Soft Ears and leaning inwards - Page 2

Centurian, this is about an eight month old ! If we were discussing a little one of 3 or 4 months I would agree with you, but no damage is likely to be done by careful massage on cartilege of an almost grown dog, whose ears are actually up already.

Hundmutter , point taken ... .

However , there is no reason to massage the ears, for massaging by itself has little value. What has greater value is forcing the dog to use it's ears. Forcing the functioning of the muscles is much better value , if the muscles need to be strengthened. So that is one thing a person should consider - placing the dog into situations where it has to use it's ears . In addition ,keeping functioning ofthe misccles in mind, I give my puppies marrow bones to strengthen the muscles.

My fear was that many people reading this , and I bet a good number of people with very young pupies are reading the massaging advice , and they will mistakeingly do that : massage the ears on 'their' GS. One time , that is all it takes to break the cartilage permanantly ... it's all over for these young GS. Hundmutter from your point of view I did not stipulate I did not stipulate 3 or 4 month puppies.
I read that this dog's ears were up at 8 months. So ..... also consider :
At 8 months old , the ears are still calcifying , and calicfication continues up to about 10 months on average . Keeping that in mind, I would still suggest .. , get the paws [people's] off the ears. As a general rule : 4 weeks after all the adult teeth are fully erupted in place , then do some intervention , such as taping or ear inserts if need be. Not before that time and not much longer after that time either.

I want people reading who are not familiar with the ear development to understnad : never let anyone tinker with the dog's ears . . Whenever I took my pups put for socializing , that is one of he first things people preferred to do .. cringle those cute little floppy ears . Again , don't let the ears ever be touched. Never ever let anyone touch the ears is what I want to emphasize to everybody .... Never . There is no need for the ears to be touched even if they are up ....

What should also be considered : Giving your dog gelatin based product [ I used to give Jello ] , Preventing the tips of the dog's ears from being bent or hit - such as when it stands in a crate and so on , Intereceding at 4 weeks after the adult teeth have come in the physically upright the ear - glued inserts or taping are my better reccommendations . I can tell people a very simple way to do that .

Me, I worry far more about what damage people can do when (inexpertly) trying to use inserts to make ears stand ! That being clumsily done is far more likely to bend growing cartilege the wrong way IMO.  And the pro-glue freaks run a risk of actually fixing the ears 'against the grain', perhaps permanently.

But I agree with you about people 'crinkling' the ears when fussing little puppies - by the time the dog is the size of an 8 or 9 months old, this is FAR less likely to be a problem, of course .

Still feel that what Q Man and I were both talking about is helpful rather than negative. IME.  We were neither of us suggesting that massage ALONE would work miracles.

One does tend to hope that readers of these threds actually take the answers as being directed at the OP's question, rather than as catch-all

advice on soft ears in general / on dogs of all ages; but I take your point ...

A gelatin supplement may also be useful; I forgot that one, have heard of it but never used it myself.

Kihargar, that is one heck of an oversized puppy ! You sure we are talking about a GSD and not an elephant ?

LOL,LOL.

And I agree with your points to Hund ...
Massaging body tissue [ done apropriately and correctly] , can have benefits such as increasing blood supply and oxygen to cellular structures ... even though I feel that that in and of itself massaging the ears does not increase the stregnth of the muscles significantly compared to the risk of damage .
To add to your comment - just for the record : 'WARNING" - people should not undertake something when they don't know what they are doing.. in this case any methodology in corrrecting the ear set. For the people reading this and have GS with soft ears , you should understand I do this because I have developed expertise with the materials needed and the application. So don't try setting ears yourself ,. Take Hund's advice and go to someone that can do that for you if you feel there is the need ... and don't wait until it is to late !!