Ear Cropping dogs

Ears are very vascular and do bleed profusely when damaged. Couple that too with the fact that when an ear is compromised, a dog's inclination is to shake his head - thus dislodging any clot that may have been starting to form. Krystal can vouch for a time when it seemed like we spent all day trying to control the steady drip from one of Roo's ears. Although I doubt she was about to bleed out from the experience, it was unnerving to say the least. I have had a dog get a rip right through an ear. Lupe got a third ear following the catch of our 440 boar. It bled for a while, but again not a "bleed out" situation. While ears can be bothersome when they get injured, it is necessary to look at any way the practice of cropping them could be counterproductive as relating to a hunting situation. The structure of the ear flap (also known as the ear leather) helps the dog to pinpoint sounds when he's in the woods or in the dark. Without that specially designed leather, he may have issues getting to a bay. With a naturally standing ear as exhibited on a German Shepherd, the ear leather stands, but is large enough to still be able to capture the sound waves and direct them into the ear canal where they can be processed. Traditional cropping that would be extreme enough as to eliminate most of the leather to prevent injury removes much of the material that would capture and funnel the sound waves efficiently, thereby reducing the dog's ability to hear and locate the origin of sound as well as a dog with an unaltered ear would.

Just some food for thought.
M