A tale of two ears...

Sharon7 · Jun 4, 2020

OK ear gurus, need a bit of input here. Meadow is now 18 weeks old. She is teething, and I know the ears can really go wonky during this time. I undid her ears which I have been gluing to see where we are. Well, we have one ear that breaks too low and swings out to the outside, and the other ear wants to stand straight up! :no:

Sorry I did not take a photo before re-gluing. I made sure to glue the low one higher up and to the inside, but Holy Cow I don't want to end up with two completely different ears - is there hope? Any advice or do I just pray? :fl

Arrrrgh!

Ann · Jun 4, 2020

LOL Sharon, not to worry. As long as you glue them evenly and keep them that way (as in don't leave them out for any length of time) they should even out over the coming months.

I remember completely panicking when Sprite was about 6 months old and I took her ears out and ... GASP .... they were hound!! I was horrified, since she was destined for the show ring. We just kept them in normally and by the time she was a year old they were perfect. I don't know how it happens, but the Ear Gods smile if you're persistent. :rolleyes2:

The trick is to get them now and keep them in correctly positioned, and not let the ears that are in the wrong position settle that way.
There's nothing like Sheltie ears to give us grey hair!! :gaah

Sharon7 · Jun 4, 2020

Thanks so much, Ann! Our only other two pups had naturally tipped ears so this is my first adventure with training ears... :rolleyes2:

Calliesmom · Jun 4, 2020

as long as you can keep the others from chewing on the ears, it should turn out fine.
Cran didn't have anyone chewing on him and his ears are really nice. Jocu and Destin were more challenging and they have just a little tip at the ends of the ears- wish they tipped a little more but you can only do so much.....

Piper's mom · Jun 4, 2020

I agree 100% with Ann...especially the part about not letting them stay out for ANY length of time! One time, just once I waited perhaps a couple days too long to tape Finnie's ears. The next time the tape came out, no matter what I did his left ear would pop up. I retaped right away after that and no matter what I did he had (has lol) one wonky ear...one down, one up a bit. Don't even wait a day lol.

Caro · Jun 5, 2020

Ann said:
LOL Sharon, not to worry. As long as you glue them evenly and keep them that way (as in don't leave them out for any length of time) they should even out over the coming months.

I remember completely panicking when Sprite was about 6 months old and I took her ears out and ... GASP .... they were hound!! I was horrified, since she was destined for the show ring. We just kept them in normally and by the time she was a year old they were perfect. I don't know how it happens, but the Ear Gods smile if you're persistent. The trick is to get them now and keep them in correctly positioned, and not let the ears that are in the wrong position settle that way.
There's nothing like Sheltie ears to give us grey hair!!

You are definitely the fount of Sheltie ear knowledge. I have let Kismet's ears slowly creep up the last week. Better get the Glycerin out again. Teething takes so long!

Ann · Jun 5, 2020

Caro said:
You are definitely the fount of Sheltie ear knowledge. I have let Kismet's ears slowly creep up the last week. Better get the Glycerin out again. Teething takes so long!

I don't know about that, Caro, but I learned from the best...TofuPup's mom, who has jokingly (sort of!) been called The Ear Nazi. No ear would dare not tip correctly under her care! :biggrin2:

I love glycerine! So easy to use and what a great help once you have them tipping.

corbinam · Jun 6, 2020

At times I did do a little load balancing when I saw an ear going one way or the other. For example, if one tended to bend to the side more, it got glued a little farther over to the other side.