Dressy, aka Greta

I really love to get pics! Dressy lives out of state so I haven’t gotten to see her since she left. I’m not sure how much time elapsed between these pics, but check out those ears! Also so glad to hear that she has graduated from her puppy class and learned basic commands, and she is another natural retriever!

Ears down and flopping
Ears up

Winston at the July 1st-4th Doswell, VA shows

This weekend was a four day dog show weekend, starting Thursday. Winston was entered all four days. Honestly, there wasn’t a lot of competition.
Winston won on Thursday! Yay! We lost on Friday. Boo. He got reserve on Saturday. Ok. Sunday, I hurt my foot and didn’t go! Sunday was going to be the tiebreaker!
He is entered in a show next weekend, but my foot hurts, so I doubt we will make it. I will post his win pic when I get it.

Ouch!

Loosy, Dry and Wet

I just got these fabulous pics showing how Loosy’s ears are doing. Very impressive, and the socialization is going great too. She gets to go hiking, swimming, and meets lots of people along the way. I love hearing this, because I know the family is not just having fun with her, but all the early socialization pays off big time as she will become a well adjusted adult dog.

Loosy, all dry
Loosy, all wet

Random pics of my sweet babies

My sweet puppies are coming right along. They are 4 months old, well let’s say 4 and a half. They will be 5 months on July 6, 2021. I weighed them today at petSmart. See See weighs 48 lbs., and Clyde weighs 52 lbs. I am still fighting with See See’s ears. Please, if you have one of my puppies, and the ears are not standing, contact me to determine if taping is necessary.

See See with her ears taped
Clyde, no tape needed on those ears!
Winston and his charges
Hard to believe they were ever that small!

Videos of actual taping of ears

The first 3 videos show me actually taping See See’s ears. The 4th video is extra tips for success.
See See’s right ear is “breaking” over, creating a crease which can be permanent, causing the ear to never stand properly. Truth is, it might stand on its own, but I want to make sure. It has stood for a week after just 4 days of tape before the show last Friday, but now it’s down again. That’s what I get for bragging about it on a previous post!
For info on supplies, refer to previous posts. If you have questions, ask them in the contact box at the bottom of this post.
Thank you Claudia, for shooting the video!

Getting started
Taping each ear…..
Building the bridge
Extra tips, important things to keep in mind for healthy ears



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Those ears again, and How did we do at the show?

Believe it or not, See See’s ears are still standing! I took the tape off Friday morning. They looked great at the show that day, and she won over Clyde, and then got second in the Puppy Herding Group competition! Winston got 2 points toward his championship (15 is needed and he now has 6) on Friday also when he got Winners Dog and Best of Opposite. The judge that day was a judge that knows German Shepherds in particular, so I am more pleased about this win than if he had won on other days. She was also the judge in the puppy show. So I am very happy about these wins, although there was not much competition.

More about ears. I have heard from some of Jane’s puppies’ owners, and some are rightfully concerned about ears. Some are really flopping, as are the two I kept. Clyde’s had been really good, then one came down in time for the show, but is now back up, with no taping. Remember to check for a “hard fold” which damages the cartilage in the ear over time. If you have a hard fold, or “break” in the ear, consider taping at this age. These puppies were born 2/6/2021, so they are 4 months plus 9 days old. I am well aware that many breeders wait longer to tape, to give ears a chance to stand on their own. However, given what I know about my bloodline having weak ears, and some adult dogs ending up with hanging ears when owners just let the ears go, I advise taping earlier rather than later.
Here is a video of my puppies (with Winston of course) with ears doing really pretty good for this age. Just FYI, I had to tape Winston’s ears for several weeks at around this age, and now they are perfect.

Re-taping See See’s ears

See See’s left ear tape got messed up, and the ear started to lean way in, probably because I let Winston babysit her. They must have played a little too hard. So, I took the tape off that ear, which happened to be the one that had stopped standing on its own. And guess what? It stood up! I re-taped it anyway. I really need to get someone to shoot video of me taping ears to demonstrate how to do this exactly.

It isn’t perfect, but it is standing!
You can see I put the tape further down on the ear, and when I put the bridge on, I will put it further down the right one too. I will have to be extra careful with making sure those ears don’t get yeasty.
The bridge looks actually better than last time. I hope this holds until Friday!