SOFT EARS - Page 1

Can any of you german shepherd pro's tell me if a 13 month old german shepherd that has soft ears, at this age,is their any hope of them standing now? The owner is going to glue them now and thinks their might be hope. Is this inherited?Do certain lines have this problem. he is out of good german lines. Any help would be greatly appreciated.THANK YOU! Keycat

Keycat, I will begin by saying that in my opinion it is about six (6) months too late for any chance of success, but there is no harm in trying. Yes, soft ears can be inherited, and some sires and/or dams produce this problem more than others. It is present in all of the lines. Bob-O

I bought a puppy back from the owner I sold the pup to at about 6 months and ended up giving it to my vet who was not interested in the floppy ear. She only wanted a protection dog. The floppy ear finally came up at 13 months old without anything being done to it. This is an exception and not the usual.

Hi, im having the same promblem and a lady here on line told me to go to web site neocell corpartion.com and order artho pet, its really good ive heard already from a few, so im waiting on my order to come ,i too have a 4 month old bitch and nothing on the ears, just hanging down and also is a grand daughter from quantum arimus, exuse the wrong spelling im in a hurry and, also proably corp, mispelled im sure you know what im saying gotta go kids yelling to take dog to park!!!! good luck.............................

My West show/working line female didn't have her ears up until she was 8 months old. I personally don't think every dog gets done teething at the same time. I think some take longer than others. JMO

Giggles, 4 months is way too early to be worried in my opinion.

I'm not sure it's wise to tape ears on a dog you want to breed. It might be better to let nature take its course and see if they come up on their own, an indication that dog is a good breeding risk for producing strong ears.

how do you find out if ears are a problem in the bloodlines? My female had a litter of 11, now 6 mo old, and I have 3 that ears are down again. At one time or another, they have all had them up, but now they flip/flop?

ladywolf, You would have to do a lot of research in all the progeny's of your females parents and just go back from there. At least that is something I would do. Hope it helps and makes sense.

Ladywolf, IMO that's exactly the danger of taping ears. When you tape ears on a slow dog and they finally stand, there is no way to know if the taping was the only reason they came up or if they would have come up on their own. Taping ears can mask the real problem - flacid ears that will not stand on their own. I agree wth Kelly, try to find out if the backgpund dogs had to be taped or if there were any with ears that never did stand. I don't know how much emphasis SV judges place on ears when they are doling out their breed evaluations, but I'd be very leery of any dog with flacid ears that flop around when the dog is gaited. Soft ears that stand but still flop around were probably ears that were taped at one time and/or an indication that particular dog may not be a really great breeding risk.