Ear gluing/taping

I think that it's not the most horrible thing that can be done to a dog for cosmetic reasons.
 
But Collies had naturally tipped ears at one time...and GSD's and Akitas, etc should have erect ears. At some point those things fell by the wayside and artificial means were used on otherwise nice individuals that lacked only a proper ear....and thus many gens down we have breeds that more often than not...must have aids to train to properly carry the ears. Can you see where I am headed?
 
IF I bred a breed where dropped ears were a fault...unusually heavy or slow to stand ears would concern me...and I would seek to better that, even if I had to take a step back in other areas to achieve or maintain it. I would certainly not throw out an otherwise outstanding dog that had an ear that was slow to stand...but neither would I help it out too much...maybe shave it or add gelatin...but propping or taping? no. I would allow the dog to be what it was...and if it were outstanding enough, I'd take it to a line where ears like that WERE NOT a problem. That's always assuming people are being HONEST about their lines tho...and we all know how that goes []
 
Tipped ears seem more complicated but again...if I had to glue them...I would not do so...but try to correct it by breeding differently. But those types of things might also drive me insane...so for that and other reasons...neither Collies nor Shelties...are my breed []

Well, I tend to think of the semi-prick and rose ears as a bit different, but it makes no sense to think of them differently.  I dislike it when people tape a weak eared papillon's ears up, but don't tend to mind when shelties have their ears taped.  I have no idea wat Trey's ears would have looked like naturally if his weren't taped.  He had no ear problems so to speak, but any type of show prospect is automatically taped.  I don't know of a sheltie breeder who doesn't, so you'd be hard pressed to find an all natural line, I'd think.  Papillons, however, are normally not taped and there are plenty of dogs with strong enough cartilage to hold the ears erect.  Some people tape weak eared dogs ears up.  (Weak eared papillon does not equal phalene btw)  Harry's sister had some ear problems but she outgrew them.  (I think she gave her calcium or something) 
 
Of course nowadays it'd be bad to cull all the improper eared dogs from breeding as that would narrow the gene pool way too much. 

so you'd be hard pressed to find an all natural line

That's what I find so amusing. The fact that people excused this at some point...has led to the above...and they no longer even wonder why  they all must be taped, they just do it...and they've stopped trying to fix it thru breeding because it's so much easier to tape...lol.
 
Just like with diseases...affecteds and using littermates or half siblings, or aunts or uncles...once it becomes okay...the genes for it become more widespread and more likely to "come out of nowhere" when really, come now...we all know where they came from. People before our time who think the same way we do now...'what harm can it do? it's such a great dog otherwise...'
 
Slippery slope..like so much of breeding is these days.

We never taped my Sheltie's ears because she was waaaaay too big to ever be a show prospect. (I think she was around 18-20" high - the looming giant of her litter.) We didn't do it because 1) it was a hassle, and 2) we didn't see the point. I don't think it's necessarily cruel, but I'm a big fan of letting natural beauty do its "thing." I don't see why pets should have to have annoying or painful procedures to make them more aesthetically pleasing than they would be naturally. Still, if people feel like taping Fido's ears so he looks spiffier, there are lots of worse things they could do.

Yeah, I don't know how one would go about 'fixing' the ear issues nowadays without culling like... 80%  of the population from breeding.  (I heard somewhere that 80% of collies have naturally erect ears)
 
Kind of a stuck situation imo.

Wings' ears did not tip at all, and we didn't bother taping- she was a pet, after all. Skye, my first foster collie, had never had his ears taped, and he had one tipped and oen erect ear. Mal's ears have been taped- largely because a dog can't be shown with erect ears, and I didn't want to take the chance that I *wouldn't* be able to show him. At this point, they are both tipped, but I'm still taping one because it's tipped SO little that it doesn't really register as tipped at a glance, and they're uneven.

I think ear taping in collies and shelties is a pretty minimal issue. It'd be nice if all ears were allowed to tip naturally and there was selection for naturally tipped ears, but with so many more important issues as far as health and temperament goes, natural ears wuold be pretty far down my list of breeding criteria.

I have shelties and yes I glued their ears.  No big deal.  They didn't even notice it.  I find it funny though that all the folks that are against cropping/docking/taping and even the bark softening see nothing wrong in removing perfectly healthy dog organs when they Castrate or spay their dogs.
 

It'd be nice to stay on topic...at least I think so. As moderator I do hope that happens.

I'm going to plead ignorance and ask for a bit of an explaination on this topic. A tipped ear is one that sits erect except for the top which lies forward - correct? I think that is the type of ear my Aussie has. By gluing are you correcting the erect part of the ear or the flop part? Where do you glue? Do you constantly glue the ear or does the ear correct itself after being glue for a period of time?

I'll stick with what I know lol....Tipped...like Lassie..almost 3/4 erect with only the last 1/4 tipped forward and floppy. If a dog's ear breaks lower than that's..to me...more of a "button ear".

Here is a pretty good example of what tipped ears should look like.


 
 
Here is probably more information about glueing than you will ever need.
 
[linkhttp://www.dogpatch.org/sheltie/ears.html]http://www.dogpatch.org/sheltie/ears.html[/link]
 
 

Sheltie
Ears small and flexible, placed high, carried three-fourths erect, with tips breaking forward. When in repose the ears fold lengthwise and are thrown back into the frill
 
Collie...
Ears
The ears are in proportion to the size of the head and, if they are carried properly and unquestionably break naturally, are seldom too small. Large ears usually cannot be lifted correctly off the head, and even if lifted, they will be out of proportion to the size of the head. When in repose the ears are folded lengthwise and thrown back into the frill. On the alert they are drawn well up on the backskull and are carried about three-quarters erect, with about one-fourth of the ear tipping or breaking forward. A dog with prick ears or low ears cannot show true expression and is penalized accordingly.

Trey's ears broke a little too low, and Nikki's didn't break on one and one barely broke.  It should be 1/4, some people say 1/3 of the ear that tips forward. 


Tipped, one tipped, one erect.

[linkhttp://www.laureate.ca/Alfie_1.jpg]http://www.laureate.ca/Alfie_1.jpg[/link]
[linkhttp://www.laureate.ca/laureatmenu2.jpg]http://www.laureate.ca/laureatmenu2.jpg[/link]
[linkhttp://www.shadymist.com/images/dillonhd.jpg]http://www.shadymist.com/images/dillonhd.jpg[/link] Trey's dad's ears
[linkhttp://www.laureate.ca/Chanterelle2.jpg]http://www.laureate.ca/Chanterelle2.jpg[/link]
[linkhttp://www.laureate.ca/Codyhead1.jpg]http://www.laureate.ca/Codyhead1.jpg[/link]
They can vary a bit in looks.

[linkhttp://www.irvinepetcomplex.com/eartapings.htm]http://www.irvinepetcomplex.com/eartapings.htm[/link] some pics
 
[linkhttp://www.dogpatch.org/sheltie/ears.html]http://www.dogpatch.org/sheltie/ears.html[/link] article explaining one method of gluing

Here's a photo of Mal with his ears taped



You can't really see the tape, though. It's just the top section that is taped, and it's skin glued to tape, which is glued to skin. It comes off readily and doesn't bother the dog unless you accidentally get a piece of hair stuck in the glue- that can pull. Mal still has one ear being taped now, but after this show, we'll probably quit.