BIG heads, super dark sables, super hips. That is the problem - Page 14

The floppy ear sometimes is because of too much weight of hair.  If the ears begin to stand and one falls this may be why.  Carefully clip the hair on the back of the fallen ear.  Especially near the tip.  Don't wait even a few days.  The ear will stand and the cartiladge will harden with no other help.  If the ear does not stand after clipping perhaps it is a defect.  I do not like the floppy ear look in GSD. 
Question:  Why do so many GSD's appear to have oversized ears?  Is that a result of the 'big head' breeding or a separate issue?

According to the interpretation on the USA website (htp://germanshepherddog.com/regulations/breed_standard.htm ) the SV standard lists tipped and soft ears as a severe fault, not a disqualifying fault.  BUT since it is not considered a "minor fault" I take it this means a dog perfect in every way except with even a tipped ear (an ear that bends when he runs) cannot qualify for a breed survey?  So a dog with certain dentition issues can still receive a KKL1 and a dog with worse teeth can receive a KKL2 but a dog with perfect teeth and a tipped or soft ear  cannot even qualify for a breed survey.  What is the reasoning  for this please?

EDITED TO ADD:
I actually am looking to learn about the reason for this to be considered a serious enough issue as to exclude these dogs from the gene pool via no breed survey.  I really doubt  the SV does this soley because they think  a soft ear is so horrifyingly ugly that it surpasses  dentition in importance (at least I hope they didn't).  I am wondering if  perhaps it is thought  there are other faults or genetic issues related to soft ears as eluded to in the thread on the Green Board that Chris mentioned?  Maybe as Chris mentioned in her above post, a soft ear is actually something very hard to overcome in breeding maybe it's a very dominant trait? 

PRAGER:   please let me know if you think I am straying too far afield from your original topic because I will start a new thread if you want and if you think it will garner much interest.

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater!

What dog is genetically perfect?  What dog is so perfect it throws perfect pups?  If you had a "perfect" stud whose ears were fine, but threw a single pup with soft ears among many with firm ones, do you quit breeding the responsible stud, or just not breed with the pup?  If you produce a pup that develops tail-chasing behavior, out of 30-40 full siblings that don't, do you quit breeding both the parents?

I had this fantastic bitch with one ear that never would stand, no matter what we tried. I think sometimes they get INJURED when the puppies are chewing at each other. Anyhow, she was the only one in a long line of dogs to have that one floppy ear--not that I bred her, she died of a broken neck at just 2 years of age, but if she had progressed well in schutzhund, I MIGHT have...assuming all other things were ok.

 

Test

Ears genetics.
 Here I  will explain to you why bad ears should not be bred.
Genetics:
Ears up : Dominant Gene (Capital letters)
Ears down : Recessive gene. (Small  letters)

Let's use capital  U for Up and small d for down.
Here is then Chart:

Your female has ears Up and stud has ears Up. But they both have recessie ears down gene.
So they are : U d and U d

                                         
___l___U_______l_________d_
 
 U         UU                          Ud
___l___________l___________
                                   
  d       Ud                          dd
___l___________l____________

so here You have: 25% true ears up "UU"
                                  25% true ears down "dd"
                                  50% ears up with recessive gene for down ears. "Ud"
Now you are not able to know which eas are true up or just up with rcessive down ears. Now if you take any ears up which are Ud and breed it to line which is known not to have "d" gene you will get this.

                U                            U
___l___________l____________
                                
U            UU                           UU
___l___________l_______________
d             Ud                           Ud

So and now you have all the ears up 50% true UU and 50% Ud not true.(have recessive gene d)


So that was easy. But is it ethical? Probably not.  Because now it is not possible to tell who is true up UU and who is not Ud . Now if you breed this result of up ears to a proven lines who have no recessive "d" gene and do it over and over again then probability will take over and eventually you will create and select for next breeding   UU dog.  And you have elimin

elimininated bad ears in your line. Is it worth it?
Consider that in order to be ethical you must PTS all the rest of the pups or place them with limited registration. Thus on the second thought I would never do that and I do not care how exceptional the floppy eard dog is.
Also that is why we must never breed dog with floppy ears and polute an excellent line with floppy ears.
 Prager Hans
http://www.alpinek9.com

Hans, I have a few questions.

1. Where does a dog that one ear up and one down fall into your formula?
2. Do modifying genes come into play?
3. Since a floppy ear has been unbreedable by the SV for generations why do we still get floppy ears? Brindle, merle and white are also simple recessives and those have been gone for tens of generations.
4. Where did you get the formula that you posted? I would love to see the research because it disagrees with everything else I have read on this subject and seen with my own eyes.

  Prager and Sibersee.  I hate it too!  Not necessary, as there are many good dogs with good ears.

missbeeb is exactly right, you see it on this board all the time.  Obviously alot of floppy ears being 'fixed' and being bred.

Thank you Prager, I now understand this issue a little better.