Ear Posting Help

So, you got a Doberman with cropped ears... now what? In order to get the ears to stand as intended, you need to "post" the ears. Posting is a method to support the ears until the cartilage is strong enough to stand on their own. You will get frustrated and overwhelmed when you first start, but don't worry, I promise this gets easier! I have tried just about every method of posting that there is and the method below is what I found to work best for my dogs. I have put this page together to hopefully help make this process a little easier. Take a breath, you will be a pro in no time!

What supplies will you need??

*Backer rod- this is a soft and flexible foam tubing found at hardware stores in the plumbing isle. I use 5/8 inch backer rod for adults or 1/2 inch for puppies.

* T-Rex Duct tape - heavy duty duct tape found at Walmart or amazon. (you can use regular duct tape but it requires more layers which makes the posts heavier).

*Hampton Athletic Tape - found on amazon.com - this will be used to back-wrap the post to create a sticky surface.

*Johnson and Johnson Coach tape - This tape is breathable, and sticky yet comes off easily. Since it only comes in 1.5" option, I ripe in half so its not as wide.

*Jumbo Cotton Balls

*Scissors

*Treats- to make it a positive experience for your puppy!

Step 1: Make the Post

1. Start by measuring your dogs ear. To do this, put the backer rod into the ear canal and measure to the tip of the ear.

2. Lay your backer rod on the table and wrap the backer rod with 2 layers of T-Rex tape - pushing down on the tape as you roll so the backer rod is compressed and wrapped tightly. It is important to wrap the post tightly so the post is sturdy and fits easily inside the base of the ear. You want to leave about 1/2-1/4 inch of the end of the backer rod with NO tape.

3. Add the cotton ball by creating a indent in the cotton ball, and tape it tightly to the end of the post. This will help make the post comfortable and help keep the ear dry (helps avoid ear infections!) . If your puppy is super young, you may have to use half of a cotton ball or even gauze to make the post small enough to fit.

Your finished post should look like the image below. The nice thing is that you can make these in advance. This will save you time and headache if your puppy gets their ears wet or shakes the posts loose and you have to change them unexpectedly (this will happen).**If you decide to make these in advanced ALWAYS make them a little longer than needed because your puppies ears will grow. If your post is too short, you have to remake them anyways, so better to make them too long and trim them to fit. **

Example of post with cotton ball

Step 2: Getting Ready to Post

Your posts are made, and you are ready to post! Take your athletic tape, and wrap the entire post, sticky side out, starting from the top. This will create a nice sticky surface to stick to the ear WITHOUT GLUE!

Step 3: Putting the Post in the Ear (example on young dog with bridge)

When you first start posting your puppies ear, you may need someone to hold the dogs head still, however, it can be done by yourself. Make sure you give lots of treats and praise and BE PATIENT. If you start getting frustrated, take a breath, and try again. Once the puppy learns to hold still, you will be able to post on your own, without help. Tip: It is easiest to post when your puppy is tired, so if your puppy is moving a-lot, wait until they are just about to fall asleep and try again.

If your puppy is very young and cannot hold the ears in the correct position, you will need to add a bridge. This is simply a piece of tape that connects the ears together to hold them in the correct position. Once they can hold their ears in the correct position, a bridge is no longer needed.

*Tip*: If you just put the post in, and they shake their head and it pops out immediately, this usually means you did not pull the ear up / put the post deep enough into the ear / hold the ear taught while adding your tape.

Tip*: If your posts are not fitting into the ear easily, make sure you are pushing down HARD when wrapping the backerrod in T-rex tape to make the post as skinny as possible.

How To Remove Posts

How Long Do I Have To Post??

There is no set answer to this question since all crops and ears are different. However, as a rule of thumb, the longer the crop, the longer you must post. You want to post AT LEAST until the puppy is done with teething (minimum 6 months of age) but some longer crops may need to be posted as long as 24 months of age. During teething, the body can pull calcium from the ears for bone growth which can weaken the ears temporarily. Do not leave the ears un-posted for an extended amount of time (unless they have a sore or infection). Take the old post out, clean the ear, make sure the ear is dry and repost.

You want to change the posts every 3-5 days OR if the ear gets wet, starts to smell, or the dog shakes the post out of the base of the ear. If any of these things happen, change the post right away. If the ear starts to smell really bad (ear infection) or if there is a sore, you may have to temporarily use a different method until the infection is gone and/or the sore is healed. As long as you keep the posts clean and dry, you should not have any problems with ear infections. *If your puppy gets a sore, always avoid taping over that spot. Tip: Check your puppies ears (inside the base, and on both sides of the ear) for sores with every post change. Also look at the old post, if there is an extra dirty spot it may indicate there is a sore spot where that part was touching.

How to fix "Pockets" in ears!

What is a "pocket"? A pocket is when the ear starts to fold over the head which creates a crease in the ear. When this happens, we need to post with a bumper to 'push' the pocket out and support the ear correctly.

Why/ how do pockets form? Pockets can form for the following reasons: 1. if the ear pops out of the base and is not changed right away therefore lays over the head for an extended amount of time. 2. If the ear is not stretched upwards against the post when posting. 3. The ears were taped over the head after being cropped which is a common method during the healing process.

How do we fix pockets? Luckily this is fairly easy. We simply post with a bumper which is a small piece of backer rod attached to the post, to help push out the pocket and support the ear shape.

How long should you post with bumpers? As long as needed, but usually this only takes a few posting sessions. Bumpers can also be added as a prevention to pockets.