I ' m got more of an Edgetwink myself . <| sep |> My dad had a Great Dane that got ear infections constantly . No clue what was up there , antibiotics , creams , cleaning , alcohol rinses . nothing could keep them clean for more than a week or two . The dog liked having its ear canals scraped with a tooth brush . I don ' t know who started that , but he would carry his ear brush in his mouth and whine at you to scrub his ears with it . If you picked up the antibacterial soap he would get excited and howl with his head over the bathroom sinkThe vet off handedly mentioned after about a year of treatments This is why Danes got their ears docked at first , it prevents this condition . So , that ' s one reason . Note , I have no dogs with docked ears or tails . But if I ever had a dog with ears like Sarge ' s , I ' d absolutely have them docked at that point if it could spare the dog some suffering .