# Ears Glued



## AwayFromHere (Jun 30, 2013)

Hello! I brought home our 8.5 week old female GSD today. We have her 2.5 year old aunt from the same breeder. The new puppy is our 4th GSD. Our older dog's ears were never taped, and went through the normal ups and downs of teething, standing around 4 or 5 months. The new puppy is a plush coat, and I was surprisingly not given the option to wait, so she is glued and taped. 

Is this early? Should I just leave it? I won't lie; I was hoping for cute puppy pics (and as always, planned to keep an eye on her ears as she grew). She'll eventually be trained as a therapy dog, and I wanted to start her Instagram for her "branding" and for child clients to make an emotional connection. I hope that doesn't come across poorly; ultimately, ear health is most important to me. 

Any thoughts would be appreciated!


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## tim_s_adams (Aug 9, 2017)

I was a little horrified by this story! I've honestly never heard of a breeder who has glued and taped an 8 1/2 week old puppy's ears before. Some GSDs ears don't stand until 6 or even 8 months. And it's very common that even when they do stand up at a pretty young age (8-10 wks), they go back to flopping on occasion when they're teething. If it were me, I'd get rid of the tape and glue, provided the breeder didn't put it on your puppy due to some injury?! Did they explain to you why?


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## Sabis mom (Mar 20, 2014)

Totally with Tim on this one. Never heard of that, and wouldn't tolerate it. TBH the last thing I am looking at on a dog is it's ears. Temperament, structure and character yes. Ears? Couldn't care less. And this sounds like a breeder trying to make up for weak ears.


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## AwayFromHere (Jun 30, 2013)

We've been really happy with the line previously, and they show some amazing dogs. They said it's because plush coat pups have too much weight on their ears. How do I get this off of her?!


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## tim_s_adams (Aug 9, 2017)

Find out from the breeder would be my advice. Glues are not all created equal...


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## Femfa (May 29, 2016)

Too heavy? From the fur? Why not simply trim the fur? No damage is done and the hair will grow back naturally... but that's just my own thoughts.


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## AwayFromHere (Jun 30, 2013)

It's called Torbot, and the vet is going to help at her checkup tomorrow. I just hope getting it off doesn't hurt her.


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## GandalfTheShepherd (May 1, 2017)

My pup is a long coat and we had no issues with his ears going up... that's just weird that they would tape them so young!


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## Sabis mom (Mar 20, 2014)

AwayFromHere said:


> It's called Torbot, and the vet is going to help at her checkup tomorrow. I just hope getting it off doesn't hurt her.


I found a solvent on line for this glue. It says it's for medical use so it should be ok. I would be very cautious removing lest you accidentally damage the ear.


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## AwayFromHere (Jun 30, 2013)

As an update, we took her to her first appointment a few weeks ago. The vet was able to snip through the tape to free the ears up, and very gently get it off. We've gotten some of the glue/gunk off, but we're letting it grow out and picking it off as we're able. Mineral oil didn't do much. I didn't want to order the solvent and make her ears more irritated. They're doing their typical GSD puppy ups and downs!


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## [email protected] (Jan 16, 2018)

AwayFromHere said:


> As an update, we took her to her first appointment a few weeks ago. The vet was able to snip through the tape to free the ears up, and very gently get it off. We've gotten some of the glue/gunk off, but we're letting it grow out and picking it off as we're able. Mineral oil didn't do much. I didn't want to order the solvent and make her ears more irritated. They're doing their typical GSD puppy ups and downs!


My pup is just over 5 months and one ear was up the other day but now back down. They were at tipi configuration for a few days back in late January. I won't worry about ears til maybe June.


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## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

Best to leave them alone completely. Irritated ears drop as a response. Relax and enjoy your pup.


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## AwayFromHere (Jun 30, 2013)

It's been over a month, and we are STILL removing gunk! I'm cutting it off as the fur grows and using mineral oil every few days.


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