I agree.
I try not to be overly judgmental and understand the standpoint of show breeders-they are fully focused on the betterment of the breed by conformity-to see what I perceive as an overall change in focus to health verses appearance is more than overwhelmingly positive for me.
Although to a certain point I understand things like ear cropping, tail docking, debarking, dew claw removal, it also makes me wonder about how far will we go?
I asked awhile ago about what people though of dog's having their claws removed-many people are doing this for both medical reasons but also for trivial reasons-nails will ruin wood floors, the dog jumps so we just removed heir claw s to prevent scratches.
I wasn't sure what I thought about this but it had me reevaluating how we medically alter dogs in many ways now.
I chose not to have my mini schnauzers ears cropped by her breeder, even though she was being evaluated for show potential and if she turned out worthy they would have considered showing her only if her ears were cropped per the show requirements.
actually-I LOVE floppy ears-but having to constantly pluck hairs and dry her ears over and over requires a lot of effort, Scoobers gets constant ear infects and at 5 the vet and I are considering a later medically needed cropping. It's sad to have to evaluate this.
Not to say I'm advocating for ear cropping, when it is needed for breed issues I understand first hand why now, or tail docking-which I for one truly see the benefit in, I also truly beleive in dew claw removal, but when it is too much and more so for our convince verses medical need?
How far is too far?
