The Baby's Ears Thus Far

Oh I feel for you on the hound ears. Those are monsters to fix. My friend did her 2 top show prospect puppies ears incorrectly up until they were 5, almost 6 months old, and caused them to go hound, then tried to get me to fix them, but by then, they were just too heavy, and the leather had started to thicken, so they weren't fixable, and I put in a good lot of work to fix them, too. The hound ears are much harder to fix than the prick ears. At least with prick, you can weight them if all else fails for the ring. With hounds, you're just stuck.
 
Any ideas as to how I can try - beyond the ear bracing, which apparently his little ears can't accomodate? Maybe I had the dimensions wrong?

I even was going to try the regluing between his ears by twisting the hair together, but I've been doing such a good job of grooming his ears, there is nothing to twist together! :razz:
 
For hound ears, the biggest thing isn't so much pulling them up high as it is bracing the ear leather at the base to help train it to stand up instead of falling over at the base (you'll be hoping as the ear thickens that the brace supports it and trains it to where it can stand on its own). I am guessing with the ear brace, you are putting a piece of moleskin between the ears to pull them up. You want to cut out two pieces of moleskin for each ear, glue one to the tip, the other to right below where you want the breakover. You want to check it against the ear before you cut/glue the piece, as you'll want it to be long enough to offer support for the area where the ear is wanting to break too low. For normal ears, you do not need such a long piece of moleskin, but the ones that want to go hound just need extra support where they're wanting to break down by the head. Before glueing the piece to the lower part of the ear, punch a hole in it, and run a piece of yarn through it. It is more forgiving to do it this way than with the moleskin brace in the center. Once the moleskin is glued into each ear, and the ears glued down, tie the yarn hanging from each ear together, making sure to pull the ears up high. I've found it's much easier to pull the ears up on top of the head using the yarn. Hopefully you've caught them early enough. They're just really tough to fix once the leather thickens :/
Also, you don't have to use the pattern given to you. I've always just used little squares, and made them to fit my dogs ears.
and I wanted to make sure when you say hound ears, you mean they're breaking over close to the dogs head, and not just wide ears. If they're just wide, you don't need to make the moleskin any longer, but then the pulling up high is very important.
 
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This is a fairly current picture (8 months old).

http://i389.photobucket.com/albums/oo331/vachonb/PB020845.jpg

See how they are flopped fairly low and turned outward?

I was hoping to avoid the moleskin brace without the yarn (there's a technique that Narmowen refers to that uses the moleskin itself - see link below) but when I tried it the moleskin did not miraculously disappear on his head like the demo - it just looked like I'd taped a bandaid on top of his head...perhaps I was doing something wrong?)

http://www.burlywood.com/collies/ears.htm

I should note that he's ears really only go like this when he's in "down mode". Sometimes they fly. And since I can never get him to do that Sheltie pose, I'm not sure what they would actually do if we were in a show ring. Am I being too fussy? :uhoh::smile2:

p.s. I think I already know the answer that question!
 
They're not bad really. Not what I think of as far as hound ears go. My friends were completely broken over at the base of the head. At eight months you may not get much correction on them, but if you want to glue them back, decide where the ideal break should be, mark it, and fold over and glue. The ideal break point should be in the spot where the crease will be when the ear is glued over. As far as the tips pointing out a bit, bring the tip in a little when gluing.
If they don't get any better at this age, I think you'll still be okay, as far as how they look. If you choose to show her conformation, you can always take more hair off of the tipped area than you would the average ear to help lighten them up and cause them to come up a bit, and use thinning shears across the the hair on her head that rests right in front of her ear. It creates the illusion that there is more space between her head and the ear tip so they look less like they're overtipped :x . A good guide for how to do this with pictures is the Sheltie Grooming book. It's hard to get the right idea on how this all should be done just through writing. Also, the guy who does the sheltie and collie grooming video is VERY good to watch.
 
Thanks for the advice.

I've got Barb Ross's book and also Sheltie Talk, so I'll go back and check it out.

I'll see if I can find the video you mentioned. Is it on the web?
 
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