If I had this to do again, I wouldn't have his ears cropped. We didn't do it the traditional way with sticks glued to the ears. We tried that once and it gave him great discomfort. I thought it was too much. We then used rolled up paper towels. After that, he was fine with it, and as you can see, he doesn't seem unhappy. I also didn't keep this contraption on for near the recommended time and as you can see, his ears turned out just fine. One day, I decided that was enough and he shouldn't have to deal with it anymore.