When should a Sheltie puppy's ears start coming up?

I usually hold Finnie for a good 20-30 minutes (I get him to lay in front of me...good practice to get him to settle) and then I watch him for the first day really lol. He shakes and tries to scratch it out but I just keep a close watch on him and say leave it and he stops. They don't like it but he'll tolerate it well after the first initial hour or so.
I also spray the tape with starter fluid (the roll) and let it dry for 30 seconds or so which makes the tape super sticky. Much harder for them to get it out. This method the tape should remain in place for a month. I then leave the ears free for a couple days (unless they're heading up again lol) until I retape.
 
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Piper's mom said:
I usually hold Finnie for a good 20-30 minutes (I get him to lay in front of me...good practice to get him to settle) and then I watch him for the first day really lol. He shakes and tries to scratch it out but I just keep a close watch on him and say leave it and he stops. They don't like it but he'll tolerate it well after the first initial hour or so.
I also spray the tape with starter fluid (the roll) and let it dry for 30 seconds or so which makes the tape super sticky. Much harder for them to get it out. This method the tape should remain in place for a month. I then leave the ears free for a couple days (unless they're heading up again lol) until I retape.
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I used that Colorless Tuf-Skin stuff I bought along with the tape to make it more sticky. I didn't use it on the thick moleskin pieces as they seemed sticky enough to me, but I guess that could be why he got them out so easily. We are going to try again tomorrow when the glue gets here. I'm debating on whether to use the moleskin again in the ears, with the Tuf-Skin on it this time (is the glue allowed to be put directly on the skin, or is it only for the hair?), or going with the tape again, with the addition of the cross brace piece in both cases. I think it would hold as well if I put it under the moleskin as it would if I stuck it to the tube shaped piece of tape. The reason I'm still thinking about the moleskin is that it seems to give more support to the ears down near the bottom at the crease where they are flopped over, which of course isn't an issue if the ears are already standing up.
 
MissyGallant said:
I wish you the best. I lost the war of Rocket's ears. https://sheltieforums.com/threads/the-war-of-rockets-ears.25951/page-2#post-364505 Those ears are as upright as ears can get.
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I don't mind upright ears. Baron (avatar picture) had upright ears and he was spectacular looking that way. Devon though, I'm afraid will end up with hound ears if I don't do something, and I think that will make him look sad instead of Shelti-like if he ends up that way. His ears seem larger than average and the picture I saw of his father showed him with flopped down ears, although I'm not 100% certain if that was because they were always that way or because he was being held still for a picture and didn't like it (he looked like he was being scolded to stay still).

My friend couldn't come over yesterday, so we are going to redo the ears on Wednesday. I'll post another picture when we are done.
 
OK, we've finished round two of this and it certainly looks better than round one a few days ago, but we couldn't get the ears up as much as I'd like. I used a similar method to a link posted in the thread Calliesmom referred to. I used two layers of regular moleskin on each ear with a yarn brace sandwiched between the two layers. I glued the bottom layer to the ear with some surgical cement, which I think is the same stuff by a different name referred to in the link, and I glued the top layer of moleskin to the bottom layer with Speed-Sew. Here's a couple of pictures of the results. I'm not fully satisfied with how high up the ears ended up, but they were much better than before, and I'm not quite sure how to get them higher. However, the yarn did a good job of pulling them together, up somewhat, and pointing forward. The right ear is a little better than the left one, but it was also a little better than the left one to start with, as I think they were starting to move a little on their own.
 

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He is so darn cute - looks like he will be a shaded (or mahogany) sable - our first girl Skye was and she was gorgeous. Good luck with those darn ears. One of Eli's actually tips slightly backwards - apparently a littermate did a bit of damage to his ear and even with glueing/taping his ears are up. But that's partly why we were able to adopt him and he looks cute anyway, so we don't mind. The hound ear look is not so good though, for the reason you mentioned.
 
Don't be afraid to tie those strings tightly together. They should be waaaaay up on his head and touching. I’ve gone through several methods myself just on my most recent pup alone (and she’s my 4th!).

I’m attaching a picture where I tied the tape together and even in these photos her ears are not close enough together. But this gives you an idea.
 

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Sharon7 said:
He is so darn cute - looks like he will be a shaded (or mahogany) sable - our first girl Skye was and she was gorgeous. Good luck with those darn ears. One of Eli's actually tips slightly backwards - apparently a littermate did a bit of damage to his ear and even with glueing/taping his ears are up. But that's partly why we were able to adopt him and he looks cute anyway, so we don't mind. The hound ear look is not so good though, for the reason you mentioned.
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Both of his parents were very light colored and the mother was about half white and half mocha over her body. However, he was the only one in the litter that was very dark and has a strip of black down his back, which is why I picked him, as I was hoping to get one that ends up as dark as Baron (avatar photo) whose contrast between the white, tan, and almost black was quite stunning.
 
corbinam said:
Don't be afraid to tie those strings tightly together. They should be waaaaay up on his head and touching. I’ve gone through several methods myself just on my most recent pup alone (and she’s my 4th!).

I’m attaching a picture where I tied the tape together and even in these photos her ears are not close enough together. But this gives you an idea.
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I wasn't sure how much tension I could put on the ears and have him tolerate it, so I didn't pull them too tightly together. I guess I could cut the yarn a little shorter and pull them a little tighter without having to redo everything else. Devon is a little hellion and it was really hard to accomplish what we did, so I don't want to have to do it again for a while. He was squirming so much, even when wrapped in a towel to keep him from using his front feet and claws to push away and with his head buried in a bag trying to get a couple of diced ham cubes at the bottom that we used to distract him, that I was barely able to get the moleskin in place and stuck down. I had a window of no more than a couple of seconds at a time where he was still enough and distracted enough to stick the moleskin to the inside of his ears.
 
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