How to tape your Doberman’s ear?

After cropping your Doberman puppy’s ears, it is going to require regular ear tapings for quite some time. Proper taping will ensure the puppy less stress and beautiful ears. It takes patience and persistence for success.

1. Post the ears and leave them up six days, then take down and leave down for a few hours but never overnight.
2. Re-tape and leave them up again for six days, then remove tape again.
3. When the ears stand, you can leave them down until they start to drop, then re-tape as before and leave them for another six days.
4. Search and smell the ears regularly for scent of infection. NEVER post infected ears. Also, remember always to clean the ears from glue after removing the tape.

Ears should not be taped until most of the scabs from the surgery have healed. If there are just 1 or 2 scabs left, cover those with a little antibiotic powder, cover this with gaze and then tape over them.

There is no set amount of time that it takes before a puppy’s ears will stand; the average time for taping is approximately 4-5 months. Most pups have their ears up by the age of 9 months. That said, it isn’t unusual for some ears not to stand until the pup is a year old or more.  Some puppies have very thick ear leather, which means that their ears will take longer to raise. Also a long show crop that you can see in some of our champions takes it a few months extra to raise but it is well worth it!

Please keep in mind that you need 2 tampons (or sticks made out of rolled kitchen paper like ours) and a tape.

1. Put the tampon inside ear (so that it can’t fall out)

2. Start taping in this direction. IMPORTANT: when you tape you should start as low as you can, so that the muscle that supports the ear is taped and firmed. Do not tape too hard, because it can stop the circulation of blood into the ear. You’ll feel what’s OK.

3. All the way up – like this!

4. And now for second ear the same. Keep notice of the position – this is probably the easiest position in which your assistant can hold the puppy, since you have to keep his head still.

5. Look at the picture: taping should be performed when ear is pulled out (away) from the head, approx. 45 degrees.

6. Finally, connect the ears between.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO NOTICE AFTER A WHILE IF THE TAPE IS STARTING TO ROLL INWARDS AND THE EARS START TO POINT TO EACH OTHER INSTEAD OF BEING PARALLEL. THEN YOU SHOULD CUT THE STRING IN THE MIDDLE.

There are several ways of correcting the ear position on the course of months. If the ears start to pull/lay over the head, you don’t need to connect them like this – with a string in the middle, just tape the ear with bending problem 45 degrees away from the head.

The ear doesn’t have to be entirely taped, because when you remove the tape it takes some of the hair off – so you can tape it in 3 places – bottom, middle and top (or, like here taped in 2 places):

There are more tips individually for each puppy, so in case you are facing any problems, contact your vet or a breeder – sooner the better!

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Don’t have a Doberman yet but would like to have one? Check out these outstanding European Dobermans.

Avoid unnecessary vet bills! Do your dog’s basic health check!