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

[SRW]

Here's a picture of my Ruffles at 20 weeks with her ears done and at one year old when they were done. You can see they're on top of her head but not touching. When you take them out, they'll spread a bit so they won't stay this close, but it keeps them from slipping to the side while the head is growing.

I can't quite tell from the picture where you glued the ears together. Did you glue the hairs at the bottom of the ears together, or up near the folded over tips? I guess glue would be better, as someone noted, rather than a brace because of the lesser chance of him getting it loose. I originally hadn't ordered any glue, but I ordered some (and some remover) from the Wicket site yesterday. My friend is coming over this weekend to help me, and as the glue likely won't be here by then I think we'll just start by putting the tape in the ears to prop them up and see how well he tolerates it.

 

[Ann]

You'll want to glue around the middle of the ears. Too high or low and it will be less stable and more likely to come loose. Let us know how you do!

 

[SRW]

You'll want to glue around the middle of the ears. Too high or low and it will be less stable and more likely to come loose. Let us know how you do!

I'll post a picture when we are done, assuming that Devon doesn't use those sharp puppy teeth on our jugular veins for trying to mess with his ears.....

 

[SRW]

OK, I've met with limited success. We tried the tape first according to the instructions posted by Piper's mom, and while I got it to stay in his ears, it just didn't lift or do much of anything regarding holding them up. We ended up trying again with the really thick kind of moleskin. This sort of worked in that the ears aren't folding down at the crease point anymore, but they aren't really sticking up either. I think it's because we haven't tried gluing the ears together on top yet, as the glue hasn't arrived, and without doing that perhaps it's not possible to get them to stick up by just shoring up the inside. I sure hope that's the reason, because if not I'm not sure there is much else I can do. It was really hard to get Devon to hold still long enough to do this. We had to wrap him in a towel to keep his paws under control and then we finally hit on the idea of putting some tiny diced ham cubes in a little plastic bag and letting him put his nose in the bag trying to get them at the same time, while we messed with his ears.

Here are some photos of what we did.

This photo is what he looked like before:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tk44XnlujcVIk_fYAZoiDKQIZgMUJwLO


Here is what he looks like afterward. Note that the ears are more forward and they don't flop over quite so much, but they aren't pointed upward either:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1mTyPIiMscoHTv9Kf6EY5jagSoT-pCCmn


Here's a photo of the moleskin in place inside the ear:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=18WI7QpNPHAUUuFDUSvENLOQGlmSe6aS7






Thoughts?

 

[Piper's mom]

I braced and taped Finnie's ears on Tuesday...here's what they look like...note I only applied the brace, then the tape to tip the ears and then I tied the 2 pieces of tape together bringing the ears closer together. Sounds to me like you should brace AND tip the ears, hopefully bracing will eventually bring the ears on top of the head.

 

[SRW]

I think that's what I need to do at this point (connect the ears together on the top of the head). What did you connect the tape across the head to? I didn't have much success with tape inside the ears, I suspect because the ears were flopped down whereas most of you are trying to use the tape just to hold down the tips rather than prop up the main part of the ear itself. I was thinking I need to glue the hairs on the medial side of the ears to each other, per a suggestion above, but I'm not certain that the hairs are long enough to do what you did with the tape. I've also got some yarn, but again I'd need something to glue the yarn to. Could I glue the yarn just to the hairs on the medial side of the ears?

 

[Piper's mom]

Tear tape to within 1 1/4" of the end...don't tear all the way. Fold over the torn portion. This becomes your tie. I don't do all the steps, just these two (thought I'd just repost just these two in case it's confusing). I used the tape itself...if you apply the tape (as per the instructions) to the ear first for the brace (massage tape well as its heat activated) and then apply the rolled tape for the tip. You should have two long pieces of a tape 'tail' (from the brace tape applied to each ear) and these you tie together bringing the ears higher.

 

[Piper's mom]

As you can see in first picture I've applied the tape for the brace and for the tip. You can see how far apart his ears are. Second picture I've tied the tape 'threads' together, pulling the ears closer together.

 

[Ann]

Piper's Mom took the words out of my mouth. Looking at your pictures, I agree that you need to bite the bullet and just do the whole job, tipping and bracing the ears. Whether you do that using glue or tape is up to you, but you'll need to get those ears well up on his head and tipped for it to be effective. I know it's a pain, but I'd try both methods and see which one is easier for you, Devon, and works the best. It really is a process....you'll get better at it and he will get more used to it.

 

[SRW]

He got the moleskin out of one ear overnight, probably because as I used the thick stuff for extra support he was able to get a claw on the thick edge and work it loose. Do your dogs leave it alone afterward? The instant I set him down after doing this he started scratching at his ears, and he kept it up off and on all evening, eventually getting one of the pieces out. Part of the reason I didn't try the brace to start with, using the tape I already have, is that I don't believe he'd leave it alone; and being on the top of his head exposed like that, it would be easy for him to scratch at it until it broke. As I said, I've got some glue on the way, but after looking at Piper's Mom's pictures I now realize that I won't be able to just glue the hairs from the inside edge of the ears together as they aren't long enough to reach.

This would be a lot easier if Devon weren't such a little hellion, but he's willful and stubborn beyond belief, and just won't take no for an answer. I've been using tobasco sauce on my shoelaces and other things I don't want him to chew on. With my previous Sheltie, Baron, I only had to do it a limited number of times for him to get the idea that shoelaces were off limits. Devon on the other hand, when he gets a taste of it on a shoelace, he shakes his head, makes nasty noises, and goes right back after the shoelaces again, just moving a little bit to one side to avoid the part with the sauce on it. I have to actually hold the open bottle down by my shoes right under his nose so that he gets a whiff of the full concentrated stuff in order to get him to back off, and even then he'll be back for more in a short time. I think he's had more time-outs back in his cage in three weeks than Baron had during his entire puppyhood.