Throw around words such as boxer and ear cropping and people will probably figure you're referring to the sport know as boxing. Specifically to a notorious world championship bout in which one boxer did indeed crop the ear of another. Our discussion is here, though, it focuses on an entirely different species of boxers, and an entirely different style of ear cropping. The boxer, of course is the boxer dog. A breed that by custom and by standards typically undergoes a surgical procedure designed to turn it's naturally floppy-style ear into ears that stand tall, stiff, and erect.(Abraham 8) Meanwhile at the other end of the Boxer's well muscled physique, we find it's tail, or what's left of it. The tail you see also undergoes a surgical procedure. The tail is docked, meaning, in layman's terms, that it is cut short.(Abraham10) It leaves the Boxer with that characteristic stub that wiggles rather furiously when the Boxer is pleased, which for this rather friendly breed is much of the time.
Boxers with natural and cropped ears and docked ta...
A Doberman puppy with its ears taped after being c...
Polo pony docked tail 1910 and 1915. See source im...Consequently, the dog we see fitting the classic mold outline in the American Kennel Club (AKC) Boxer breed standard is a bit different from the portrait we would see if the pup were allowed to grow up without surgical intervention. These procedures lie at the heart of a rather heated debate, especially in the Boxer world. Unlike many other cropped and docked breeds, the Boxer's breed standard offers no choice regarding whether the tail or, most significantly, the ears may be left natural and still satisfy the standard's guide lines.(Vickers 4) This is a restriction that many enthusiasts hope to see changed in the future.
In the show ring, if a dog is found to have been cosmetically altered to mold it into the breed standard's image, that dog is disqualified...