Ear question-True or False? - Page 1

The ears MUST be up by 6 months of age on puppies. I am posting on behalf of a client who would like more opinions and I will forward the responses. These are showlines with donkey ears :} They are 5 month now.

I have been told by various breeders that the ears should be up, at least by the time they stop teething & the adult teeth are breaking through.

That's what I relay to indivduals whom purchase pups from me, although, I've never had ear problems...................

My puppies (show lines) have also always had their ears up by 8-10 weeks except one who still had one ear down at 5 months with never any signs of it going up even after taping, I saw her recently aged 18 months and that ear is still not properly up, it will go up when she is attentive, but its very floppy. I had one female whose ear went down again just before five months having been up before (a couple of days before a show!), but that righted itself after about two weeks and is now fine, probably this was related to teething. However, I do know another breeder who had a very nice male pup whose ear was still down at about 5-6 months and he gave him away to a friend because of this. A couple of months later it was up and this dog has since gone on to win many first places! Another friend had a female whose (1) ear went up at 1 year old, though it is still slightly less than firm when she runs. SO I would say there may be still some hope though its not guaranteed, it may help to tape the ears and see what happens? Incidentally I have many time seen puppies in the 4-6 month category with their ears still down and floppy, and they are not severely penalised until the next category up, usually the same puppies have their ears up by then.