# Ear muffs!!



## Purley (Sep 7, 2009)

Cooper got his first haircut. I posted a pic in the photos but would like to ask the groomers on here -- for the next time. Why do his ears look like he is wearing ear muffs? What should the groomer have done to make them look like normal doodle ears? I think she cut them too short for one thing. He has very soft velvety hair. Although I wouldn't tell him because he would be upset - he does look a bit of a dork with his ears like that.

Any tips to make him look better next time?


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## dtails (Mar 8, 2010)

Cooper's ear set, or the place where his ears attach to his head, is pretty high so you have to do some "corrective" grooming to make them not look so high. You can achieve this by either leaving more hair on the top of the head or "topknot" or you can have the groomer thin down the ears and maybe leave them a bit longer. That would be my suggestion at least.

Btw, I know its not your taste but I think his ears look kinda cute.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

Is the hair under the ear trimmed short? Not a doodle but Max's short spaniel ears set higher if I haven't trimmed under. I was amazed. 2" under ear hair his ears were much perkier than when the hair is 1/2" even though the hair is straight and lays flat. It took me a while to get used to his new sad looking appearance.


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## Purley (Sep 7, 2009)

What do you mean by "under" his ears? You mean on the side of his face underneath his ears? Or on the insides of his ears?


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

I am too chicken to trim the underside of his ears, I remove lots of hair on the side of his head under the ears.

I just tried a shorter ear on Max this time. With a higher ear set because under the ear wasn't trimmed short ears looked strange but they look fine with his ears lying closer to his head this time. Sort of large Golden Retriever ears. Badly trimmed GR ears.

This video is not how to trim a doodle, rather a Golden, but shows what I do for Max's ears at about minute 6. At about 7:30 she shows how that trimming changes the way the ear set looks. This was posted by Graco22 who has been a huge help to me with my goofy spaniel mix's fur.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6vy4NnsrTQ

I bet all you have to do to get the ear you want is take a photo of him and draw the sort of ear you prefer on top.


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## poodleholic (Mar 15, 2007)

Cooper's earset is really high, and, he has no topknot, and no length of hair beyond the ear leather. To get a more balanced look he needs topknot hair growth, to hide where his ears start, and let the hair on his ears grow to give illusion of length. 

But, all doodles have different textured coats, so it's really hard to tell from a picture what can or cannot be done because texture and density, etc., plays a large part. Do you have a before picture of Cooper?

PS I know how you must feel! A groomer I took Beau to (First and last time) make HIM look like a dork, and Beau is a very handsome and conformationally correct Standard Poodle with an impressive pedigree. He still looked like a dork! The good news is that hair grows!


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## Locke (Nov 3, 2008)

As others have said, I think it would look better if he had a topknot, but his hair might not have the right texture to stay up. 
Ears could be longer too I think.


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## Ayanla (Jun 11, 2009)

I'm not a groomer, but I've had the same issues with Odo's ears. I've had them several different lengths and never quite liked them. His latest groom, though, she rounded them and took them short and I think they look really adorable. I'm always careful to ask that they keep the poof on the top of his head, as I had one groom where they cut it off and it looks really ridiculous.

Current groom:










Longer ears (and different face style)


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## DJsMom (Jun 6, 2008)

I just dont like the angled up ears. I also don't care too much for top knots on a lot of dogs but I personally think he would look better if the length of the ear were left longer, but the hair just thinned down, like dtails described.


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## Purley (Sep 7, 2009)

This dog has longer ears and they look better. However, my granddaughter, whose dog this is, says they would go back but mention what they didn't like the first time. At least she was prepared to leave his coat 2-3 inches long, and when she discovered how muddy and matted his legs were, she phoned me to ask if she should still leave the hair on his body 2-3 inches because she had to clip his legs short as it was hurting him trying to brush them out. She also said my granddaughter had done a good job of brushing him. And the doggy daycare had a sign up apologizing for all the mud because of the renovations outside. So we were obviously not the only ones ticked off because Cooper came back covered in mud!


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## DJsMom (Jun 6, 2008)

^^I think that looks really good^^


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