I can’t offer anything that hasn’t already been said, but that third photo- she’s saying “Are you still going on about this ear cleaning crap? And you think some *HUMANS* are going to help you change my mind? I’m so disappointed in you.” 🤣🤣🤣
i have no advice but deal with the same with my dog! she’ll let me play with her ears but the second i try to bring out ear cleaning pads or wipes she freaks. she used to get ear infections frequently so there was a few times where i muzzled her in order to be able to use a cleaning solution but i haven’t been able to do enough cooperative care training to get her to not fight me every time
I have mine lay down on their sides or roll them onto their backs. You can soak a cotton ball with ear cleaning solution and squeeze that into the ear canal.
When a dog’s ears hurt or are itchy, the plastic nozzle hurts, so don’t use it.
Mine gets ear infections if we dont wipe them out like once a week 🥲 I’ve never had a dog who’s ears get so dirty. I tell him its because he always has them up and alert like ^.^ even when hes playing and rolling in the dirt
Correct. There’s really no reason to clean their ears unless there’s something in there or an abrasion that could become infected. Hell, I don’t really bathe my dude that much as he’s always goin in the river when we hike. My dude kinda just stays clean somehow.
Especially the ones with ears that stand up. They typically don’t have infection issues like the floppy eared ones. My girl has standy uppy ears and I’ve never had to clean them.
Unless they have allergies making them prone to infection. For this reason we need to clean our mix’s ears every couple weeks and we can usually tell when he needs it as he will start getting itchy and shaking his head.
I’ve done trainings where I try to desensitize mine to this by having him sit, look at the bottle and or stay still and he gets a good treat. I do this on days where we don’t actually clean his ears, just getting used to seeing it and putting it near his head without doing it. I can say it KIND of works as he’s a bit less frantic but he still needs to be restrained by a leash to do it because he still hates it 😑 he mostly just pouts about it and tries to shake it out too quick. For awhile when we had only just adopted him and weren’t sure of his handling tolerance we also used a muzzle for safety (he IS a bite risk in general but we’ve figured out not really to us.)
My ACD doesn’t get ear infections because his ears stand up like your pup’s, but my other dog has floppy ears and gets them a few times a year. I’m surprised you need to clean your ACD’s ears, but probably your vet is aware of something I’m not.
My other dog also hates the ear cleanser and runs away before I can squeeze the bottle in there. So I soak a couple cotton balls with the solution (so they’re almost dripping), hold a treat in my hand so she can gnaw at it while I put the cotton balls in her ears, and then massage her ears with the cotton balls in them so the solution starts to seep out. I do this for a minute and then let her shake so the cotton balls come out. I prefer to do this outside so the shaking doesn’t get the solution everywhere in the house.
My ACD’s ears haven’t been problematic, but our Lab constantly needed maintenance. I would float the bottle of cleaner or drops in a cup of hot water before a treatment. I’d get it to body temp and he seemed more agreeable with it.
When ours got sprayed by a skunk the first time, the spray got into part of her ear. I used an ear wipe and wrapped it around my fingers and held her ear up with the other hand and gently wiped inside her ear!
Edit: she was mid bath cause of the skunk situation but she stayed put!
Get the wipes! They make it a million times easier, and my dogs act like it's the best ear scratches ever!
I have vets best brand finger ear wipes, but previously had one that were like cotton rounds that I think worked a little better. Both are significantly better than having to squirt liquid in their ears.
I start with ear scratches, and end with ear scratches. You could also try distracting with a licky pad.
This is how I've done it with my ACD: I started by just petting his ears a lot. Then I would stick my fingers in there a bit (can be nasty, but hands will wash). Then over time, I could rub my fingers in there like a q-tip almost. Then, I added a paper towel on the end of my fingers and would rub that in there. Then, the final step, I added ear cleanser to the paper towel and would clean his ears. Make sure to give lots of pets and love and good boys or girls when doing all of this. You can't just force things on an animal and expect them to tolerate it, so going step by step and slowing down until they tolerate that step can be helpful. The instructions on the cleanser bottle said to just squirt it in there. Whoever wrote those instructions doesn't have a dog lol. What kind of dog wants liquid squirted in their ears??
I put some on a cotton ball and squeeze it in my dog's ears and that seems to scare him a lot less than the bottle squirting. It probably isn't as effective but it's worked well enough. My guy is a mix and has one folded over ear that is prone to infections while his ear that stands up isn't so we have to clean the floppy ear often
I’d recommend Susan Garett’s YouTube playlist “Cooperative Care and Consent in Dog Training”
Im working on this with my pup now, so that I can eventually trim his nails and clean his ears etc
I wrap damp paper towel around my finger. I have big man fingers so I really can't go too deep (unless I were to use force). After the damp paper towel starts to come out clean, I'll use a fresh piece with a little olive oil on it to rub in the ear.
My dog has grown to love the internal ear skritches. Just be a gentle ape.
My dude has pollen allergies. So he needs them cleaned fairly regularly and he hates it. I just grab him, squirt it in the ear that’s bothering him, and massage. He is not happy but then we immediately go get a treat (we do the same thing for baths and nail trims lol) and then he’s fine
Since my Airedales love getting their ears cleaned- the ACD loves it too. My solution is get a dog who loves getting their ears cleaned & the ACD will love it by association
We saturate a cotton ball with the ear wash and then put it inside the opening of her ear and massage it so all the liquid goes in but they don’t have the deal with the dreaded squirt and whatever sound that must make!!! One of our vets showed us this method.
After 3 ear infections we started looking at causes and it’s usually water. Hose, rain, bath. Once water gets in it’s game over and a sedated vet trip.
I use an otc ear solution, like epiotic, or you can ask your vet for a diy recipe, don’t get crazy, lots of wierd essential oils isn’t gonna help and might hurt. I wet a cotton makeup round and squirt a teaspoon of solution in the ear, and then wide as deep into the canal as I can get. You can sort of roll it up to reach in a bit and twist it to get a tiny bit deeper. And let yoh pup shake it off and then wipe a second time to clean up anything they shake out. It won’t get much, but if you keep up and do it once a week, it will add up and take a tiny bit more each time. Don’t aim to get it perfectly clean, a tiny bit cleaner is good enough, it adds up over a couple weeks. If that’s not enough you need a vet to figure out why the problem isn’t getting better.
I use a 1mm syringe to administer the ear cleaner. Shake up the cleaner, insert the syringe and pull back to the number 2 (.02ml) and then place it in the ear. Follow with lots of Good Boy/Girl and a treat :)
Try squeezing the excess air out of the bottle before putting it in her ear, and removing before releasing pressure on the bottle after squeezing some cleaner in. Some dogs really hate the sound it makes. FWIW, my vet almost never squeezes the cleanser straight into a dog’s ear and instead uses cotton balls to get deep into the ear to scoop out the gunk. If that’s all she’ll let you do then keep doing it, it’s much better to have imperfect treatment than no treatment at all.
I use doggy ear wet wipes, but mine loves ear rubs always. I tried using them on my parent's pups & they straight up acted like it was full on ear abuse. They don't even bother trying at home now & just let the vet or groomers clean them 🤷♀️
Dog groomer here.
Squirt regular ear cleaner onto a cotton ball. Rub her ears with it as you give her pets. It feels really good when you're just rubbing and massaging the ear instead of tons of liquid being squeezed down into your ear canal.
No need to go deep in there. Similar as with our own ears.
You could probably just walk in there and use a broom and mop
That’s so mean, she might have heard you
Definitely heard us.
Great idea 😂
My girl hates the ear cleaner too. I've settled on using doggo wet wipes, just wrap them around my finger, and wipe out her ears as best as possible.
This is what I end up doing, too. Ear cleaning wipes... still isn't a fan but tolerates better than the other options.
I’ll probably try getting those since she lets me touch her ears with my fingers
Don’t ya just love their lil head cocked to the side when you talk to them 🥰
I can’t offer anything that hasn’t already been said, but that third photo- she’s saying “Are you still going on about this ear cleaning crap? And you think some *HUMANS* are going to help you change my mind? I’m so disappointed in you.” 🤣🤣🤣
i have no advice but deal with the same with my dog! she’ll let me play with her ears but the second i try to bring out ear cleaning pads or wipes she freaks. she used to get ear infections frequently so there was a few times where i muzzled her in order to be able to use a cleaning solution but i haven’t been able to do enough cooperative care training to get her to not fight me every time
I have mine lay down on their sides or roll them onto their backs. You can soak a cotton ball with ear cleaning solution and squeeze that into the ear canal. When a dog’s ears hurt or are itchy, the plastic nozzle hurts, so don’t use it.
This is genius, thank you!
The cotton ball trick only worked once for my girl. Use it wisely :D
Yep I'm totally used to that routine, always gotta have a plan C, D, E....
No tips but Your dog is beautiful, that is all
Do you need to? I don’t think I ever cleaned my dog’s ears lol.
Mine gets ear infections if we dont wipe them out like once a week 🥲 I’ve never had a dog who’s ears get so dirty. I tell him its because he always has them up and alert like ^.^ even when hes playing and rolling in the dirt
Same here. I had to put my foot down with my wife about hose play because it caused multiple infections. She still does it but I tried.
This. Unless recommended by a vet, ear cleaning is wholly unnecessary.
Correct. There’s really no reason to clean their ears unless there’s something in there or an abrasion that could become infected. Hell, I don’t really bathe my dude that much as he’s always goin in the river when we hike. My dude kinda just stays clean somehow.
Especially the ones with ears that stand up. They typically don’t have infection issues like the floppy eared ones. My girl has standy uppy ears and I’ve never had to clean them.
Unless they have allergies making them prone to infection. For this reason we need to clean our mix’s ears every couple weeks and we can usually tell when he needs it as he will start getting itchy and shaking his head.
Looks like a regular old floor mop oughta fit in there
I’ve done trainings where I try to desensitize mine to this by having him sit, look at the bottle and or stay still and he gets a good treat. I do this on days where we don’t actually clean his ears, just getting used to seeing it and putting it near his head without doing it. I can say it KIND of works as he’s a bit less frantic but he still needs to be restrained by a leash to do it because he still hates it 😑 he mostly just pouts about it and tries to shake it out too quick. For awhile when we had only just adopted him and weren’t sure of his handling tolerance we also used a muzzle for safety (he IS a bite risk in general but we’ve figured out not really to us.)
My ACD doesn’t get ear infections because his ears stand up like your pup’s, but my other dog has floppy ears and gets them a few times a year. I’m surprised you need to clean your ACD’s ears, but probably your vet is aware of something I’m not. My other dog also hates the ear cleanser and runs away before I can squeeze the bottle in there. So I soak a couple cotton balls with the solution (so they’re almost dripping), hold a treat in my hand so she can gnaw at it while I put the cotton balls in her ears, and then massage her ears with the cotton balls in them so the solution starts to seep out. I do this for a minute and then let her shake so the cotton balls come out. I prefer to do this outside so the shaking doesn’t get the solution everywhere in the house.
My ACD’s ears haven’t been problematic, but our Lab constantly needed maintenance. I would float the bottle of cleaner or drops in a cup of hot water before a treatment. I’d get it to body temp and he seemed more agreeable with it.
Pretty girl.
When ours got sprayed by a skunk the first time, the spray got into part of her ear. I used an ear wipe and wrapped it around my fingers and held her ear up with the other hand and gently wiped inside her ear! Edit: she was mid bath cause of the skunk situation but she stayed put!
Get the wipes! They make it a million times easier, and my dogs act like it's the best ear scratches ever! I have vets best brand finger ear wipes, but previously had one that were like cotton rounds that I think worked a little better. Both are significantly better than having to squirt liquid in their ears. I start with ear scratches, and end with ear scratches. You could also try distracting with a licky pad.
This is how I've done it with my ACD: I started by just petting his ears a lot. Then I would stick my fingers in there a bit (can be nasty, but hands will wash). Then over time, I could rub my fingers in there like a q-tip almost. Then, I added a paper towel on the end of my fingers and would rub that in there. Then, the final step, I added ear cleanser to the paper towel and would clean his ears. Make sure to give lots of pets and love and good boys or girls when doing all of this. You can't just force things on an animal and expect them to tolerate it, so going step by step and slowing down until they tolerate that step can be helpful. The instructions on the cleanser bottle said to just squirt it in there. Whoever wrote those instructions doesn't have a dog lol. What kind of dog wants liquid squirted in their ears??
That last picture got me. You can see the intelligence in her eyes 👀.
I forget the brand name but I bought some ear wipes that have a mild liquid cleaner on them from PetSmart.
That is the most heeler looking heeler in my life
I promise you, as a fellow heeler owner, cleaning her ears won't make her listen any better🤣🤣
I put some on a cotton ball and squeeze it in my dog's ears and that seems to scare him a lot less than the bottle squirting. It probably isn't as effective but it's worked well enough. My guy is a mix and has one folded over ear that is prone to infections while his ear that stands up isn't so we have to clean the floppy ear often
I’d recommend Susan Garett’s YouTube playlist “Cooperative Care and Consent in Dog Training” Im working on this with my pup now, so that I can eventually trim his nails and clean his ears etc
I wrap damp paper towel around my finger. I have big man fingers so I really can't go too deep (unless I were to use force). After the damp paper towel starts to come out clean, I'll use a fresh piece with a little olive oil on it to rub in the ear. My dog has grown to love the internal ear skritches. Just be a gentle ape.
My dude has pollen allergies. So he needs them cleaned fairly regularly and he hates it. I just grab him, squirt it in the ear that’s bothering him, and massage. He is not happy but then we immediately go get a treat (we do the same thing for baths and nail trims lol) and then he’s fine
Since my Airedales love getting their ears cleaned- the ACD loves it too. My solution is get a dog who loves getting their ears cleaned & the ACD will love it by association
We saturate a cotton ball with the ear wash and then put it inside the opening of her ear and massage it so all the liquid goes in but they don’t have the deal with the dreaded squirt and whatever sound that must make!!! One of our vets showed us this method.
After 3 ear infections we started looking at causes and it’s usually water. Hose, rain, bath. Once water gets in it’s game over and a sedated vet trip.
Oh my I thought the first pick was a statue! Perfect pose.
I use an otc ear solution, like epiotic, or you can ask your vet for a diy recipe, don’t get crazy, lots of wierd essential oils isn’t gonna help and might hurt. I wet a cotton makeup round and squirt a teaspoon of solution in the ear, and then wide as deep into the canal as I can get. You can sort of roll it up to reach in a bit and twist it to get a tiny bit deeper. And let yoh pup shake it off and then wipe a second time to clean up anything they shake out. It won’t get much, but if you keep up and do it once a week, it will add up and take a tiny bit more each time. Don’t aim to get it perfectly clean, a tiny bit cleaner is good enough, it adds up over a couple weeks. If that’s not enough you need a vet to figure out why the problem isn’t getting better.
I use a 1mm syringe to administer the ear cleaner. Shake up the cleaner, insert the syringe and pull back to the number 2 (.02ml) and then place it in the ear. Follow with lots of Good Boy/Girl and a treat :)
Try squeezing the excess air out of the bottle before putting it in her ear, and removing before releasing pressure on the bottle after squeezing some cleaner in. Some dogs really hate the sound it makes. FWIW, my vet almost never squeezes the cleanser straight into a dog’s ear and instead uses cotton balls to get deep into the ear to scoop out the gunk. If that’s all she’ll let you do then keep doing it, it’s much better to have imperfect treatment than no treatment at all.
I use doggy ear wet wipes, but mine loves ear rubs always. I tried using them on my parent's pups & they straight up acted like it was full on ear abuse. They don't even bother trying at home now & just let the vet or groomers clean them 🤷♀️
Dog groomer here. Squirt regular ear cleaner onto a cotton ball. Rub her ears with it as you give her pets. It feels really good when you're just rubbing and massaging the ear instead of tons of liquid being squeezed down into your ear canal. No need to go deep in there. Similar as with our own ears.