Natural Ears
The Ups and Downs of Natural Ears
by Linda and John Limpert
We had decided to leave one of our male puppies, Fonzie, with natural ears.
As a young pup, he had an ear set that looked great.
Compared to what it took to take care of his cropped eared litter mates,
we thought there would be nothing to raising a pup with natural ears.
We learned that natural ears need early, continued training to keep that
natural look.
As Fonzie grew, he decided to play tricks with his ears.
He would ''perk'' up his right ear while perfectly holding his
left ear.
We got his right ear down by gluing it forward to the side of his head.
Fonzie held both ears in position for about a month then up went the
left.
We'd get one ear down and the other would go up.
It was like a cartoon.
While we were at the 1998 SSCA National Specialty in Detroit, we asked
a breeder who
had experience raising natural eared Standard Schnauzers in Europe what
she did.
We had noticed her young male's ear leathers were tightly held close
to his head all the time
in perfect position. She told us to fold each ear leather (fur
side) length wise up and tape it at the base of the
ear as close to the head as possible. We were to finish by taping
around the folded ear about
one inch from the tip. The dog should be able to move and work
the ears up, down and sideways.
You know you have done it right if your dog's ears look and hang like
goat ears.
We modified the above method by applying medical glue on the outer fur
side of the
ear leather before folding it up length wise. This held the folded
ear together better and
put less pressure on the ear at the two tape points helping to prevent
skin irritation.
Fonzie after many months of training now holds his ears ''naturally''.
We wish we had known about this method when Fonzie was young.
It would have made life easier for Fonzie and us.
Just as everyone has learned different methods to train cropped ears to
stand,
training natural ears to be natural can be just as challenging.
Here are some more details that may help explain
the method....
The first thing to remember is that when you tape ears, you want the tape
tight enough to hold but not so
tight that it cuts into the skin. Overlapping a few pieces of tape
helps prevent the cutting. Check the ears
a few time a day and remove the tape if you see signs of irritation.
Tape them again once the irritation
clears up. The longer ( max 3 days) you can go with the ears taped
the better. Don't shave the ears just
before you tape because that will irritate the skin. Shave them after
you remove the tape and are letting the
ears recover. Use a good medical tape that lets the skin breath.
There is one single fold of the ear leather. The fold is upward with
the fur side of the leather folded in half
on to itself. The fold line is from the middle of where the ear
attaches to the head to the tip of its ear.
The underside (skin side) is what you tape at the head and at the tip of
the ear. Repeat for the other ear.
Once taped, the ears hang down and out like goat ears.
The fold is forming a ''crease'' that will cause the leather to want to hang
down and inward. Its like when
you fold a piece of paper and the crease gives it more strength.
That's the idea behind this method.
This method doesn't always work. But if you keep at it you'll have
a good chance getting them close to
what you want. The method won't work if they have reached point where
their head and ears are fully
formed to their adult size. This method is trying to influence the
crease into the ear at the head while the ear is forming.
