Natural ear set is awkward

[jodi_odo]

Is this normal on a 15 week old puppy...one ears is very floppy, the other is more erect...im assuming the cartilage broke in the floppy one??

[Hiraeth]

Puppy ears go really wonky during teething. They may correct after teething is done and the cartilage hardens, or they may be strange if you don't tape a good natural set for the next few months.

[SuzanneRM82]

You can always tape them to get that pretty natural ear set. Might not be perfect, but it can help.

[jodi_odo]

Can someone point me in the right direction on how to tape the ears? I will love her the same, but if I can try to correct it i will...

[SuzanneRM82]

http://www.6stardanes.com/ears.html

[Lizgirl]

http://danemarkdanes.com/eartaping.html

[Hiraeth]

I used waterproof medical tape and cut a 9" strip. I put that strip, sticky side out, on the inside of the ear tip, then under the neck, then on the inside of the other ear tip, then I trimmed off the excess so that each ear had about 2" attached to the inside (in the photos only about 1" of tape is on the ear, they stay much better if you leave more tape than that). I then cut another strip and put it sticky side in on the outside of the ear, ran it under the neck by sticking it to the outward facing first strip and over the other ear, again trimming the excess.

You want to make sure the ears are breaking at their natural point and aren't taped down too tightly. On the flip side, if they're too loose, they will flip back into a weird flying nun position, so the tension on the tape may take a while to get right.





Results:



His right ear still gets funky sometimes and would probably have improved had I kept taping, but I stopped around 8 months of age.

[mnmouse]

Be sure to judge the ears while perked.

Here's Mouse, very perked. His earset is too high, but the ear folds where it should:



Good natural ear set:



And here's a pic of him doing odd things with his ears (being expressive--lol!)