Why Great Dane Ears Should Stay Natural

Great Danes do not need cropped ears.

They never did.

Ear cropping is a cosmetic surgical procedure. It does not improve a Great Dane's health, hearing or quality of life. It changes the shape of the ears because someone prefers a particular appearance.

The procedure involves cutting the ear tissue and then weeks or months of taping and posting while the ears are trained to stand upright. It can involve pain, complications and prolonged discomfort — all for an aesthetic result.

And for what?

A Great Dane is already an extraordinary-looking dog.

Those enormous natural ears are part of the face, the expression and the character. They fold, move, flop and occasionally seem to have a mind of their own.

There is simply no need to remove part of them to make the dog look more impressive.

In Germany, ear cropping for cosmetic reasons has long been prohibited under animal-protection law, with limited exceptions that do not turn cosmetic cropping into a normal breed practice.

For me, this is not about a particular style of Great Dane.

It is about a simple principle:

If there is no benefit to the dog, why put the dog through it?

Great Danes are magnificent with their natural ears.

They don't need fixing.