I have 7.5 months male GSD. His ears were almost standing up, but when he started teething they went down. Then right ear came up pretty quickly, left ear still hesitates. When he plays, goes for a walk or gets exited, both ears are perfectly up. When he relaxes or gets tired, left ear goes down (although not totally down, it rather gets kinda floppy). We tried straightening method with a piece of pipe insulation. He was wearing that for 3 weeks, with a short break in between. It didn't seem to bother him much, except for the moment of applying the adhesive (pure craziness, which left three of us completely exhausted). When we took it off, the ear was standing up for one day and then it got gradually softer.
Should I tape this ear again? Or do you think it will eventually come up on its own?
When the dog is awake, half of the time the ear is perfectly up. Could that be an issue of strengthening ear muscles only?
I will greatly appreciate any advice.

This article may help. http://www.leerburg.com/tapingears.htm

David, Thank you. I read that article. This is where I found out about the method with pipe insulation. Still, it does not have answers for me. My dilema is whether to continue taping the ear or leave it (cause it will come completely up on its own).

Andre,
I am not experienced with German Shepherd ears, but thought I would share my experiences with Briard ears. Briard ears are cropped to stand erect, and the crop is shaped more like a GSD ear than the drastic crop of say a Doberman or Boxer.

Some causes for a floppy ear could be earset, quality of the ear leather, or a fold in the ear leather (which can be a result of earset and/or leather quality). I know of more than one person who has hung in there for almost two years to get an ear to stand...and stand it did!

One thing that seems to work very well on older puppies is molefoam (in the footcare section of the drugstore) and skinbond. You cut the molefoam to fit *inside* the ear leather, and secure it with the skinbond glue.

The molefoam has the advantage of *supporting* the ear, while still allowing the dog to use and strengthen the ear. In other words, the ear is still doing some of the work. The skinbond and molefoam also breathe, so you can leave it in place for a long time (but should check frequently to make sure nothing develops in there).

It's also a strategy that people seem more comfortable sticking with as a dog ages (no one likes to have a one year old dog with ears taped, glued and erected with various contraptions *g*). Since the molefoam is a skin-tone color and fits inside the ear, it doesn't look too bad.

Good luck with it!
T

Andre, I would keep taping. There actually is no real evidence that taping is even the reason the ears come back up anyways. It certainly doesn't hurt though. I taped my guys ears until he was over 1 year of age because of "slow" ears in the lines. If the ears were ever up prior to teething and they perk up for anything they will most certainly come up. The support is only a extra insurance policy in my opinion.

What do you feed him?

My GSD was doing the same thing and I added a vitamin with calcium. Helped quite a bit to replace the calcium he was losing while teething. Koach's ears are up and he looks Maaaahvalous.
Good Luck
Terry

Treat them like they are animals
Train them like they are animals
Love them like they are people

Tracy, Thank you for responding.
I tried molefoam, but it was too flat and heavy (or I might have gotten wrong product). Pipe insulation and the SkinBond adhesive seemed to be working better. The only problem was applying the adhesive on the inside of the ear.

he gets:
- about 8 oz of cottage cheese + 500 mg calcium,
- 22 oz Pedigree can (meat cuts) with about 4 oz cottage cheese + 500 mg calcium + vitamins,
- Canidae dry food as much as he wants (usually 3-5 cups)

he is a big boy, about 90 lbs now

You may want to take another look at his diet. 90 lbs. is a little large for a pup his age.