To show or not to show?

[cmae]

Julia, thanks for all this information. The video on how you do ears is especially interesting! I don't know what the reason is that Sheltie ears here in the US almost always go up if they aren't aggressively trained from a young age. I wonder how much is genetic. I wish we had an easier regimen!

Simba, sorry for hijacking your thread! Thanks for letting me learn something new too and good luck with your puppy!

I do think a lot of it is genetic.. there are a couple of lines bred in our area that don't need a lot of ear training. Lucky for us, Cruz is one of them . We only glued until he was 6 months - I wouldn't say they are perfect but they remain tipped at 13 months old!

 

[seashel]

I think the 'default' position for dogs' ears is to be pricked. That is the wild type so although ear carriage is presumably due to a number of different modifying genes, prick would likely be dominant. I imagine if ears are routinely trained then they are not being selected for the natural tip, so a greater proportion of ears which have a natural tendency to go pricked will be inadvertently included in breeding programmes.

I may have missed the thread Simba but what name did you decide on eventually for pup? He looks very nice in the photos (I'm a sucker for tri pups !)

 

[Simba13]

I think the 'default' position for dogs' ears is to be pricked. That is the wild type so although ear carriage is presumably due to a number of different modifying genes, prick would likely be dominant. I imagine if ears are routinely trained then they are not being selected for the natural tip, so a greater proportion of ears which have a natural tendency to go pricked will be inadvertently included in breeding programmes.

I may have missed the thread Simba but what name did you decide on eventually for pup? He looks very nice in the photos (I'm a sucker for tri pups !)

Thanks for the video I'm going to give it a watch now. His name is Shoka