Photo 5
Having “swabbed down” the underside of the ear flap I do the same thing to the ear canal opening itself. It is particularly important here that the cotton puff is not saturated with alcohol so as not to have it dripping into the ear canal and possibly working down to the ear drum. Make sure that the cotton puff is wrapped around your fingernails to protect the soft ear canal tissue from being scratched – guys clip your nails before working on your dogs ears and ladies make sure your fingernails have no sharp or rough edges. While not illustrated the make-up removal pads are now my preferred supply for this. They wrap around the finger more thoroughly than the cotton puff and are more rugged when “sweeping” the alcohol over the waxy hair to help dry it. Varying the position of the ear flap has a large effect on how easy you can access the ear canal itself. Note how I am keeping the ear flap taught with my left. This time I have raised my hand in comparison to photo 4 to “align” the ear canal so I have easier access for the cotton puff. Try this for yourself to determine the best positions for your dog’s ear shape and your technique. The illustration works well for Martin and I, the angle I hold Virgil and Dawn’s ear flaps are a bit different as is every dog/parent combination.

Photo 6
With the hair now dried by the alcohol you can commence plucking the ear hair. As I discuss in my forum.oes.org post it is essential to remove all the dead and loose hair to allow you to actually clean the ear canal tissues and allow air circulation which is critical to general ear health in any dog with loose ear flaps that entirely cover the ear canal – for us that is Old English Sheepdogs, Afghan Hounds and the Bedlam Terriorist! By pinching as small amount of hair (5-10 hairs) between your first finger and thumb you can get adequate grip to quickly pull them out. Do this quickly but smoothly, don’t bump the dogs head with your hand and of course be sure you only have hair between your finger and nail. As you get deeper in the ear canal it is possible to pinch the soft ear canal skin.
If you find you are loosing grip clean your finger and thumb, wax will build up and reduce your grip. If necessary swab the area being plucked with another cotton puff wetted with alcohol. I generally do this 4-6 times if the ear is as dirty as shown in this photo essay, usually I get away with only 1 or 2 supplemental applications of alcohol. Many groomers have good success using an ear powder to dry the wax and give themselves better grip on the hair. Use whichever method and supplies which work for you and your dog, just limit how many hairs you pluck in a single pull to no more than 10. I also choose NOT to use mechanical devices such as hemostats and tweezers as many other do. My reasoning is that not all the ear canal hair is ready to be, nor needs to be plucked out. About 15-20% of what is there is live and is needed to filter dirt and debris so it doesn’t get down to the eardrum. Hemostats and tweezers give so much extra grip that you can easily pull out the live hair and the resultant exposed follicles are both tender/irritating to the dog and are potential infection sites. There are of course some dogs whose ears get so dirty so easily it may be a benefit to remove all the hair. Talk to your vet and/or groomer to determine what is best for you and your dog if their ears get dirty very quickly.

Photo 7
More of the same. Continue the plucking until you have removed all the dead and loose hair you can reasonably grip. This will take anywhere from 2 – 20 minutes. Take your time and think about how irritating this would be to you and use that as a guide to minimizing your dogs upset. Again this is an inherently invasive procedure.


Work, Work, Work it never ends!