How to Groom Inside a Dog's Ear

Grooming inside of a dog's ear can be tedious and challenging if you and your dog are not used to doing this kind of grooming together. Keeping your dog's ears clean is imperative for maintaining a healthy dog. Some dogs and some environments are prone to harboring yeast or even mites. You want to keep the inside of your dog's ears well-groomed, cleaned, and plucked to ensure your dog is not harboring anything such as yeast or bacteria that may cause ear infections. Grooming the inside of your dog's ears consists of plucking the inner fur, cutting the fur along the outside of the ear flap, as well as cleaning inside your dog's ear and wiping the skin that you can see when the ear is lifted up.

Your dog's ears may be sensitive. He may not like you touching his outer ear or being inside of his ear. When you first start doing this activity on your own, have some patience with your dog as he may be a little tender and sensitive. It may help to have a partner nearby to talk with your dog and pet his belly or his favorite spot to ease any tension or anxiety.

• Plucking the hair from the inside of your dog's ear shouldn't be difficult, and it should be fairly painless to your dog.
• If you are causing your dog pain when you're plucking the hair inside the ear, take fewer hairs in the groups you are plucking and be sure you are plucking in the right area.
• Plucking hairs from the outer ear flap might become painful but the hair is growing just inside the ear should not cause pain.
• If you need ear cleaning solution, talk to your vet for a recommendation. These ear cleaning solutions can often be purchased at your veterinarian's office as well as in pet stores.
• Be sure you are using the proper tools for your dog's ears. If your dog has long ears there are long forceps available, and if your dog has shorter ears you can procure short ear forceps.
• You can also purchase a powder for dog's ear hair plucking. This powder is not necessary for plucking your dog's ear hair. However, it is something that sticks to the hair, making plucking easier. Without a powder, your tweezers or forceps may slip on the hair causing you to have to pull multiple times.
• When you look inside your dog's ear, if you see a lot of hair clumps together just inside the ear it may have been a while since your dog's ears were groomed. Once you work on the inner part of the ear where you can see visible wrinkles, it should be clean of all fur.
• Plucking your dog's ear hair will help to keep debris out of your dog's ear and make wiping your dog's ears on a regular basis easier.
• If, while cleaning your dog's ears, you see any black gunk or smell anything out of the ordinary you may want to clean your dog's ears with apple cider vinegar and call your veterinarian just in case there is a yeast infection or an ear infection. 

If your dog acts as if you're barking up the wrong tree when you go to groom his ears, he may be tender and sore. You may need to see your veterinarian in that case. If your dog is excited to have his ears done and you are a Top Dog in his world, it's because he understands the importance of having clean, well-groomed ears. This should not be a ruff task. Just make your dog’s ears healthy and fur-tastic.