Question about ears...

[Zerelda311]

Bella is 8 weeks old and her ears arent up. She is a lot younger than my other yorkies ( I didnt get them until 12 weeks and their ears were already up). I did research and my groomer is going to trim her ear hair to "lighten the weight" on the ears to help them stand easier. Is this something to be concerned about?

[AngelFae]

Concerned? I suppose that depends on whether or not you care if her ears stand all of the way up or flop over at all. My boy has heavy hair and I didn't start "lightening" his ears until he was around 5 months because I like them a little floppy (his stand most of the way up now then the tips usually flop over- though he can get them to stand totally up from time to time.) If you really want the standard erect ears then yes, trim up the hair. It doesn't hurt them and it looks really cute AND you end up with perky ears. I see no downside. =)

[jeane]

I don't think it makes any difference// I think that they are cute either way

[Zerelda311]

It is just that my other 3 all have erect ears and it was my understanding that "erect ears" were the breed standard. Of course, I will think she adorable either way, but when one out of 4 has floppy ears, I just questioned it. And all of mine are 5 pounds or less, which is smaller than the breed standard anyway lol I guess it was a "just wondering" thing.

[FidoTheYorkie]

Fido's ears didn't go up, we taped them (its often done to for example Chinese Cresteds, Schafers etc.), but he was too old for that to work.

You can tape them but first shave.
We took the gray thick rounded paper from inside a toiletroll (Fido was a big yorkie puppy, 4-5 months then and already 4-5 kilo's, so it fitted well), we cut it up so it could get in the ear and made it so it would fit perfectly , shaved his ears really well, and taped around the ear and paper then.
He felt comfortable, didn't mind this

Here's a picture of him when he had this on his ears But you can't see it perfectly though, you can see on the top of the ears how this is cut:
http://sphotos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...26662457_n.jpg

[FidoTheYorkie]

I would to that if you want them to stand up, if you do it sooner the more likely is it that they will go up! If you wait too long they will never go up.

I would use the Chinese Crested method to tape them, I think that will work the best with yorkies.

Here's one video ( there are few parts):

Ear Taping Part One - YouTube

[FidoTheYorkie]

Here are the other parts:

Ear Taping Part two - YouTube

Ear Taping Part Three (With Posts) - YouTube

Ear Taping Part 4 - YouTube

One thing else..

Watch out to use ONLY special tape from a pharmacy that is NON-STICK for the coat! Doesn't stick to the coat ! Everything else will hurt the dog and rip hairs of when you remove.

Keep on for at least 1 week, 10-14 days is the best, longer even.

[Clyde_Dexter]

Clyde's ear (because only one of his ears ever ended up standing) ... didn't stand up until between the ages of 4-6 months old I think. He had floppy ears, but over time they tried to stand up. I think trimming the hair around the ears will help. Dexter has both floppy ears. His siblings ears all stood up, but Dexter had a cotton/soft coat which made his hair a little heavier. They were never trimmed so they never went up (sometimes it looks like his ears were trying to go up but the weight of the hair doesn't allow that to happen).


Either way.. I'm sure she will be a cutie ... but give it a little bit of time and they might go up!

[mysweetpups]

My 5 month old yorkie has floppy ears. She's so dang cute that it has never bothered us. Now we just abopted her a baby sister who has ears like gizmo. I understand wanting to have the conformity amoungst the pack. I wonder if 5 months is too old to try.

[msyorktown]

Originally Posted by mysweetpups

My 5 month old yorkie has floppy ears. She's so dang cute that it has never bothered us. Now we just abopted her a baby sister who has ears like gizmo. I understand wanting to have the conformity amoungst the pack. I wonder if 5 months is too old to try.

You should go ahead and try, any longer will be too late....Still trying to get one of my Jersey's ears to stay up....one is up no prob...the other stays up for a day and flops back over....she is now 8mths old.

[angie m]

I had the same thoughts when I got my baby, worried about it alot. She was 12 wks old and her ears were not up. I taped, she would pull it off,or I would feel sorry for her and take it off. I rubbed her ears while she was in my lap, I did all of the silly things that I read on the internet to supposedly make the ears go up.
My vet said, leave them alone, it doesn't make a bit of difference what you do they will go up when they are ready to. So I finally took his advise, left them alone. She now looks like 'Radar" from mash..all ears.

so my advise would be to wait and watch, her ears will most likely stand on their own. Daisy is 10 mos, her ears would be up one day and down the next, or one ear would be up and the other down. Still to this day, I know when she is tired, her left ear will start drooping at the tip.

If you are going to try the tape thing..I had the best result with it staying by using the felted insole shoe insert method. You cut them to size and put them on the inside of the ear. There is a how to on YouTube.

Don't stress over it....they are cute either way!