All About The Ears

Puppy’s ears can stand any time between 4 weeks and 4 months of age and sometimes not both at the same time. Once puppies have finished their teething process, their once floppy ears should be fully erected. Although in most cases their ears go up by 8 weeks of age, it is not uncommon for some to take longer than that. The size and thickness of their ears play a big role in how early they will stand.

In the early stages of the puppies’ lives, their bodies are using calcium for teething, resulting in their ears to go up and down, flop, bed backwards, go droopy, or not go up at all. Basically, those bat ears are going to have a life of their own and dance around until the calcium can evenly distribute throughout their bodies.

If your pup’s ears are floppy after 10 weeks of age, you may try the taping method to help them erect. Using masking tape ONLY, tear off about a 1 ½ inch strip and loosely wrap the tape around the base of the ear; making sure the ear is flat and upright. Do the same on the second ear. Now use another longer strip of tape and connect both ears together in a bridge fashion across the top of the head. Leave the tape on for no more than five days. To remove the tape, cut the center of the bridge and peel off upwards very gently.

Using an ear rinse and a cotton swab, gently hold your pup’s ear upward and swab the exposed areas, getting all parts of the ear canal. Make sure to NOT go to deep into their ear canal!! You can impact wax and dirt into the canal which may result in an ear infection. Instead, squirt the ear rinse in the ear and have them shake it out so further/unreachable parts of the ear canal can get cleaned as well (repeat until ear is clean). Be sure to NOT bend their ears backwards at any time during the process. Their ears are very fragile and flimsy until about six months of ages, so bending them backwards can actually break them, and/or make them floppy.