Soft Ear - What Can I Do? - Page 1

Hi All. I have a young female (8 months) who has a soft ear. Any ideas on what I can do firm it up? Thanks! Susan

At eight months you must reinforce the ear ,if the ear is not up at 10 months as a general rule it will not go up , the cartilage calcifaction ends about this time, although I have heard of others able to get the ear up a litlle longer than that . but don't delay ! there are differnet methods . some tape the ears .. some use reinforcers inside the ear[they can be bought]. do not keep the dog in a crate/enclosure so that the ears don't have space to be erect. also during the day [ or night] have the dog in a circumstance where it is forced/ or it must use it's ears if possible. Also there are supplements in calcium/phosphorous that are sold to help too . ?? chondroitin-sulfate, glucosomines too [ ask your vet about them ] .

This method is from the German Shepherd Book by Susan Barwig which I assume you don't have. Book has pictures but I will try to describe it to you. You will need Goody pink foam rollers with the clip removed (xtra large if you can find them - otherwise use jumbo if the ear is large or large size if it is smaller; 3M Super Weatherstrip Adhesive part no. 051135-08001 (this no. changes sometimes but auto suppy store will know what you want); unsharpened pencil and a plastic knife. Insert the pencil into the hole in the roller, then spread a layer of glue with the plastic knife around the entire roller, let it dry until tacky and apply another layer of glue. Now insert the roller into the dogs ear (you will be holding the roller by the pencil) place two fingers against the base of the ear and bring the roller down until it rests on your fingers (this is to leave space for air to get in) and wrap the ear around the roller as tightly as you can. Hold the ear wrapped around the roller as long as you can - hopefully until glue is dry. Leave in until roller falls out. DO NOT try to clean out the glue - it will grow out - and you may cause the ear to go down if you try to clean. As your dog is older (this should be done if ears have not been up by 4 months) you may have to repeat the procedure several times. I have done this on 4 or 5 occasions and it always works as the roller is so light the dog forgets it is in after a few minutes. Follow advice of Alphapup - i.e. do not keep dog in a closed crate and try to place it where it will want to look at things (you, other dogs, etc.) so it has to use it's ears. Hope you could follow this - Judy

Another alternative to using the glue in the above mentioned roller procedure is to just use a light weight tape such as masking tape or surgical tape. It doesn't last as long but you can remove it easy and reset if the ear got wet etc. I have also heard adding a couple of teaspoons of plain gelatin can be added to the food. Also a "raw bone" as the chewing, gnawing helps the muscles. Make sure you remove the bone after a day so it doesn't get dried out and break pieces off. I prefer the long leg bones with the marrow inside, they don't seem to be able to "eat" this bone. To much bone can cause constipation to impaction.

I hope you are not planning on showing and breeding this dog and you are just trying to get the ear up for esthetic reasons.

I talked my Ugly dogs' ears up, got him around 6 plus months. My DH even swears this story is true! I just blew in his face, ever so gentle, told him he was gorgeous, and I swear those ears, they just popped up! I am the ear perker! Make him believe you believe in him.

I was told to use Knox gelatin with Glucosmine to get pup's ears up nicely and I just bought some today for my puppies. Going to give it a try....besides it was buy one get one free at Walgreens!

Moe hair, or mole hair, not sure what it's called as this was a long time ago but I did one pups ears after everthing that everyone told me to try failed. Ended up with stinky nasty ears. Then some one told me about this moe or mole hair idea. It was great as it is a white, about an 1/8 in. thick material that you cut out to fit the dogs ears. It is firm enough to hold up under stress and plyable enough to flex a little. Just glued it in (dont remember what type of glue). This was the first and only time I ever had to do this, but I remember that it worked excellent. If any one knows what type of stuff this is please share it. Because it only requires a single layer it reduces the risk of irritating the dogs ears as most other methods do. Good luck.

All, THANK YOU for the ideas! I will get the supplements in her diet asap and research a bit more on how to "support" the ear to stand up with something more sturdy. Autobahn, I originally did purchase this female for breeding purposes. She has an extremely strong pedigree (I will keep the lines to myself as I don't want to diss any other breeders). She has extremely dark pigment, drive like crazy, and very strong nerve. Even with all this...the answer to your questions is Yes. I have recently decided NOT to breed her for two reasons...the soft ear and the shorter than I like tail. I want to clean her up for esthetic reasons, further her training and offer her as either a personal protection dog to a VERY active home or as a police dog to some local police stations. She is still in my mind a fabulous female dog...just not breeding quality in my mind. But oh well, we all know if you get a pup...you are not evey 100% sure of what will be the end result 2 years later right? :) Again...THANK YOU ALL !! Also, if anyone has the bead on the mole/mole hair stuff please let me know.

I think it's moleskin and can be purchased at any drug store in the foot care department. It never worked for me unless I shaved the ear and glued it in place. I prefer the foam roller and glue method. Winnie Strickland also suggested that method in one of her books. It works. You can also try to cut an old photograph to fit the ear and glue that in place. I like the roller and since the ear wraps around the foam form there will be no chance of getting permanent tape ridges on the ear, a dead give away that the ear needed help to stand.