HOW TO HAVE PERFECT SHELTIE EARS

There is nothing prettier than a sheltie with perfect little ears that are correctly placed and tipped as they should be. Most don't "just happen" it usually takes perseverance and time. I usually start to train ears at a very young age. Most puppies have their ears pulled up and glued around six weeks, but serious training of ears begin at 10 weeks of age and will continue until about 6 months old. If you are diligent with ear training, you will have beautiful ears sets, like these two pictured below. The materials you will need are Dr. Scholl's® Moleskin, Osto- Bond Skin Bond Latex Adhesive, (or Torbot Liquid Bonding Cement) Speed Sew, string and scissors. NOTE: Osto-Bond Skin Bond and Torbot are used to adhere ostomy appliances to human skin. It is safe to use. You can purchase it at most home care pharmacies. You will need to cut the moleskin into 6 pieces as pictured here. Make the bottom part of the brace slightly larger than the ones you will use for the top. Cut two pieces of string about 6 inches in length and put a knot in one end of each piece Put the string between the bigger two pieces of moleskin, remove the backing on the piece you will use for the top, and using the Torbot Liquid Bond Cement, glue the two pieces together. Repeat for the other brace. The size that you cut the braces will depend on how old and how big your puppy is. You may want to cut a pattern out on paper first to see if the size will be right. Now you are ready to brace the ears. Make sure the ears are clean, and dry. Rubbing alcohol and cotton balls work well and dries quickly. Remove the backing from the moleskin with the string and apply the Torbot Liquid Bond Cement to the sticky side of the moleskin. Insert the moleskin into the ear as illustrated on the left. Hold in place until the glue is dry. (60 seconds or so) Repeat for the opposite ear. You can now take the smaller piece of the moleskin and remove the backing from the moleskin and apply the Torbot Liquid Bond Cement to the sticky side as above and glue to the inside tip of the ears, as shown on the right. Now take your speed sew and glue the top piece of the moleskin to the bottom piece of the moleskin (as illustrated) . Be careful to tip both ears equally. Hold in place until the speed sew is dry, and repeat on the other ear. Finally we are ready to pull the ears up on top of the head and tie the string. I always tie two or three knots (maybe overkill) and cut off the excess string. Be sure and hold the puppy in your arms for 5 or 10 minutes to make sure that all the adhesive has set, and the puppy will not be able to shake or scratch the braces out. In no time at all they forget about the bonnet you have created on the top of their head. This brace should be good for at least two to three weeks. You will start to see it coming loose and need to remove it with Smith and Nephew Adhesive Remover. (DO NOT TRY TO PULL THEM OFF WITHOUT USING ADHESIVE REMOVER) I usually leave the ears braces out for a day or two, so I can see how they are setting. I can then clean them and reapply a new brace. Here is baby Marcus all finished. What a good boy he was. Marcus is owned and bred by Crinan Shelties. I have tried many different types of ear taping and gluing, but have found this works the best. Thanks to Evelyn Susin (Crinan Shelties) for helping with photos and lending us Marcus for the demonstration.

Smith and Nephew Uni-Solve Adhesive Remover

HOW TO HAVE PERFECT SHELTIE EARS