How to Remove Hair from a Dog's Ears
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Introduction
You'll typically use ear powder and a hemostat to remove any nuisance hairs painlessly if you plan to groom your dog's ears without a professional groomer. It's important to clean your dog's ears first to make hair removal a little easier. Avoid removing hair directly from the ear lobe. When you remove the fur from inside your dog's ears, there is less for dirt debris to stick to. Your dog's ears will be easier to clean, and your dog's hearing may even improve.
Dog's Perspective
The ears can be quite sensitive for many dogs. Your dog may not enjoy you touching tugging or pulling on their ears, much less plucking fur or having a small noisy clipper inside his ear. Pay attention to your dog's movements when you're grooming near his face and ears and be very cautious about how much control your dog will have moving his head around while you're grooming their ears. You don't want to cause injury, but you may need to ease their anxieties a bit with a treat.
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The Hemostat Pluck Method
The Finger Plucking Method
Caution & Considerations
- Use tweezers or hemostat to pluck hair from your dog's ears.
- With your fingertips, you can grab four or five hairs at a time and pluck them without tools.
- Baking soda powder or ear plucking powder from your pet store will help pluck hairs from inside your dog's ears.
- You can use short trimming shears to cut the hair in your dog's ears and avoid plucking.
- A small set of clippers can fit just inside your dog's ear to trim the hair inside his ears.
- Keeping your dog's ear hair short will also help keep moisture out of your dog's ear canal. Moisture left in the ear canal can cause yeast infections over time.
- Bacteria buildup on hair left inside your dog's ears can cause gunk and debris to build up in the ear, causing temporary hearing loss and ear pain.
- Keeping your dog's ear hair trimmed helps to keep the inside of your dog's ear clean and healthy.
- A well plucked or well-groomed ear gives your dog a tidy appearance.
- Begin removing your dog's ear hair early in your dog's life so it becomes a grooming process they expect and is used to receiving.
Conclusion
Success Stories and Grooming Questions
Grooming Questions & Answers
Freyja
My dog will not let me pluck her ears. She fights me and my assistant (daughter). She doesn't cry out in pain. She just doesn't let anyone touch her ears. It's been this way since she was 12 weeks old. But she needs them plucked. I wish there was a way to do it while she's asleep. Any recommendations
0 Dog owners recommended
Hi there, is Freyja (love the name!) prone to ear infections? The jury is still out on whether plucking is always necessary. Would she let you trim the hairs instead? If she is not cooperating, there is the risk that she could incur an injury while you make the attempt. Speak to your vet for their opinion. If you agree that plucking is the way to go, try doing only a few hairs at a time. Not every hair has to be removed, just enough to ensure airflow. You can always pass this job to the groomer as well. Thank you for the question and good luck!
