# Trimming ears?



## k0205

try this one, see if you get any good tips

Morningsage Goldens Grooming


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## Nairb

Here's the one I use.

Potomac Valley Golden Retriever Club - Grooming A Golden's Ears


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## Megora

One thing you might want to do.... get in touch with his breeder and send her a pic of Beamer's ears. Ask her if she has a picture of what his ears _should _look like. Even better if you can go in person to a show and really check out ears while you are there. Zero in on dogs who have similar coats to Beamer. 

I didn't realize how spoiled I was with Jacks' ears being so easy to keep cleaned up without heavy trimming.  Bertie's ears are a LOT like Beamers and why I finally broke down and ordered a good pair of thinning shears. What I've been told is the more teeth on the shears, the less you have to cut while blending/shaping the ear. So 46 tooth shears. 

Ideally.... I want Bertie's ears to look more like his brother's. So we will see. The ear flaps are thinner and there a lot more fluff than actual FUR.  

You can go on youtube and watch a lot of videos.... like you said, the "befores" for these dogs probably are what your average owner (like me) would see as groomed.... it does give you an idea still as far as trimming techniques though. 

I guarantee you that when my new shears come in, I will NOT be cutting that fast around the edge of my dog's ears! If you snip the ear leather, they bleed a LOT. <- I learned that lesson one time I was cleaning matts out of Danny's ears. 




^ This is Jacks ears after a light trimming on the ear alone. That's just me cleaning up any feathery stuff on the "flat" of the ear, because my current thinning shears (30 teeth) are starting to get pretty dull, I don't bother trimming the top rim of the ear or the front of the ear, because I know it will "look" trimmed. This time, I didn't bother trimming around the bottom and back edge of the ear flaps, but as you can see he doesn't really have a lot there. The feathery stuff on his neck under his ear, again I left it because my thinning shears are dull and I don't want him to have a "bald" spot there. We will see how the new shears handle that. That feathering-fluff on his neck - is the same coloring as the fluff I remove from the flat of his ears. Of course with Bertie it's all the same color.... >.< 

I also trim the inside of the ears to keep that all aired out. He had an ear infection earlier this spring, so having the hair thinned out or trimmed away helps when you have to put ointments in. 

/learning-all-this-myself opinion


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## JayBen

I would recommend you check out Deb Oster's grooming dvd. She shows in detail how to groom an ear. I haven't done it yet myself though so I can't give ya any real advise.


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## Rainheart

Thanks everyone for the replies. I wish I could visit my breeder. Originally, she was 6 hours away but now she has moved to Florida. I've already looked at those grooming sites, but found them unhelpful for what I need to do for Beamer's ears. Just the outside of the pinna has grown very long and I just want it trimmed short like you have shown in Jack's photo. I'm just not sure how to go about it. I'll look into that video and scour youtube some more.


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## Sally's Mom

Morningsage should help with that. I also use a stripping comb(Mars).


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## Megora

Just don't be afraid to use thinning shears to really clean out the ears. Remember it grows back and you can "fix" any mistakes later. 





^ This is my "work in progress". I mainly used my new shears to go over and remove any cut lines that my old dull shears left. I'll let the hair grow for a couple weeks and then go over with the shears again. 

When I first decided to trim his ears - it was horrific how much fluff I had to strip out. About now all of that is gone and I'm just trying to get what is there to look even and natural. We're getting there. 

But again - don't be afraid to use the scissors. Use morningsage as a guide, or like I said email his breeder to see if she could send you a close up picture of one of his relatives so you can have a picture of what the ears should look like.


ETA - Again, speaking as someone who is learning as she goes. 

I found these helpful.










 (just the first portion - not the rest)


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## TheZ's

Is that Bertie? He looks so grown up and handsome.

The videos were interesting but for someone like me who isn't into show grooming the trimming of the neck for the show lead seemed a bit much and the scissoring of the face, followed by the use of a pumice stone between the eyes "to produce more stop" and the scissor trimming of all the eyebrows and whiskers seemed unnecessary and potentially harmful to the dog.


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## Megora

TheZ's said:


> Is that Bertie? He looks so grown up and handsome.
> 
> The videos were interesting but for someone like me who isn't into show grooming the trimming of the neck for the show lead seemed a bit much and the scissoring of the face, followed by the use of a pumice stone between the eyes "to produce more stop" and the scissor trimming of all the eyebrows and whiskers seemed unnecessary and potentially harmful to the dog.


Yep - that's why I said just the first part with the ear trimming. I shuddered when I saw what that guy was doing to that golden's face. No offense to people who do all that. :


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