Floppy ears - Page 1

I have been breeding GSD's for over 17 years, and although I have heard of and seen, I have never had a dog with floppy ears, until now.

I was given a just turned 14 month old female that has both ears down. The guy I got her from said his vet, and the breeder, had told him it was her molors. Now, as we all know she is way past teething.....I have never had personal exprience with this and would like to know if anyone elce has and what they have tried. From what I understand it is to late to tape them.....anyone know the satistics on surgery?

I hate going agianst my own words...I always tell my puppy buyers to "leave them ears alone"

One last note.....what are your thoughs on floopy ears being gentic?

Weak ears ARE genetic unless there was an injury to an ear, in that case only a single ear would likely have not stood. It is too late to tape and in my opinion, this should also not be done because a weak ear is a weak ear and it is genetic and when you fool around, you end up breeding weak eared dogs and it comes back to haunt the GSD breed as a whole.

There should be NO surgery, even if someone says it will work and it would be prohibited by all breed organizations. So why do it? Dogs with weak ears should NOT be bred. That is crap about the molars.....she is well past teething where we sometimes see ears that were standing fall. In nice litter it is not impossible for all the ears on all pups to stand, or several to have weak ears, or ears that never stand.

Coral calcium works well from the beginning

I would still try glueing not taping but using fabric glue, your dog doesn't stop
growing till the age of two, so what the heck, what do you have to lose.

Good luck

You know what I can't understand is when a person tells me their mixed breed dog is a lab-shepherd
mix, and then you see the dog & both it's ears are up, so I think that makes it impossible for that dog
to be half shepherd half lab, cause to have both ears standing up, both parents would have to have good
ear carriage, wouldn't you think?

I also tell people to leave the ears alone, I wonder if someone already tried taping them?

 Mirasmom,

You might want to do some reading about genetics. Even understanding some very basic principles will allow one to understand why a lab/GSD mix might have floppy ears, or have ears that stand.

People breeding should be able to understand these issues.

Pretty sad for me to think that a person could have a dog for over a year and return it due to soft ears.  Sigh......I'd have to think long and hard before giving those people another dog.  A breeder or a pet owners?

If I were a GSD breeder, I'd be a lot more inclined to encourage pet owners to tape ears than those who bought the dog for breeding.

I have two young 10 week old males and just turned down a potential buyer who is an attorney and wanted an ear guarantee.  He said if they didn't go up he'd return the pup.  In good conscience I cannot sell a pup to someone who would return a dog for cosmetic reasons.  This dog was to be a pet.   It seems that he couldn't possibly bond with this baby unless he met all expectations.

Sometimes I just don't understand people.

Judy

Good for you, Judy,  I wouldn't sell him one of my dogs either. People like that don't deserve a dog.

In the 1990's when Guide Dogs for the Blind (in San Rafael) was still using GSD's in their program, they sent several of their puppy raisers to me to tape ears of the pups. I was also invited to give an ear-taping demonstration at the school. They even videotaped my demo for future reference.

Their philosophy was: why risk eroding the self esteem of a blind person by having sighted people question the breed of their GSD.

So, yes, especially when pups are in pet homes (which is where many pups with weak ears may wind up), their ears should be taped (and/or have surgery). People like to be able to take pride in the appearance of their dogs--period.

Another consideration is that hanging ears may create a pH within the ear canal that is conducive to the proliferation of yeasts. Why else do you think that the Cocker Spaniel breed is prone to recurrent ear infections which often may only be prevented by ear canal ablation surgeries?

There are numerous veterinarians who will insert multiple temporary, flexible, plastic rods under the skin of the backs of GSD ears. The practice is to remove the rods after scar tissue has been created so that the ears will stand with this addional support. Yes, the ears may be somewhat uncomfortable for a while--but far less than the pain from spaying and neutering.