Laurie,
Can you give me the contact info for the adoption agency? Thanks!
Ok we officially have the worldâs perfect puppy! I am probably jinxing myself but he has been such a pleasure that its hard to believe. He has yet to chew a single thing inappropriately. There are probably 50 shoes within easy reach. The only accidents he has had in the house arenât really accidents so much a poor housekeeping on my part. Our lab was incontinent towards the end and I guess I didnât get a couple of the pee spots completely cleaned up because he has peed on those exact spots a couple of times. Other than that, perfection. The barn problems are long gone as well. He waits in the car until the horses are all situated and then he gets the run of the place. I keep a leash on him still but havenât picked it up in close to a week. He reliably comes when called and stays by my side. I wouldnât walk him down the street like that but he has been fine with all that land at the farm.
Thanks to all of you who helped me make this decision. It couldnât be more right!
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[QUOTE=Laurierace;4376868]
Ok we officially have the worldâs perfect puppy! I am probably jinxing myself but he has been such a pleasure that its hard to believe. He has yet to chew a single thing inappropriately. There are probably 50 shoes within easy reach. The only accidents he has had in the house arenât really accidents so much a poor housekeeping on my part. Our lab was incontinent towards the end and I guess I didnât get a couple of the pee spots completely cleaned up because he has peed on those exact spots a couple of times. Other than that, perfection. The barn problems are long gone as well. He waits in the car until the horses are all situated and then he gets the run of the place. I keep a leash on him still but havenât picked it up in close to a week. He reliably comes when called and stays by my side. I wouldnât walk him down the street like that but he has been fine with all that land at the farm.
Thanks to all of you who helped me make this decision. It couldnât be more right![/QUOTE]
Wonder puppy, how nice.
Although it takes good, sensible owners to have a wonder puppy, so pat on the back for you.:yes:
Ears?
When we picked Teddy up from the foster I noticed what looked like a mat in front of one of his ears. The foster noticed me picking at it and said it was leftover glue from where she glued his ears down to keep them floppy. I must admit I was a bit taken back by that whole idea. But now I notice one of his ears is erect and the other is still floppy and I must admit the floppy one is cuter. I donât know if the erect ear would revert back to floppiness if it were glued back down or not. Is this really something that sheltie owners do?
I was at a dog show last weekend and noticed some collie pups and they had something going on with their ears too. I am not sure if it is some kind of glue to help with a 'tulipâear? I think not a bit deal if your puppy is not planninig to show though. I have always had show breeds that had totally natural ears and tails so I am a bit clueless.
[QUOTE=Laurierace;4377157]
When we picked Teddy up from the foster I noticed what looked like a mat in front of one of his ears. The foster noticed me picking at it and said it was leftover glue from where she glued his ears down to keep them floppy. I must admit I was a bit taken back by that whole idea. But now I notice one of his ears is erect and the other is still floppy and I must admit the floppy one is cuter. I donât know if the erect ear would revert back to floppiness if it were glued back down or not. Is this really something that sheltie owners do?[/QUOTE]
Yes, you can slightly glue some hairs of the tip to the side, so the ear tips stay bent a little bit.
All show shelties have flying ears that need to be glued while their are teething, or the cartilage will strenghten straight up and not give them the sweet sheltie expression the standard asks for.
For any other than showing, you can do as you wish, either way it wonât hurt them any.
Some shelties have such heavy ears that they just wonât stand up at all and so are not able to be shown, but that happens rarely.
Most will stand up like a, say, american eskimo, or norwegian elkhound, if you donât glue them for a few weeks.
You really need to have an experienced person show you how.
Could you find a conformation show close and ask there, or maybe some in a performance dog club may know how.
Maybe your library has âSheltie Talkâ?
All that and more is explained there about shelties.
Or some sheltie site on the internet may be able to tell you exactly how it is done.:yes:
Seeing his pictures, it crossed my mind that someone had been training his ears, as they rarely do that on their own.
Just wait until his adult coat comes in, he is going to be gorgeously handsome in it.
Yep! You can glue, moleskin, or tape them. IMO, the glue is probably the easiest method. Itâs pretty straightforward and really doesnât seem to bother them. If his ears look a little wide set, you might want to consider gluing the ears together in the middle (by the hair, of course) as well as gluing the tips down.
Like Bluey said, when the puppies teethe it strengthens their ears and makes them pop up. They rarely stay perfect on their own.
You should decide pretty soon if youâre going to work on them or not- the window for training them to do what you want closes at about 6 months. After that (until about 10 months or so) you can still try it, but it isnât very likely to work.
Iâm a fan of properly tipped ears- I think they add a whole 'nother dimension of cute to already adorable sheltie faces!
On a different note, I am just pea green with envy reading about your puppy. He sounds absolutely delightful. I want one SO badly⊠when I think about having to wait 4 more years before I can get one it makes me so sad. Silly grad school. 
Ok I guess that raises a different question. Do I want him to look ridiculous for the coming weeks/months because his ears are glued down, or should I just let his ears do whatever they want to do? My other sheltie was so long ago that I donât really remember what his ears looked like when they werenât back on his head when he was smiling. He was a pet store puppy so I am sure they didnât do anything to his ears and I know I didnât either once we got him. For the most part I am totally against altering a dogâs appearance to make them more attractive to us as in docking tails and cropping ears but this is so benign it doesnât seem to fit into that category so I donât know how I feel about it.
Well, Iâm hardly a neutral party (since I do like the way they look tipped)⊠but I donât think itâs really a big deal at all. Gluing ears is not even in the same ballpark as surgically removing a body part. After all, itâs just hair youâd be gluing, and it certainly doesnât cause them any pain.
If anything, gluing is much more temporary and much less traumatic than things people regularly do to dogs without a second thought (shaving them is coming to mind). If you have second thoughts, it takes about a minute to remove the glue.
To me, looking a little silly for a few weeks/months is definitely worth a lifetime of adorable ears. And I actually donât think they look that silly with their ears glued- I think itâs sort of cute! Plus, unless someone is actually poking at his ears, they probably wonât even notice.
I like the look of the tipped ears. Something we had done decades ago with our sheltie that was recommended by the breeder was to put a little gum on the tips of the ears. This weights them down a bit and then hopefully they stay that way. I tried this with my border collie puppy, but I think I may have missed the window on one of the ears. it had already started to stand up. The gum wears off after a while and you canât really see it. So I think sheâll have one up and one down. Still cute.
Ok you guys talked me into it. The link said to use fabric glue so I went with mighty mend it! I put him up on the island in the kitchen so he would be closer to eye level. When I took my hand off of him to take the lid off the bottle he launched himself onto the floor. He doesnât seem to be injured but it scared the crap out of both of us. It doesnât look as dumb as I thought it would. Iâll see how it goes.
The breeder of our sheltie, many years ago, used surgical glue, that is the same glue you get in fake nails, so you can find it in most any general store.
Our sheltie didnât even noticed it and her ears ended up perfect.
She had very good ears anyway and were almost there on their own.
I think your puppyâs ears are the same and with a little more time they will be where you want them.
Our second sheltie looked exactly like the one in the first picture.
You can see in other pictures some with standing up ears, one with very heavy hound ears that will never stand at all and some with just tipped ears:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shetland_Sheepdog
If you donât know how to handle that, a good dog groomer may help you, although they have to be someone that has shown dogs in conformation to really know what they are doing, not someone thinking they know just because they are groomers.
I am not sure if I am a genius or if Teddy the wonder puppy has taken his name to heart but this truly is the easiest puppy I have ever had. I tethered the two dogs together for an hour or so at a time when we were out in the open either at the barn or at the pony club camping trip that first week. Now the puppy sticks like glue to the Pom and the Pom minds extremely well so by default I have a puppy that minds extremely well already. Today the two of them ran side by side down the nearly half mile trail through the woods out to the far pasture. I couldnât believe it when both of them looked back to see how far behind them I was then waited for me to catch up a bit before taking off again. Its truly amazing.
BTW my family members think I was heartless and cruel for gluing his ears even though he doesnât seem to mind it. I guess weâll see how long it stays in on its own. I may or may not re-glue it. It does seem like a small price to pay for super cute ears though.
Well, thanks to COTH, I learned a new thing. I never knew about the ear training thing. I always assumed that dogs with the âtipâ down was a natural thing. I have two aussie/golden cross female litter mates, and one has the âtippedâ ears, and the other one (who also has a much shorter hair coat) has giant stand up ears, which are too big for her body, but cute as a button. It is cute that occasionally the one with the tipped ears manages to get them both to stand up straight, then she really looks like a wolf.
Iâm so glad that puppy is working out so well for you.
I just double checked and it seems I got one of the ears right in that I glued hair to hair and the other I glued ear skin to head skin or at least ear hair to head skin. My luck the poor guyâs ear will end up falling offâŠRight now its not bothering him in the least. I donât see any way to get it off without cutting skin so I am just going to leave it alone and hope it loosens over time. I knew I would mess this up somehow, hopefully he will be ok.
Iâve seen people tape a coin to the underside of the tip of the ear to weigh it down slightly. A penny if it needs something fairly weighty and a dime if not. Medical tape or elastikon works well for this, but Sheltie people might have reasons for not doing the coin trick. I dunno.
[QUOTE=JackieBlue;4384190]
Iâve seen people tape a coin to the underside of the tip of the ear to weigh it down slightly. A penny if it needs something fairly weighty and a dime if not. Medical tape or elastikon works well for this, but Sheltie people might have reasons for not doing the coin trick. I dunno.[/QUOTE]
I have not heard of the coin, but some put a glob of glue, so it weights the tip down.
The best, I was told, was the surgical glue on the hairs and to the inside base of the ear hairs and it either works after a few weeks, until the puppy is thru theething, or it doesnât.
The big collieâs ears and show border collies are âdoneâ the same way, for what I hear.
My only experience was with my second sheltie, that came from a conformation kennel some 30 years ago at three months and had itâs ears already glued down and they did fine.
It does make a big difference in the look of the head, if the ears are tipped or not, but it really doesnât matter, either way.
Many agility shelties donât have their ears done, as they are rescues and no one cares.
Doing that to the ears is not hurting the dog any, just as some people tape their kids ears to the head if they really stick out like flags.
I donât know if that helps in people.
Bumping this thread because I get to meet one of the heroineâs of this thread this weekend when she comes to meet my heart horse and possibly take her on lease.
Teddy is doing well although he is afraid of loud noises like thunder or fireworks. It can be a bit of a pain to manage but not the end of the world. Out of all the animals we have had over the years none of them have picked hubby as their person until Teddy came along. He absolutely adores him to the point it is downright embarrassing but adorable at the same time.
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You know you have been on COTH a long time when you have a post about a dogâs entire life. Teddy passed peacefully at home in the backyard by the pool a week before his 13th birthday. He had been fighting the good fight against lung cancer for quite a while but the bad days were starting to be too frequent for him so we let him go. He was a wonderful dog who left a big hole to fill.
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