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The best recommendation that anyone can get on how to glue their puppies’ ears is to contact your breeder. Your breeder is the best source on gluing ears and can provide you with quick and easy tips on this procedure.

If, however, you find that you live too far from your breeder or need some extra tips on the procedure, we have enclosed a simple procedure to follow to glue ears.

The items you find in your glue kit box are the essentials. Other items required are: Clippers, ear cleaner, cotton balls and PATIENCE.

Ear training should begin between the ages of 8-16 weeks and continue through the teething period up until eight months of age. Some puppies require a longer time and some puppy’s ears are perfect after a couple of months. Some ears never need gluing and some results can be accomplished with only one gluing. Others may take repeated gluing.

It is easier for the beginner to have someone to help hold the puppy during the procedure. As we all know, puppies have little patience for anything that takes too much time, they are too busy at this age to be bothered with someone gluing their ears. Patience is the key.

Prepare the ear by clipping the hair from the ears on the inside and out with your clippers. Use a good ear cleaner and clean the ears thoroughly with a cotton ball inside and out. Let them dry completely.

• Apply Tincture of Benzoin with a cotton ball to the entire inside ear flap, making sure that this dries completely. It will be somewhat sticky at this point and the end result will be sticky inside the ear.
•  Shake the bottle of Val-Tear Mender (glue) thoroughly and apply glue on the inside of the ear as you did the Benzoin, spreading it with your fingertip for an adequate coverage of the area. Be careful not to get glue in the ear canal.
•  Let the ear set up for about 5 seconds and it dries to a sticky consistency.
• Fold the ear along the glue line, which should form a crease at the correct level for the size of the ear. Press the ear leather together at the glue line and hold it a few seconds until the glue sets.
• Pinch the fold in place and press the rest of the ear to the head. You must always remember that you need to leave a pocket at the bottom base of the ear for air circulation. This helps in the prevention of ear infections. You should be able to slide your finger all the way up and into the ear canal.
• Repeat the process with the other ear trying to make the gluing process so that each ear is balanced and looks identical.
• Make sure all areas are completely glued. If you find that your tip is not glued tightly, take a small amount of glue on your finger and tack the ear tip down.
• Many breeders take the excess hair that they clippered off the ear in the beginning and make a matting with this hair and glue around the tip of the ear. This helps to hold the ear in place longer. Puppies have a tendency to want to rub these ears and the tips become loose very easily. The matting helps to keep the tips from coming loose.
• The trick is to find something that will interest the puppy after ear gluing. Give him a new toy or bone so that he is more occupied to play or chew
  something rather than rub his ears.
• Ears should remain glued for 2-3 weeks, but puppies always find ways to loosen an ear. If they become loose in places, apply a little bit of glue to these areas.
• If ears become too loose and lose their set, take down the ears immediately. Pull the ears loose a little and keep working with a stripping knife a little at a time.
•  Clean off the glue with Medi-Sol (or other solvent) on a cotton ball and this will help to get all of the glue residue off before attempting to reglue the ears. If the hair comes off with removing glue, don’t worry, it will grow back. If there seems to be irritated areas around the head, apply an antibiotic ointment and let them heal before setting the ears again. (Application of your Benzoin protects the skin and helps to avoid skin irritations.) Smell the ear after you have cleaned it and make sure there are no odd odors. This could be a sign of infection.
• Clean the ears and let the ears rest for a few days before attempting to reglue.

Basically you should glue the ears in the same position every time. You can make minor adjustments in the position as time goes by but do not change the method you use for ear gluing.