Any ideas regarding encouraging ears to go up. This is a 15 week old puppy who is teething. Thank you

Some people believe feeding  cottage cheese helps.
Mine get it anyway, gsd has good ears and little pom/chi ears are in the right place she has only just joined us.

You don't mention what breed your puppy is. However, teething generally tends to play havoc with their ears, they can be up and down and all over the place all in a day, so it can be hard to tell whether you have a case of soft ears at that time.

> Some people believe feeding  cottage cheese helps.

how bizarre!  What is it about cottage cheese that helps?

Don't think this is a problem that needs help or a cure, ears go down when a pup is teething and will regain the correct position when the teething is complete. As for cottage cheese reckon that would be as much use as a toffee apple, well thinking about it a toffee apple may be more use as you could stick them up with that.

Well i have spent ages researching,trying to find ways to help soft ears 'stay up'.Shadow is a 12 month old Male Alaskan Malamute.His ears didn't come up properly until he was 10 months old.So 15 weeks is still young especially when teething as they often go up and down.No history of soft ears on either side of Shadows parents I just put it down to him being a large boy with a big head.He went onto BARF as all that bone chewing helps.Massaging the ears helps as this helps circulate blood flow.He had glucosamine supplements.What eventually worked was cutting a template the shape and size of the inside of his ear and sticking it with copydex glue -  skin test done first so don't shout peeps.I usually took this out before a show with warm soappy water.He even had best puppy in breed and PG2 with cardboard in his ears.This is the only thing that helped and maybe his ears would have coe up anyway.But at 10 months I was getting concerned.Hope this helps but I seriously wouldn't worry at 15 weeks unless there is a history from his parents side.Jude

Or Trauma.

Up or down, soft puppy ears must be chewed!!!

> I usually took this out before a show with warm soappy water

Do you mean sometimes you didn't?

Any dog with cardboard stuck in his ears would automatically come last, if I was judging. I want to see the dog's natural conformation!

I normally did take it out,but in the early days I felt it was better to leave alone as taking cadboard out the reinserting would do more damage.(only 1 ear at this time)Shadow was already entered in the 2  shows  we weren't going to show him,but my daugher asked and we felt the practice would do him good.He won B.P twice and was placed in working group,Post .G  2nd and placed Puppy.G working.This involved 3 different judges.I personally would not have placed him.His ears are fine now at 12 months and has qualified for Crufts.So I am glad we persevered.And he was not stressed by this at all.

By the way I cant see the reason cottage cheese is supposed to help either but thats what I've heard. Anyway the dogs like it and as mine are on barf it is part of their diet .. maybe calcium or something .. maybe just an urban myth !!

I'm really surprised a judge would place a dog with artificial placement of ears in situ.  Surely it comes under the same rule as no artificial enhancement of coat etc.

Having had GSDs since 1958 I've had two dogs with soft ears & neither were helped by using artifical aids. Prick eared dogs' ears will go up & down whilst they are teething & IMHE if they are going to go up they will & if they are destined not to than nothing short of surgical intervention will help them.

Plenty of raw bones to chew on will exercise the ear base muscles(one reason one of my dogs had semi soft ears he was never allowed to have anything to chew until I got him aged 10 months)& this in turn will help the ears go up.

I've only ever had one dog(a GSD)who I know had erect ears from birth(I midwifed the litter from my bitch)his ears where laid flat backwards when he was born & as he grew they stayed that way until they were big enough to stand up. It was very odd to see a 3 week old GSD with his ears up !! 

I usually rack them (iow tape them) even while they are teething.  I have found that with my breed, even though they have natural erect ears, that sometimes when you don't rack them that their ears go lazy (ears aren't something we breed for, so the natural dogs tend not to have the strongest ears).  But teething does play games with ears.

I have both Papillons (erect ear) and Phalenes (drop ear) and you can have either in either litter. ie Papillons can produce Phalenes and Phalenes can produce Papillons.  Biggest clue to what you have is the placement of the ear.  You can get soft eared Papillons that are sometimes passed off as Phalenes but once you see a Phalene with the correct ear set it is easier to spot next time round.
The Chinese Crested Powder Puff are the same that drop ears are permissable.

Its one of those catch 22 situations.They may have eventually come up on there own,but at 10 months I was reallying starting to wonder.I did consult 4 different well respected breeders and they were really unsure .The consenses of opinion were if they aren't up by 10mths then they will never come up.So I am so glad they did.I once had a beautiful GSD who was rally poorly as a pup and her ears never came up.I tried taping but she was really unhappy when I did this so we let nature take its course.They never came up but as she was long coated girl and couldn't be shown we just wanted her to be happy.

The puppy is a Chihuahua. Beatifully line bred with no soft ears ANYWHERE on either side. I'm sure the ears will go up (she said with fingers crossed) but wondered if there was anything I could do to help.  She IS teething dramatically so that is probably it. Thanks for coming back to me though.  The mention of puppies much older taking ages for their ears to come up is a great help.

Glad if I helped,but you do worry,especially if you want to show her and she is young.Though I can't imagine her chumping on a huge Marrow bone.LOL.