Doolin growing up! Ear Taping
Doolin our 6 month old Great Dane is now able to rest his head on our counter top. What is funny is that Doolin is the least likely of all our Danes to take stuff off the counter 🙂 He always backs up and barks at the counter asking if he can have something. Doolin, who as a Mantle always looks dressed up for any occasion, always acts like a gentleman.
Great Danes often have their ears cropped when they are 7-10 weeks old. Cropping cuts off a good portion of the ear so that it becomes pointy at the end 🙂 After the ears are cropped and the incisions heal, the ears are then taped up straight to strengthen the cartilage so the ears stand. Taping of cropped ears can last 3month to a year or more depending on how quickly the ears stand. Most Great Danes that are shown in conformation have cropped ears, but there are more and more that are shown with natural ears, ones that haven’t been cropped. In many countries cropping is banned as an unnecessary cosmetic surgery.
We chose not to crop our dogs ears, we like them as they are and since we are new to Great Danes we don’t have a preconceived vision of what the Danes look like with cropped ears. However keeping the ears natural does not mean you never need to tape 🙂 We taped Doolin’s ears down so they would fold nicely next to his head. The taping lasted off and on for 2 months. It took exactly two pieces of tape, no glue and the tape was removed with mineral oil. It was easy peazy. And his ears lie beautifully. Doolin, when alert looks very regal.
