How many times have you had a dogs long ears fall down in front of the face when you are trying to shave or scissor it?
How many times have long ears gotten in the way when you are trying to shave feet or hand scissor around the neck and chest?
My tip today is a simple one that many groomers may already know about.
I use childrens small ponytail bands.
They are very soft and will not brake the hair when removing them.
First take the ears and bring them together at the back of the head.
Feel for the end of the dogs ear leather.
Tie the hair of the two ears together with a couple of twists of the ponytail band.
Make sure that the ponytail band is at least a half an inch away from the ear leather.
Let the ears set behind the head while you are clipping the face and feet.
After the bath tie them up again.
You can flip the ears from the back to the front of the head when scissoring or clipping around the chest and neck.
This little Poodles long ears are tied back so the face can be clipped without accidentally clipping hair off of the ears.
It also helps to keep the ears out of the way so that you can see what you are doing when clipping the feet.
On this particular dog, it also helped keep her ears out of the way while scissoring her pom-poms.
One last tip.
Do you ever have long eared dogs that sit in their kennel and eat their ears?
That drives me crazy.
They get their nicely blown dried ears all wet and tangled up.
You have to stop, brush and blow dry the ears again, while the owner waits when picking up.
I take the ponytail bands and tie the end of each ear away from the mouth.
When the owner arrives to pick up the dog, I take out the bands, do a quick brush-out and send them on their way.
Make sure you tie below the end of the ear leather.
This is my girl, 'Abby', I keep her ears tied most of the time to keep her from chewing them.
I like her long ears.
I hope this tip helped someone. :-)
Happy Grooming, MFF
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