Is it necessary to crop the Bouvier's ears to avoid ear infections?
No. If you keep ears groomed (hair plucked and trimmed) and you keep their ears dry (after baths and walks in wet weather), you will not have problems with ear infections. Cropping ears has been illegal in most of Europe since 2006 (many countries banned ear cropping earlier). Since the ban, there has been no measurable spike in canine otitis externa, media, and interna (ear infections). The House Of Bouvs will crop, or leave natural, puppies' ears as you desire.
Cropping is surgery and there is an additional expense to the buyer. It's a very serious, traditional, Bouvier look that we, personally, like in our BdFs. All of our European imported Bouviers have the natural ears and natural tails. They came to America without being cosmetically altered and we chose to keep their homeland aesthetics. NOTE: This video on our YouTube page has no audio, no sound.
Cropped, fewer ear infections.