# Length of Ears question



## Geneva77 (May 20, 2011)

This is my sweet pup Piper. Her ear leather is long with just a tiny bit of hair longer than the end.

I see some photos of dogs on the forum who's ears seems to be noticeably shorter. Have those ears been cropped or do poodles come with different ear lengths. I do like them long, in fact I hope to grow the hair very long on her ears, but I'm just curious. Thank you!


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## outwest (May 1, 2011)

Her ears look the right length to me. Poodles should have long ears like your puppies. The top of them should be in line with the corner of the eye. My puppies ears have lowered considerably since I got her. At first I thought they were set too high like your puppies look, but at 20 weeks they are much further down on her head and lining up nicely with her eye. They are also supposed to lie flat against the head when relaxed. When their ears are pricked up like your puppies at in the pic, they look like that. The hair takes a long while to grow past the end of the ear leather. 

CUTE PUP!


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## northerndancer (Jan 27, 2011)

Daisy's ears have dropped a lot as well. I'll have to take an updated photo. I liked the short high puppy ear look. But, like many cute puppy things, that changes as they get older. One of the books I have says you should be able to touch the ear leather under the chin. That didn't happen until recently - around five months. 

I am not an expert but I don't think poodle ears are ever docked. I sure hope not.


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## ArreauStandardPoodle (Sep 1, 2009)

A judge in the conformation ring will pull the ear leathers toward the end of the nose. The leathers should come nearly to the tip of the nose. They cannot be too long, but they most certainly can be too short. They do drop some from tiny babies, but a breeder can get a pretty good idea if they are set right and are a good length when they are very young.


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## SSCarr (Dec 11, 2013)

*long ear leathers*



Geneva77 said:


> This is my sweet pup Piper. Her ear leather is long with just a tiny bit of hair longer than the end.
> 
> I see some photos of dogs on the forum who's ears seems to be noticeably shorter. Have those ears been cropped or do poodles come with different ear lengths. I do like them long, in fact I hope to grow the hair very long on her ears, but I'm just curious. Thank you!


My new puppy, a white AKC registered, too has considerably longer ear leathers than I see in pictures on this forum. He is 5 months old and still has short tan hair on his ears. He's a real beauty with an incredible temperament. I'm a little upset as I took him for a haircut and the groomer pulled all the ear hair out and now he is wincing every time I touch him near his left ear. So I am wondering if there is something I can do to alleviate his pain. A salve or home remedy? Or do we go to the veterinarian?


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## glorybeecosta (Nov 11, 2014)

I love the long ears, but oh such a job to keep them clean and fluffy. I started trimming mine and it is much easier to keep up and looking fluffy


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

SSCarr said:


> My new puppy, a white AKC registered, too has considerably longer ear leathers than I see in pictures on this forum. He is 5 months old and still has short tan hair on his ears. He's a real beauty with an incredible temperament. I'm a little upset as I took him for a haircut and the groomer pulled all the ear hair out and now he is wincing every time I touch him near his left ear. So I am wondering if there is something I can do to alleviate his pain. A salve or home remedy? Or do we go to the veterinarian?



There are two schools of thought on ear hair - Some believe that plucking the hair allows the ear to breath, thus preventing infection, and others believe that plucking causes microscopic tears in the skin allowing bacteria to enter and cause infection. 
So yes, take him in to have his ear checked, the plucking probably caused an ear infection.


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## SSCarr (Dec 11, 2013)

Tiny Poodles said:


> There are two schools of thought on ear hair - Some believe that plucking the hair allows the ear to breath, thus preventing infection, and others believe that plucking causes microscopic tears in the skin allowing bacteria to enter and cause infection.
> So yes, take him in to have his ear checked, the plucking probably caused an ear infection.


You were right, he had a raging ear infection by the time I got to the vet and it came on fast! If in doubt, just go. These things don't clear up. The vet put a one time only gel into his ear canal and gave him oral antibiotics. He cleared up beautifully and I have never plucked or had his ear hair plucked again and it's been almost a year now... I pull what my fingers pull out naturally without powder or anything else. I am careful not to let water get in his ears during baths and swimming. The rest of the hair I trim with scissors. So far he has been infection free. He is truly a beauty! Thank you for your response!


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## Caddy (Nov 23, 2014)

This thread amuses me, it was started in 2011, revived in September 2016 and just responded to now. Talk about a long drawn out conversation, lol.


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## scooterscout99 (Dec 3, 2015)

Caddy said:


> This thread amuses me, it was started in 2011, revived in September 2016 and just responded to now. Talk about a long drawn out conversation, lol.


And yet, always new things to learn and new members to learn them! This thread means something different to me now that my boy is showing. Look what I made to protect long, fluffy ears. Version 1 is a recycled blouse. Now that I have the technique and dimensions down I'll try again with nicer fabric.


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