[MeadowCat]

You've made huge progress.

 

[MeadowCat]

I agree with Bug - from the video, I don't really see much tipping in, if any. I think his ears are looking quite good, and you're doing an excellent job. Tremendous change, keep up the good work.

 

[MeadowCat]

Oh, and I think you asked somewhere how to know when they are done? There's no easy answer except that you can kind of tell, but it's also just a matter of sort of "testing" when you think they are. Each dog is different in how long their ears take, and it isn't necessarily a matter of how long the crop is. We generally recommend to wait through teething, because it's safer. You can kind of get a sense of how firm the ears look as you are changing posts. If you start to think they really look strong, maybe you leave them down an hour between posts instead of putting them right back up and see if they look any softer. Maybe the next post change if they still seem really firm, you try two hours. But again, this is if you truly think they are standing well. Since you got started a bit late I would personally probably post a bit longer before "testing" because I'd really want to be sure, but that's me.

For reference, Richter's ears were done fairly early - it's been a decade, so I can't really remember, but probably around 7 months, maybe? Sypha's ears took much longer...I was posting one ear until she was a year old, the other ear was done maybe a month earlier. Leon's ears are doing quite well - I'm shocked at how quickly they seem to be finishing up. He was six months this week. I'm leaving them down today to see how they are doing all day ...last week they were down all day with his post change as well and were looking great. I think they are very close if not done.

 

[MeadowCat]

Of course. This is last week on his day unposted.

(I try to post reasonably regularly on Leon's thread here: Introducing Leon... Protea's Bring It On Home)

 

[MeadowCat]

He's a big goof. Sometimes at this age they do something that seems nice and grown up, but most of the time you have to remind yourself they are still such babies, because they LOOK like grown up dogs, but they very much are not.

 

[MeadowCat]

Breathe rights don't really do much other than support a tip that is basically done posting but just a TINY bit still weak. I wouldn't use them unless the ear is already straight and in the position you want, but just a very, very little bit soft.

 

[MeadowCat]

I'm not sure I quite understand your posting method, but if you are making some kind of post that goes in the ear, there's an old method that several of my friends loved and used - it was the "shop towel" method from Bruda Dobermans. I had to use the "Wayback Machine" to even get it to come up, as Sandra Hunter died a few years ago and Bruda Dobermans is no more. But I did get the page to come up in the archives... using a shop towel as the post itself may work for your pup (or not, who knows?), but it's a successful way to create a post out of a different material that may work better, and it can create a tall enough post with no trouble.

Link to tutorial: https://web.archive.org/web/20121209051837/https://brudadobes.webs.com/earpostingguide.htm