How are Dobe hips and knees? They often have some really extreme angles.
I also don't know if I could tape my dogs ears for as long as it takes but I do enjoy the cropped look. Is it really as traumatic as people say? I know a lot of people who gave up because it was annoying/upsetting the dog and the owner got soft so now they have cropped floppy ears.
As long as a breeder has thoroughly health tested their dogs, hips and knees don't appear to be a huge concern. The only Dobes with hip dysplaysia that I've ever known were rescues or from BYBs. That's not to say it can't happen in well bred dogs, and there is a reason breeders test for it, but it doesn't seem to be overly common. That said, I've known more than one Dobe to tear their cruciate. Not sure if it's a common breed problem or I just know some very unlucky dogs/owners, though.
And as far as my experience taping ears, it is not traumatic to the puppy at all when done right. My two both fell asleep often when their ears were being taped. And they have no ear sensitivity at all which some people often think can be associated with cropping. You can bend them and play with them just like you would any other dog's ears. Often it seems that owners are nervous about taping and they also don't teach their puppies to be still and relax when handling them, and then you end up with a puppy that's too rambunctious and bad for ear taping (as well as a plethora of other things). I can't imagine having a cropped and flopped dog. The effort, money and time put into a nice crop just would not be worth giving up because the puppy wouldn't hold still. Sometimes ears don't stand because they were too long and/or heavy, and despite a good effort on the owner's part, the ears still don't stand... but that's a different situation to me than "oh well, he didn't like it so we stopped taping them".