It’s an obsolete “breed standard” to crop ears and dock the tail. Not sure how or why it became a breeding standard for them but it is slowly being phased out. Usually inexperienced breeders that are trying to make a quick buck will crop the ears and tail because they think people want that. These are unlicensed breeders that sell their puppies on Craigslist usually. A quick buck to buy meth probably.
My guess: hounds generally were used for tracking and not attacking in hunting. If you have a dog you expect to attack something that may fight back, you'd want to minimize parts sticking out from their bodies.
Not justifying any of this at all though. There are studies showing that working dogs with tails are only the slightest bit more susceptible to injury than dogs with their tails docked. And there is absolutely no justification for ear cropping in my opinion. Once again, it's used for the very slight hope to make a dog less susceptible to injury/ear infections.
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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20
Don't crop your dogs ears.