This is one of my all-time favourite breeds. They are a cattle dog from Portugal, and though if I had one, I would never crop or dock it, their traditional crops give them such character!
They do kinda look like teddy bear ears, though I always think of Hyenas when I see them, their brindle colouring, ears, and tail are all very hyena like.
Yes I have - one won uor Molosser olympics 2 years ago and our PP trainer in Canada breeds them-
VERY TOUGH dogs - If I was to own a personal protection sport dog that would be the breed.
Because they could live in a pack of my CAS and work with the sheep.
As far as I know, that has been the traditional crop for them for a long time, nothing specific to the breeder or anything. They aren't bad looking with natural ears either though, or tail.
I'm sure somewhere, there's a written purpose, but I haven't found much on the breed. Especially regarding ears, most of what I have seen has only been limited to saying "ears are cropped round".