The Curious Case of the Unwonked Ears

My longtime followers know that I've had "ear issues" from the time I joined my Family at the tender age of 8 weeks old. My ears started to turn wonky (a.ka. "flyaway", a.k.a. "rosebud"). Remember this unfortunate picture (altho' I do look rather cute, if I may say so myself)?

This is not an uncommon occurence in Tollers, so my human followed the breeder's instructions for putting ear weights on the insides of my ear flaps to make the cartiledge grow the right way. I went through several sessions of ear weights, including a rather painful one when I got an infection. At that point, my human decided enough was enough, better to have a healthy wonky-eared dog than an unhealthy one with "proper" drop ears.

So, you all have known me (and loved me, thank you!) by this look:

Well, the strangest thing has happened. Over the past week, my ears started to drop on their own. Sometimes just one, sometimes both, and then they'd flip backward again. My human had read about another Toller owner who had massaged her dog's ears at the crease, so she started to do that. And lo and behold, now my ears are staying down on their own, more than they are flipping back:

Maybe I had an ear growth spurt, or maybe the Man Upstairs was trying to teach the Control Freak (oops, I mean, my human) a lesson about letting go, and things will fall into place--even ears!

What do you think of my new look?

Extreme Makeover, Toller-Style

Some of us Tollers have ears that don't fall the way they should, in those nice inverted triangles. Mine are especially "wonky" (don't you love that term?), unfortunately. They seemed to start turning that way the day after I arrived at my family's home. My breeders had told my human to watch out for that, so she contacted them when it was obvious that my ears were turning all funky.

See what I mean?!

So the breeders very kindly told my human to bring me back, so they could do some "cosmetic adjustments". They showed her how to create weights out of a quarter sandwiched in between two pieces of moleskin and glued inside the ears (no, it doesn't hurt, I promise!). This will hopefully make my ear cartiledge grow the right way. It felt a little weird at first and I shook my head a couple times, but then I forgot they were even there. The ear hair eventually grows out and the moleskin falls off, so she will have to replace them many times until I'm 9 months old.

The improvement was immediate...the picture above on my blog header was taken the same day as my first set of ear-weights were attached. Now I look like a Toller is supposed to look!