It’s very important from day one to play with your dog’s ears and feet. This makes necessary jobs much easier. Your dog probably doesn’t associate ear cleaning to a comforting experience, especially if it means being forcefully held while you poke around in her ear. Try making it positive and rewarding. Does your dog allow you to rub her ears when you’re cuddling? When she is laying down, gently play with her ears, flopping them over and stroking the underside of her ear. Talk to her, praise her and possibly give her a treat. If she likes body rubs, give her one with the other hand; body rubs and ear stroking means love. Get her used to the idea of having the inside of her ear being touched. I don’t know what you use but when you want to clean her ears, hide the stuff from her; dogs are smart, and she knows what it is and will instantly get tense if she sees it. They also say dogs can smell it, so you might consider switching to something that is not familiar. For cleaning the nooks and crannies you could buy one of those terry cloth gloves designed for washing yourself in the shower. Put one glove on and put the cleaning solution on the finger you’ll be using to clean the ears. Then you can sit and give her a body rub with the ungloved hand and clean her ears with the other, and then you just wash it. Another thing, if your dog ever needs ear drops for infections, or solutions in the ear canal, warm the drops up a bit before you use them. Cold solution in the ear is no fun.

Featured Image Credit: 4 PM production, Shutterstock