Every time I attempt to clean my rescue cocker spaniel's ears, he turns his head away and rolls on his back. I even warmed up the ear solution as suggested by the dog trainer and he stills makes a fuss.
It might help to have more than one person administering the ear solution, if possible. No matter if I am bathing, clipping his nails or cleaning his ears, my dog is restless and anxious. It helps having an extra set of hands around to calm him down/distract him. Please let us know if you find a solution that works for you!
My dog is so attached to me, that when my husband tries to help it makes the situation worse for all of us. So I am going to try to do this myself. Will let everyone know how it turns out. Thanks
A second person is definitely helpful for the training. Essentially you want to change his association with the process by gradually increasing his exposure to the tools and handling while giving him some of his favorite things. Dr Sophia Yin covered the steps for counterconditioning during grooming (her example was nail trims, but it would be the same for any other grooming necessity): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWZUc...
If you don't have a second person, it may take a little longer, but you could try giving him something he loves (like a bully stick or Kong), but only while in the presence of the grooming supplies, moving them gradually closer so long as he stays occupied on his treat. Doing that over a few training sessions (without actually completing the process of cleaning his ears) could help desensitize him to the whole experience.
I will try that - he does like his kong with peanut butter in it that I freeze. Everything he is introduced has to be done gradually in small steps because he gets anxious. We have a trainer that we are working with to help us out with each situation. Thanks everyone for all your suggestions.
My dog gets ear infections periodically. I've found that he doesn't mind cotton balls (torn up smaller) but will continually turn his head away if I try to use a Q-tip. I can dig way down to clean with a cotton ball, but let a Q-tip even lightly graze his ear and he's totally uncooperative. It's a mystery to me. ;-) He also gets a little high-value treat after each ear is done, as needed.
Thank you Karen - I will give it a try using cotton balls as you have suggested since the use of Q-tips must be what he doesn't like - hopefully this will work because even the groomer couldn't get his ears cleaned.
Yep, after my dog nearly broke my nose jerking her head back and slamming into my face I started using a cotton ball. I also straddle her in the corner of the room where she runs in an attempt to flee and somehow we get it done without further incident.
Not sure how much your dog weighs so I am not sure if this will work for you but I do it with my 2 small dogs. I am currently doing this because my Shih-Tzu has an ear infection. I have to clean her ears with a solution and then wait to put in her drops. So....I lift her on my washing machine, now she is scared she is going to fall so she kind of freezes. I then put in the solution quickly, rub her ear then go to the next ear. Again, I do this process quickly so make sure you have everything you need, then I give her a treat to show her she did a wonderful job and I am a done for the day :)
I do not think this will work for my dog since he is 30 pounds and I don't think he will like being up high from the floor. He is also nervous with new situations. Thanks anyway - that's good that you can clean your dogs ears that way.
I always show my dog the bottle of what I'm using plus any supplies and let her smell it first. I also explain what I'm going to do in a soothing manner. After she smells it throughly she seems satisfied and then lets me proceed.
When I first starting cleaning my dogs ear, I would massage her ears and then give her a treat. After inserting the cleaner, I would then give another treat until she associated ear cleaning with positivity.