GSD - Soft Ears Should Not Be Bred - Page 2

I wonder how many puppies' ears have been inadvertently, accidentally, permanently damaged by well-meaning but inexperienced owners who are in a hurry to see them stand. Interesting point Ibrahim brought up. 

What does your contract say?  If your contract does not specifically guarantee the ears than the breeder owes you nothing,  Even the best bred puppy is a crap shoot and European breeders generally do not guarantee puppies for anything.  That's why they are realtively cheap.  If you absolutely must have standing ears, buy a puppy whose ears are already up.  If you must have good hips, buy a dog that's been radiographed. 

Jenni,

I have never seen an ear fall over from a bad taping job.  Misshapen and pointed in funny directions but never folded over.

I don't recall saying anything about falling over. 

Thanks all for your kind posts. I didn't really want to harp on this flaw in my Salztalblick puppy but it's been very frustrating. Of course the dog can still function. My wife and I love her and will keep her as part of the family.

The point is that after much research, I was simply expecting a GSD with normal physical characteritics for the breed...you know, two erect ears, four legs, a tail and a decent temperament. I understand the risks of DM and Hip & Elbow issues but are ears that stand up too much to ask.

The Germans do not provide a health contracts. My experience is that they do dump their trash on the Americans.

Here is the link to my pup and her Gene Pool.

http://en.working-dog.eu/dogs-details/2546501/Utta-vom-Salztalblick

I did spend alot of time and money trying to get those ears up. She really looks like a sad little case.

Check out the link - there is a picture of her.

My other dogs (seen in the avitar) are asking me if the new pup is really a purbred :)

Cowboy

Are you talking one soft ear at just 9 months old? 

I would give her a little longer before you start worrying about it NEVER staying up.  Let her chew as much as possible on bones, nyla or real bones and get her cuz balls as they tend to chew/chomp and whatever which helps to strengthen those muscles that hold up the ears.  Make sure she is on a nutritious meat diet also.  You can add yogart/kefir to each feeding, and no crap milkbones or anything like that.

Teething has everything to do with ears standing.  Is she completely done teething??? 

Nan

She's not 6 months old yet if her DOB is correct.  Give her knuckle bones to chew on and let her finish teething. I'd prefer them up sooner but don't give up yet.

Nan

She was 10 months old two days ago and she stopped teething at about 6 1/2 months.

Her ears have been either taped or glued since then. I gave up about two weeks ago!

I hope you are right.

Thank You

Cowboy

firstly , about floppy ears as unhealthy, erect ears are scoops for debri. my vet has invented out of necessity a surgical procedure to channel water away and crap from the ear canal of prick eared dogs because they are the ones that keep him and his family in annual vacations to europe for all the money he makes treating infections, grass seed removal etc etc.

all dogs need to have their ears cleaned regularly.

second; yes a good GSD with soft ears should be bred, enough shitty GSD not worth feeding with erect ears being bred, trouble is most folks don't have a use for a working dog so you focus on the BS aspects of what a working dog should be.

and no erect ears don't give a dog super senses of hearing to protect you from imaginary bad guys on the training and show fileds.

Ears are huge to me and not just that they are up. They also have to be in correct position. BUT would I overlook the rest of the dog for it? Hell no. Great temperament and health are more important. Now if you bought a show dog that might be more of a problem. In that case, this was a lesson learned to buy an older dog with ears already up.

And people wonder why I balk on spending over 2g on a puppy.