My 7month old toy poodle -Hunza- requires eardrops to control an infection. He is well behaved in most other areas but trying to give him eardrops is almost impossible. He is "afraid" of the drops and spray. How do I get him to accept this treatment as it is likely to be an ongoing preventative measure. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Howard
We had a similar problem with our year old German Shepherd, and although it felt a bit underhanded, he is very food focused and we found we could put the drops in while he was eating with no particular reaction when it was a 2 person job to restrain him otherwise. Is there something he gets really focused on to distract him before you try to administer the drops?
You might also work to just be able to "mess" with your dogs ears at any time. Start by just petting around his ears, then move to lifting them, then lifting them and looking in, then maybe putting your finger around the opening...its all a gradual process so he gets used to his ears being messed with all the time. If he gets used to it, he hopefully won't freak out as much when the ear drops go in.
Alternatively, if his ears are inflamed due to the infection, it could be the drops are stinging or hurting/feeling weird - take every administration slow, speak soothingly, and rub his ear after each drop.
That sounds much better than our devious methods. Unfortunately our dog wouldn't let us anywhere near the inflamed ear, when he wasn't bothered if we played with the other one. Good advice for those with puppies is to start playing with their ears at a young age, practicing looking in them and cleaning them so that they will be more accepting of this later on... most dogs will need ear drops at some time.
