Dog clothes can also be functional and not just for “cute” purposes. Sometimes using them are necessary to keep dogs warm, especially for short-haired and hairless breeds during cold weather. I dress my dogs during the cold season (you’d see how happy they are being able to play instead of shivering under blankets), but we shave their fur during the summer or let them stay inside air-conditioned areas in the house. What can I say? We just love and spoil our dogs

I think the same applies to cutting or not cutting Astro’s ears. If there isn’t any function for it (I honestly don’t see any), I don’t see why his ears should be cut. You aren’t planning to enter him in dog shows or become his pimp (ie. stud service hehee) are you? If you’re not, then I really do hope your family will let him keep his ears

Cutting the dog’s ears will not give it character. Every dog has character and smaller ears or a shorter tail will not add to it. Just as the perfect nose or boob job, egg sized diamonds or designer clothes do not make one a better person.

Where these practices originated is quite justified, just that today’s dog’s are mostly in the city and not there guarding flocks of sheeps.

Actually, yes, cropped ears do give dogs characters, characters enough to be more intimidating for wolves to come near the flock the dogs were guarding. It’s very functional and it is actually the original purpose of “working Dogs,” from these category is where the German Shepherds, Great Pyrenees, Dobermans etc came from.

Another example, the original reason for tail cropping of “working dogs” is to avoid confusions for their counterpart “hound (hunting) dogs” (Basset Hounds, Beagles, English Springer Spaniels). Because in a typical farm setting, there should be working dogs to guard and tend the flock while the hound dogs hunt for wolves in the nearby forest so they can sue them in advance. Now since the working dogs don’t have the instinct of the hound signals commonly channeled on the hounds’ tails, the tails of working dogs are cropped so as not to confuse the hounds.

You make think too, that the fancy clipping of poodles’ balloony “hair-do” are all for aesthetics. The original purpose for that haircut is to make them swim faster with the legs completely bald while the pawpads were all haired up to serve as a paddle for faster swimming. Then their head and chest hairs were kept to protect those part from freezing. The balloony fur on the tail was also kept as it serves as a signaling tool (kept above the water).

So to say, the original purpose were mostly based on functions. But I can’t say too that today’s are all about aesthetics, because conformation showing (beauty contest equivalent) of dogs are all done to showcase a thorough breeding and good bloodline (hence the done for the betterment of the breed).

Ed, you have a point there.