Left ear will not stand all the time - Page 1

I really have this problem with my dog and i can see and fell that he is not good with it,i have tryed many things but noting worked,i shall not use him to breed but i like him to feel good and i think the ear are trouble him.....he is now 13 month old and a german gsd. Regards Sadgirl

you should have had vetrinary attention at 5 to 6 months. You may still consult with your dog doctor as to what to do in this situation, you cannot obviously handle it alone.

Dear Vom Brunhaus. Ofcourse i have done that and he told me that everything seems okay and there are some gsd that just dont get both ears up.....and there is nothing to do...therefore i ask help here. Sadgirl

At this late date of 13 mons may have to surgically install into the ear to make it stand erect. Maybe you should consult with another vetrinarian for your options at this time frame.

Sadgirl, I once posted a male GSD ears from 10-12 months with the vet showing me how to do it. It worked, but to find this vet, I had to go through the yellow pages of two counties. The posts are solid light foam that fits into the ear. Then tape is wrapped around and then the ears are tapped up together. Ed Frawley has a very good article which was exactly how the vet showed me to do it. leerburg.com The vet also told me there were two other options if you wanted to spend the money. One is scarification to form scar tissue to make the ear stand, kind of like plastic surgery. And the other was implants in the ears kind of like the plastic on a shirt collar edge. I always wonder how many dogs are being bred that should not be due to the ear fault even though they have had cosmetic surgery. Posting worked for me. Don't bred that dog. D'Mann

Out where I use to train a girl had that problem with her GSD and what she did was glue the ear. You can get the glue out of any dog catalog it is called Tear Mender. It is breathable glue and will not harm the dog. Then she got some foam kinda like from a hair curler and shaped it to the inside of the ear from the tip down. It worked for her dog. Both ears stand up with no problem. The foam will come off when it's ready to. Good Luck!!

i dont see the others answers ??? Sadgirl

Another thing that helps is to give the dog a nylabone and let him chew, because the jaw muscles are connected to the ears and chewing can help. I also have seen some lines which had soft ears at 13 to 15 months like you describe, but whose cartilage hardened and ears ztood by 2 years of age. Many things affect ear carriage, shape, thickness of cartilage, softness or hardness of cartilage, curve of ear, the set of the ear on the head, amount of hair on the ears, medical conditions, etc.

This is because someone taped the ears of dogs which were ancestors of your dog. I got a soft-eared dog from a "friend" who told me I should tape the ears. This dog looked like a hound dog, and he had brothers just like him. Same problem! So, I told my friend, "The more ears you tape, the more you will have to tape, later on". The answer is not surgical intervention, prostheses, etc. The answer is to NOT breed that dog! I know a vet who specializes in surgeries for Boxers who have retained testes. He either brings them down or he surgically implants prosthetic testes into the scrotum. The problem is so bad now in Boxers that there are no bloodlines free of the problem anymore and upwards of an 85% incidence of cryptorchidism in many lines. So much for "show" breeding, and it's effect on "improving the breed"! This is all show breeders doing this.

Not many people in the breed nowadays can appreciate how really nice it is to have a litter where all the ears stand by themselves, with no assistance. I know which bloodlines those are, but they are not "show" bloodlines. Hint: Look at my user handle, and guess where my dogs came from. I NEVER had to tape ears, and it was virtually unheard of to have problems with the ears standing. I saw it twice, and even at that, one of the dogs have one somewhat soft ear that was completely normal later on, no intervention at all. I only saw one dog with an ear that never stood, and he was raised in a pet home so I have no idea what may have happened with him.