ears cut are they the fight cut or the show cut?......i had one that had the show cut and he didnt have a problem locateing the dogs that where bayed

I would think the only effect clipped ears has on a dog is they get more dirt, briars, sticks etc in the ear which in turn hurts there hearing. I would clean his ears out real well with some alcohol and a paper towel. I have had several pits with clipped ears that had no ear problems there ears just tend to stay dirty and cut that's why I quit getting them done. It looks good but is not ideal for hunting and protection. A stick could easily poke or bust there ear drum and you have a deaf dog. Good luck!

Is the dog white?  The cut itself isnt gonna make the dog not tell direction.  Direction comes from more than one ear triangulating where the sound is coming from.  Most likely the dog is deaf in one ear if they cant tell direction.   It can be from build up in the ear but more than likely not.

dogs not deaf, close to a fighting cut. he will stand with his ears stood up and move them back and forth trying to pinpoint where the bay is at. i believe the cropped ears effect being able to locate exactly where the barks are at, not that they disable him from hearing, thats just my opinion

Got a show crop on my male and he finds the bays just fine.

A buddy of mine whose a vet had mention to me about cleaning my dogs ears with white vinegar and water mixed. Of course a dog with cropped ears is liable to get more infections than one without

i dont understand why they cut there radiators off. the old timer always told me the ears are one way a dogs blood gets cooled down.
its like cutting a dogs tail off. its used for balance.

If the hood is open, the engine cools off faster :)

Part of the reason people crop ears is, so when they get cut, they can't shake their head, flopping their ears around, and bust open the cuts over and over again. Deuce is the firs dog I have done however, so I don't have much experience with it, but so far so good.

Sounds like its having problems with one ear, all my dogs are cropped but 1 - only time I saw what you are talking about was when I was watching a uni-lat, she couldn't figure out direction and would go in a circle until she figured it out. Learned how to figure it out after almost a year old.
Was he always like that or just started doing that?

I've had more problems with uncropped dogs getting an ear infection than cropped dogs - but that's just I'm my yard

What is a fighting cut and what is a show cut? Please elaborate.
I have never heard this either. If you ever have this problem just put some superglue on the backside of the ears and glue them together on the top of their head. Sometimes the hair on the back of the ears needs to be clipped for this to be effective. By the time the glue wears off the ears should be healed, if not just do the same thing again.

I have seen quite a few dogs that had cropped ears and have never seen or heard of one having problems due to the ears being cropped. I have on occasion heard of dogs having issues With their ears getting extremely dirty and or wet and causing problems with their hearing. I have also seen dogs that got so wound up when they heard the bay or got to the bay that they were a little disoriented and it took them a minute to get their wits about them and figure out what happened and where the bay/hog was at. It is like tunnel vision. Think about what happens when your in a stressful situation and get that adrenaline dump. Most of the time the people involved can't tell you what was said or any other details for that matter. You see what you are focused on and that is it.

a fight cut goes hand in hand with its name.....they crop the ears to wear there hardly any ear at all, it was done to fighting dog to where it couldnt be grabbed in a fight..it pretty much cums out like a small triangel
the show cut it more  of a fuller look to where the back side  of the ear is rounded and there taller then the fight cut

google ear cropping and there are pics where u can see the differance

The " fight cut" is BS many of your old game dogs had natural ears....that term comes from the newbies .

A dog with a short cut ear would be at a disadvantage against a head dog in a historical dog fighting situation.

That's exactly why I asked that question. The old school game dogs had natural ears. My understanding is the natural ear gave the head dog something to "chew" on without getting deep into the head. Basically gave the other dog a mouth full of something so that they thought they were doing something.

Exactly....you said what I didn't have time too  ;)

I have two pitts and there ears are cropped,but mine hear better than i do...I can tell if my dogs are at bay by the way my catch dog  starts to pull me there..

the one i used today had hardly any ears left at all an he blew in there like a freight train an they turned him loose about 120 yards away

i agree with bennet ! ears play a role in cooling the dogs head and protection....... cropped ears look good but for hunting i would leave them natural !

I have super glued so many times I couldn't begin to count lol, never tried to glue them to the head, I guess the ear crop may fix this part of the solution  ??? . Like I said, this is my first ear crop. Im gonna see how it goes.

fighting cut ? lol   lead him/her closer .

My pit has cropped ears and he hears a bay before I do sometimes. Whenever he holds his breath to listen we all stop moving and do the same. I will say he is the only dog that doesn’t have a bloody mess for ears (briars) at the end of the day. Wild dog’s ears all stand up to catch as much sound as possible and we don’t cover up a satellite dish with leather to increase signal. But I‘ve never ran a LCD with natural ears so maybe I’m missing something.

Ears might be blocked up. Pour a capful of peroxide in the ear and rub the base of the ear so it gets down in it. Then let em get up but jump back as he will shake his head hard and liquid ear build up will fly out! Repeat on other ear. Just hose him off after as the peroxide will bleach out spots of fur if left on.

he is a white pitt with some brown spots on his back.. he was just a guys house pet when i got him..the guy cropped his ears himself and done a crappy job.. iv heard about pouring poroxide in the ears il have to try it.. when them dogs was baying he was just running back and forth trying to figure out where the bay was.. i just hope it doesnt get any worse..

Had a dogo that got cronic ear infections.  His ears were cropped but that wasn't what caused the infections.  He couldn't hear worth a darn until I got the infection cleared up.  After a week or so he'd be good to go until he caught a hog....then the ear infection would come back.  Took him to the vet and had blood work done and the damn dog was allergic to PORK. LOL!  Paid a pretty penny for him, shipped him in from Argentina as a pup.  He was a cull to me.  Whats the use in a hog dog that's allergic to prok.  :-\

IMO the dog is either deaf in one ear or has some sort of blockage.  The ears shouldn't make a difference.