Has anyone got any experience with prick-eared breeds whose ears are still floppy? My little CWC boy is 12 weeks old and his ears show no intention of standing up by themselves (my girl's were stood up at 6 weeks!).
I know I will probably have to get the dreaded tape out but can anyone offer me any advice? I'd really rather not have to tape his ears, I'd be too embaressed to take him out for a walk!

In my breed many would only just be going up at this age.  No need to worry for months yet.  find out what age both parents ears went up, some liens are quicker than others.

I have two prick eared breeds and I've had pups take up to 6 months. Some are quick, some are slow.

yes put them up now i have pems and have had the same problem sometimes the ears just need a bit of help, they are just big or are thicker than normal and the muscles need help to strenghen. first using a piece of cardboard ie cereal box ideal draw around the ear to make a template do not go down as far as the knobbly bits on the inside of the ear, clean inside of ear with surgical spirit to remove the debris, then you need sticky back felt and micropore tape, using the template cut out the ear shape remove the backing on the felt and stick to its ear pressing gently so it sticks, next roll the ear around your finger and secure the ear roll with micropore tape, the roll is to let the ear breathe leave on for a least two weeks if do not stay up replace and try again

Well I have found that my breed their ears nicely erect just in time for them to go down again when they start teething, not sure if it is an Elkhound thing or general in the prick eared breeds. Have never and would never attempt to assist this but it may be normal in some breeds.

I had the same as Nova with a Yorkshire Terrrier girl some years back.  I was thrilled to bits with her ears....  until she started teething, and they went back down!

I had concerns about one of my Mals whose ears were slow to come up.At 12 weeks I wouldn't be worried as this is still young,particuarly if the ears are rather large,also as mentioned ears that have been errect can suddenly flop during teething.Rather furry ears or if the dog has a parcticuarly wide distance between the ears can lead to ears taking longer to become erect.My lad had big ears and a very wide skull and I became increasingly more concerned at around 16 weeks.Some lines carry a tendency for soft ears so it may be worth asking your breeder if there are any soft ear issues in his lines.Sometimes over zealous playing with litter mates can cause cartilage damage but this is easy to spot.I spent ages researching soft ears.One reason I swapped to BARF diet was because of giving bones to chew on and any extra calcium found naturally(do not supplement as extra calcium can cause issues with bonny developement particuarly hips).The chewing motion helps to massage the ear area.Also you can gently massage the ears using a very gentle circular motion at the base of the ear.But again at 12 weeks you don't need to be invasive.I 'taped' Shadows ears for about 6 weeks from 5 months to nearly 7.He was happy about this,didnt try to dislodge the tapping.I had a GSD years ago with soft ears and didnot tolerate the tapping,so I let her have ears as nature intended,and she looked extra endearing because of this.I found that cereal box templates and micropore tape didn't work for us and if done incorrectly can lead to a unnatural curvature in the ear.But remember my breed was different to yours.If you need help when your lad is a bit older and the ears still aren't errect then send me a pm and I will let you know how I treated my boys floppy ears.Most of all don't panic.

assisting is not good, you don't know if the ears would have gone up on their own or not, or if it actually made any difference.

The dog will be what it's genes dictates and i want to know what a dog is not what it is made to be.

I along with three Friends imported a dog and he went through quarantine.  His ears were a tad slow, but on no account did we do anything to aid the ears other than get him suitable chew toys to shift puppy teeth.

As we were going to use him for breeding we needed to know he had naturally prick ears.

that was my thought Barbara,you never know whether they will stand up without aid or not.But by the time your sure its too late.Probabaly Shadows ears would have come up unassisted as he has a huge head and this probabally caused a delay,and there was never an issue in his Dam and Sires lines(he came from an excellent breeder who has been in the breed for numerous years)and I took advice from a couple of long established breeders.I don't think we will ever breed from Shadow as he is towards the higher end of the breed standard,but he has done well when we have showed him(have previously placed a thread where he was placed at a champ show with a cardboard splint - this surprised me) but I do call him Marmite,as he is not to everones taste LOL.
But to splint has to be done properly and as less invasive as possible.I believe it only aids the ears.If they did have a serious issue I don't think any amount of spliting would help,and indeed I know of another breeder who tried this and it didn't work.(so poss a genetic issue)

Do wonder if splinting is against the KC regulation that nothing should be done to change the natural conformation, it is definitely against the sprint and in the case of a stud dog verging on the dishonest.

I still feel that if the ears are truly floppy they won't stay up no matter what you try to do to help,unless you go down the implant root,which is then changing the natural conformation.Two small pieces of cardboard which correctly cut and are about a 1/3 of the size of the inside of the ear would not support an ear if it the ear was truly damaged are genetically predetermined not to stay up.I did this under mentorship of 2 Championship judges and a well respected breeder.Shads as I said was placed at both open and Champ shows(though I was surprised as he had the cardboard in his ear at the time)and had group placings.So i would have thought that not all of them could have made a mistake.I truly feel that in my boys case it was a case of being a large boy and big ears that he needed time to grow into.

Yes but the tendency to soft ears needing help to stand up is inherited.  I would prefer to know the ears went up of their own accord, as it's a slippery slope, next you'll end up with ears that won't go up.

For example Min Pins in this country have ears that are naturally erect, yet the same breed in some overseas countries where they routinely crop (so don't select for erect ears when breeding) left uncropped the ears will not stand erect.

Slightly differently with dogs imported from countries where the ears are cropped and so natural ear size and carriage is unknown, when used for breeding you can get some badly carried, poorly shaped or badly sized ears.

But i still think in Shadows case it was the size of his ears,and large skull. and my impatience.His dams breeder and the breeder of his sire had no incidents of soft ears in any of his lines,and Shadows lines are predominately the older,larger type of his breed.As I said in my previous post you need to seek advice of the breeder and research any incidence of soft ears.My concern is that if you do use some support it needs to be done properly.And I only have experince of my own breed.And yes if you have a dog with soft ears,then it shouldn't be used in a breeding programme.I feel my impatience was due to my first GSD having soft ears,and no matter what splinting you did to those ears they wouldn't have stood up.She was never breed from and was purely a much loved pet and family member.