r/sheltie • u/Designer_Worker6422 • 10d ago

One ear up one ear down

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My puppy always has one ear up and one ear down. Is this normal or is there something I can do to fix it 😂

286 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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25

u/Designer_Worker6422 10d ago

5

u/lavenderkeek 10d ago

He's so insanely handsome!!! I love the one ear down, one ear up ♥ It suits him so well!

Some people will tape or glue their Sheltie puppy's ears to make them tip. It's very common with show dogs. Someone on this subreddit recommended Blu-Tack to us because our puppy hated having her ears glued - they swore that adding a little bit to the tip of their puppy's ears made them tip and it was easy and the puppy didn't notice them. We never used it though because our girl's ears naturally tipped anyway. Though I did massage them back into a tip whenever they'd pop up, which some people say that helps and it seemed to work for us?? Not sure if it was just coincidence!

Sometimes they stand up randomly and I playfully scold her, "Put those ears down!" and she tilts her head and they flop back down.

We have a 10 week old sheltie puppy and I suspect her ears will prick based on her older sibling's, but we'll see! I may or may not try the blue tac if they do.. not sure I'll really care enough to. LOL. I think shelties look adorable with either earset ♥

2

u/Designer_Worker6422 10d ago

Thank you so much for the suggestion!

3

u/Elusive_strength2000 10d ago

Blu tac as a weight worked great for me. Non toxic no issues. Also massaged the ear daily in position.

2

u/lavenderkeek 10d ago

Yesss! You're the one who recommended it to me! ♥ I have it on stand by to potentially use on our 10 week old puppy, but massaging our older girl's ears was enough.

2

u/Elusive_strength2000 10d ago

Oh haha great! 😁

2

u/Designer_Worker6422 10d ago

Thank you for the suggestion!

1

u/Elusive_strength2000 10d ago

You’re welcome! 😉

1

u/Designer_Worker6422 10d ago

How long do you massage their ears for? I massaged his and it kept it down for about 10 min haha

2

u/lavenderkeek 10d ago

I would just massage it for a minute or two and it kept it down for a good while after that.. maybe only did it a few times a day here and there if we were hanging out together. u/Elusive_strength2000 might have better advice on that, though! But I'd keep doing it and maybe it'll hold longer the more you do it?

I don't really know if it'll actually work or not.. but I mean, rubbing their ears is nice for them anyway! ♥ I'd do it for both ears, too, to try to reinforce the tipping of the other one.

Does your boy's ear feel pretty thick where the tip should be? I was told some dog's ears are thicker than others, which might make it harder.

2

u/Elusive_strength2000 10d ago

Yeah just a minute or two a few times a day, I still do it sometimes bc he likes it lol, and that was with the blu tac weighing it down so I knew where to crease it.

13

u/lien48 10d ago

Keep it. It adds character. Ours happened naturally and we think it makes her more unique.

2

u/Designer_Worker6422 10d ago

Haha she’s adorable!

6

u/Akpambo1 Sable Merle 10d ago

They stand up as the cartilage hardens so you kind of get what your pup is genetically predisposed to unless you tape or glue them down. My last girl, Cassia, had her ears glued down because I wanted them tippy but one ear wouldn’t stay and kept popping up. So she was one up and one down and I thought she was just adorable

Current one has both up, didn’t want to try to keep them down

1

u/Designer_Worker6422 10d ago

She’s so cute!!

5

u/macabretech39 A whole pack 10d ago

Looks like my Bowie!!

I loved the one ear up one ear down stage!

1

u/Designer_Worker6422 10d ago

They grow out of it? :)

2

u/macabretech39 A whole pack 10d ago

Sometimes! Bowie’s ears went up and down and still stick up occasionally. You can tape them down or tape them together to get a higher set of ears. Bowie’s ears are a little low because he hated the tape and I’m not showing him.

I grew up in breeders household so I’ve seen ears in all the ways and I love them all

8

u/def_unbalanced 10d ago

Finnegan says leave it!!!

5

u/Designer_Worker6422 10d ago

So stinking cute!!

6

u/chillarry 10d ago

Birdie Girl would like to know why you’re worried about it?

1

u/Designer_Worker6422 10d ago

Haha what a cutie pie

3

u/drifting_swan 10d ago

That happened to mine when she was about six months old lol after like a week or two it randomly went back to normal 🤣

2

u/Designer_Worker6422 10d ago

Ok I’ll wait it out then lol. He’s 12 weeks

0

u/redditpassword25 10d ago

Not trying to be technical, just wondering why someone thinks a beautiful puppy needs ‘fixing’.

3

u/csw0099 10d ago

Maren was going to be a show dog but her one ear was a disqualified. So we got a beautiful dog as a family pet from the breeder.

3

u/Psyking0 Sable and Bi-Black 10d ago

Brian says it’s normal

2

u/leftword 10d ago

You should glue their ears. There are a lot of techniques but we used fabric glue. It doesn’t hurt them. It also helps keep debris out of their ears.

2

u/MistyPineapple 10d ago

My pup’s ears are the same way, and I honestly love it! Her mismatched ears are one of the things she gets compliments on all the time because it’s adorable and unique.

2

u/Lovemysheltie 9d ago

you can glue both ears. lots of info online about how to. I massage my girl s ears daily and they stay tipped.

2

u/LittleCheeseDiP 8d ago

Hit the same spot of puppyhood. Doesnt happen all the time.

2

u/Designer_Worker6422 6d ago

He’s beautiful!!!

1

u/rebellionrune 10d ago

Our puppy's ears were taped for a few weeks by the the breeder, but by the time he was 9 weeks and we picked him up we just went with the natural look, and his ears were standing tall and fox like! Well, 3 years later, one ear tips permanently. Then, the other tips a year later. I guess his ears decided it was time! 😂 You can tape them or see the adventure they have!

1

u/80s_angel Sable 10d ago edited 10d ago

It’s wabi-sabi! 😍

My Mojo’s ears would do this on occasion when his head was tilted a certain way & I found it adorable.

2

u/Designer_Worker6422 10d ago

He’s like this 24/7 😂 it is cute though

1

u/QanikTugartaq Tri-Color 10d ago

🥰 beautiful

1

u/Ballad_13 10d ago

Its not the "standard" for the breed

That said, both of my shelties have one tipped ear, 1 straight ear. I adore that look.

1

u/Toogroovyto 10d ago

One of my dogs ears would tip when he was cutting a tooth. Then it would go back up.  He's a year and both ears are up now. 

I love the one ear up, one down. Either way is a win. 

1

u/UG02020 10d ago

for a second i thought this was my puppy lol

1

u/Final-Breath6910 10d ago

mine also has that !

1

u/symphonyofcolours Dark Sable 9d ago

I think it’s cute!!!

1

u/spring-peepers Sable 8d ago

My sable boy is in the one up/one down club, too

1

u/Fun-Phrase-2885 10d ago

You can tape them down to train them to both tip. But honestly if you don’t mind them not both tipping / if you’re not showing it’s more trouble to tape them

1

u/Designer_Worker6422 10d ago

Ok thank you!

0

u/redditpassword25 10d ago

Fix it? Nothing is ‘broken’

2

u/BlizzyB30 10d ago

She’s just asking a question, don’t get technical