Good Morning, I have a great deal of trouble cleaning my boy's ear. He has absolutely not problem when i clean the inside of his ears with wipes, but is completely petrified of the bottle and putting ear cleaning liquid in his ears. Once he sees the bottle come out, he actually avoids me for the next few hours. Any tricks to make it enjoy or be more open to ear cleaning? Thanks
Distraction with food usually works for us. One of us will hold a particularly tasty treat inside a loose fist. Usually its a bit of melon, cheese or some sausage. Holly has to work hard to get at it with her tongue. While she's distracted by the food OH lifts the ear flap and squeezes some cleaner into her ear. Working it in and wiping out the ear is easy as Holly doesn't seem to mind that.
Ajax is way to quick to be distracted by the food trick, even using the horrible smelling dried rabbit strips. He's food wise when it comes to the ear bottle. What we have done to make doable is to take him in our walk-in shower -- we have a connected shower hose too--and not really give him a bath but spray the water around his feet. That's distraction enough for us to do a quick squirt. He can also do the head shake there, which is a good thing. Good luck.
I think that the reason dogs hate the ear cleaning bottle is because of the noise it makes in their ears when you release the pressure - it's a loudish sucking noise. So, the first thing is to decant the bottle into a needleless syringe. Then, the best way to train this is a version of the 'the bucket game'. This is explained here: https://www.facebook.com/thebucketgame/?fref=ts The start of the bucket game and the dreaded ear cleaning bottle (I swapped to a syringe later towel game by julieandcharlie julieandcharlie, on Flickr In the meantime, while you are training and you still have to clean ears, do it in a different place, in a different way, and just use as much food as possible to distract him. Try to keep needing to do his ears 'old style' very separate from your new training.
You could clicker train him in tiny steps. I did this with my rescue dog for his ears, teeth cleaning and nail clipping, worked a treat There is lots of help on clicker training on the forum.
I dont squirt the liquid into his ear.....I wouldnt like something squired in mine either!! I get cleansing pads one uses to take make-up off.....get it really wet (he doesnt see me doing this) then ask him to jump on HIS sofa (he then knows there is a treat for "something" coming) and get into the ear with my finger and get really in and clean it all out....he is not crazy about it but at least he doesnt have to hate the squirt......he still shakes his head once its done....I do this every weekend and have been able to keep his nice and clean.
A dog's ear is an "L" shape though, and while you can wipe the outer ear flap, you shouldn't try to insert anything into a dog's ear (that is best left to a vet - at least, that's what I was told, I'm really unsure about sticking a finger in a dog's ear.....). If you need to clean an ear properly, to help clear up ear problems, there isn't a way to do it but try to massage in liquid.
Ouch.....I thought I was doing good! Thanks for letting me know......I hate the idea of squirting liquid in his ear but know that this is what the vet does and the groomer does and that happens once a month. Do you think once a month is enough? Vet told me I had to do it once a week but, of course, she squirts the liquid in his ears with help from her assistant....I dont have an assistant!! and to hold him still while I do it, is impossible for me. But I certainly dont want to harm his ears. So will have to find a way to do it. How often do you do their ears Stacia and Julie??
The vet and dermatologist told me not to clean my dog's ears unless he has problems. He is prone to ear troubles. I clean them if he starts scratching them or I can see they look a bit red inside. This is often about once a month, but we've gone quite a while without any trouble now. If my dog didn't have ear problems, I'd never clean his ears.
That makes sense, Julie.....from now on I'm going to keep an eye on his ears and clean them only when necessary. Thanks for the advice.
I'm in a bit of a quandary about this. Pongo does have recurrent ear problems - not serious, but annoying for him. The vet is recommending we flush his ears out once a week with cleaner (not medication) as a preventative measure. Pongo HATES it (in fact we've never yet managed to get it done properly). I firmly believe in avoiding interfering with bits of the body unless you're sure it will do good, and I hear all the good advice on this forum about leaving ears well alone. But my vet says...... and if I don't do what he recommends, I can hardly keep on going back to him when Pongo's ears are bad..... so I'm very much in two minds about what to do.
I think if your dog already has a history of ear problems, it's different. I think cleaning Charlie's ears definitely helps. Through trial and error I've found that if I watch them very carefully, I can spot the very start of problems and head off trouble by cleaning then but I used to be on a regular schedule of cleaning once a week. The longer I keep Charlie's ears problem free, the less trouble he gets it seems to me - apparently it's something to do with the self cleaning mechanism working. If it's working, leave well alone! But if it isn't, you have to clean....
@Rosie If your vet recomends you clean Pongo's ears out once a week as he has recurrant ear problems, I would do what he says. It helps if you slightly warm the drops and not put too much in. Hold up the ear flap, drop the amount said into the ear canal, then massage the ear at the base of the ear canal, dogs usually love that bit, then stand back as he shakes his head and it all flies out. Gentley wipe out the exterior of the ear canal with a wipe, use a clean wipe for each ear.
I've noticed dogs lick each other's ears. Are they cleaning each other's ears when they do this? And would they lick them as a regular grooming behaviour or only if there's a problem? Snowie sometimes gently licks my ears -- I find it very affectionate and very sweet, but I wonder if he's trying to clean my ears as he does with his doggy friends. (For the record, I do believe my ears are normally clean! )
Pongo's thing is eyes. He will lick my eyes clean whenever he gets the chance. And if I'm wearing my glasses, those get a good cleaning too.
Willow does that with OH's glasses. It's a wonder he can see through them, they're so often coated in dog slobber
