Straight or folded ears?

Toffee's Mom said:
I disagree that only really good breeders can even produce naturally tipped ears, I don't think that it's a gene? Besides that two perfectly tipped ears does not make a perfect show Sheltie.. a heck of a lot more goes into that... I do agree that it is a very nice look, but I just don't think you get a lot of naturally tipped ears in the breed. Most end up needing a little help, even the most champion breeders :)
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Don't know if alot of good breeders know if they dogs ears will tip naturally or not. Almost everyone I know who shows helps their puppies ears right from the beginning. One person I know delays it until she sees them go prick or hound and she has alot of pups with not so good ears.

With so many things to think about when breeding, whether or not the ears tip naturally is way down on the list for a lot of people.
 
Ear gluing is a pain in the rear end, but so worth the trouble for those of us who like tipped ears. I was lucky with my girls, I gave up fairly early on both of them (I stopped gluing at approx. 8 months) but their ears stayed tipped.

If done correctly it does nothing to hurt the pup. Ear gluing isn't difficult, it just takes patience and persistence.

Here are some photos of Sadie as a pup. They were taken 24 hours apart. As you can see in the second photo, the weather was not the only thing that changed drastically over night. :smile2:

http://picasaweb.google.com/melsmit...key=Gv1sRgCMvUzITllqDT2QE#5205494440113219490

http://picasaweb.google.com/melsmit...key=Gv1sRgCMvUzITllqDT2QE#5208852258219415586

And here is one of Ginny the day we brought her home. She had perfect ears till literally that day, when the one started wandering off to the side, making her look permanently puzzled. It was so cute that I almost left it, but glued them in the end.

http://picasaweb.google.com/melsmith1979/Ginny?authkey=Gv1sRgCKbF5Oq0wPGbfw#5388489788175573250

http://picasaweb.google.com/melsmith1979/Ginny?authkey=Gv1sRgCKbF5Oq0wPGbfw#5390574884656427778

My parent's sheltie Milo has pricked ears. My parents wouldn't let me glue them and I probably would have given up anyway. His pricked ears suit him.

http://picasaweb.google.com/melsmit...key=Gv1sRgCMvUzITllqDT2QE#5205505357920086194
 
Ginny and Sadie were ADORABLE puppies!!!

Question for you.... I totally understand how to glue the ears tipped... But I can't figure out how to glue them up on top of his head :confused2: I tried; ended up making such a big mess with the glue and they came apart in 1/2 an hour... Then I had to give him a bit of a haircut to get rid of the glue. (I used eyelash glue, which was supposed to come out with make-up remover... NOT!!) Anyway, tips on glueing them up on top would be appreciated!! Thx.
 
Mikos_Mom said:
Ginny and Sadie were ADORABLE puppies!!!

Question for you.... I totally understand how to glue the ears tipped... But I can't figure out how to glue them up on top of his head :confused2: I tried; ended up making such a big mess with the glue and they came apart in 1/2 an hour... Then I had to give him a bit of a haircut to get rid of the glue. (I used eyelash glue, which was supposed to come out with make-up remover... NOT!!) Anyway, tips on glueing them up on top would be appreciated!! Thx.
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Everyone has a different technique, if you search the forum, probably under the puppies section there's TONS of advice on ear gluing.

Sadie's ears always stayed on top of her head so it wasn't something I worried about.

Ginny's ears drifted to the sides so I first tipped the ears, then I glued the fur on the ears together, starting at the ear's base near the center of the head and extending up approx 1/2." You can kinda see what I mean in the photo of her in her crate. Ginny was particularly hard to glue, it never lasted for long. But it seems to have worked, at least to my satisfaction. Here are a couple of decent photos of them.

Ginny - she's really unimpressed here, her ears are usually closer to the top of her head.

http://picasaweb.google.com/melsmit...hkey=Gv1sRgCKCvhfuCto7PIw#5499743596968210498

Sadie - Her ears in bad need of a trim, but tipped nicely.

http://picasaweb.google.com/melsmith1979/Sadie2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCNaP9drVzJzruwE#5340124760290672498
 
Toffee's Mom said:
Melissa, aren't they JUST the cutest, little adorable Sheltie girls, or what?
lol, those puppy pictures are hard to beat! lol
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Agreed! geeze, they are cute. I love the picture of them zonked out in the car, coming home from vacation - what sweethearts.
 
Gluing is NOT cruel!

While glueing is not for everyone, I would say that when done correctly it is certainly not cruel.

I glued Bacca's ears for the first 7 or 8 months, and beyond the fact that he didn't like the process itself (neither did he like his nails clipped, for that matter), he never showed ANY discomfort with his ears glued. Remember, you are not glueing skin to skin, but hair to hair.
 
BarbV said:
While glueing is not for everyone, I would say that when done correctly it is certainly not cruel.

I glued Bacca's ears for the first 7 or 8 months, and beyond the fact that he didn't like the process itself (neither did he like his nails clipped, for that matter), he never showed ANY discomfort with his ears glued. Remember, you are not glueing skin to skin, but hair to hair.
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What kind of glue to you find works best? I've heard lots of different things.. from false eyelash glue to speed sew. :confused2:
 
Toffee's Mom said:
I disagree that only really good breeders can even produce naturally tipped ears, I don't think that it's a gene? Besides that two perfectly tipped ears does not make a perfect show Sheltie.. a heck of a lot more goes into that... I do agree that it is a very nice look, but I just don't think you get a lot of naturally tipped ears in the breed. Most end up needing a little help, even the most champion breeders :)
Click to expand...

I think it is a rare Sheltie that can get perfectly tipped ears without a little help. But I do think that genetics will certainly play if you do nothing at all. Some dogs are pre-disposed to prick and some to hound. In Bacca's case, definitely hound. His ear cartilege is so fine that it would have taken more than gluing and for longer than I did it to get the correct tip. And from feedback on this forum regarding his lineage, it was confirmed that he had "those" ears (from his lineage).

But to your point, you are correct...there is much more to genetics than just the ears. Ears can mostly be fixed given time and effort. Other features....they either have them or they don't.

I was interested in the post about why this particularly standard for tipped ears. Makes total sense, and why the standard continues.
 
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