Surely if they were meant to go up then they would? I know it's a completely different breed but Kiba's ears didn't both go up until he was around 5 months old...

A question re the breed standard...do puppies have to have erect ears as well, even though teething could affect things like ear carriage in a lot of erect eared breeds?

In the Cresteds the base of ears are usually strong as pups but then there can be a fold along the cartilage during teething. If this is left then it can be permanent and ears would look like Border collies
But as said this only happens with large/ heavy fringed ears as the weight of hair at top of ear weighs tip down.
Believe me if the ears are not meant to go up then any amount of taping to support same will not help. Some powderpuffs have drop ears and no matter how ya tape they wil always be dropped so Crested Owners are not imo manipulating to get the Standard

Thank you for your reply can you tell me, is it damage to the cartilage that causes this then, from the ears folding?

So if I had say...a 4 month old hairless pup whose ears had flopped due to teething he/she would be faulted in the showring on that day, even in a couple of days later the ears were erect again?

Probably as ears have to be erect, although not allowed in the ring till 6months and by 6months ears should be strong enough to take weight
edited--although I am only talking about my lines/ dogs.

yep daphni had hers taped as a pup and they wouldnt go up, they were up for a bit but i didnt bother taping hers after a while because i kne wpowderpuffs could be down.

oh, he is such a cutie!