I have a 6 month old male pup that has recently taken to sucking on some of my other dogs' ears. Anyone have any idea why he finds this so pleasurable, as do the one's he's sucking on? They actually come and lay beside him and offer up their ears. No infections or ear problems present currently, although I can see this becoming a fungus-fest if he doesn't cease!

I wonder if this has something to do with his teething?? He doesn't so much suckle their ears, as chew them delicately with his back molars, rolling the ear from side to side in his mouth. It's also a freezing danger with our cold winter; I want their ears to be dry when they go outside!

I'm going to try bitter apple on their ears for a while. Anyone have any other suggestions? Experiences to relate?

My puppy girl does the same thing - she's a year old now. She finds it soothing or comforting judging by the expression on her face when she does it. Only sucks ears on the two older dogs...they don't like it and complain but it doesn't stop her. She mostly does it in the morning - almost like a greeting. I've tried bitter apple and cayenne pepper and it stops her for a bit but then she's back at it.

Any suggestions would be welcome too!

I have no suggestions, but my 11 year old male has been doing this for years. There are 2 or 3 of the girls that allow him to suck on their ears - the others not not allow it. One girl lost a tiny part of her ear (I think) to frostbite about 3 years ago and I now have a bitch that has had 3 or 4 bouts of psuedamonas (sp?) in her ears and I think it is from him sucking on her ears (he is also a poop-eater). We now have to keep them apart all of the time. He is a sweet boy and I just can't think of a way to discourage it. I just keep them separated.

One of my 6-yr old boys has tried this for his whole life. Once in awhile one of the others lets him get away with it.

I have learned that it CAN cause skin problems with the "suckee" and can actually change the color of the ear on the chocolates.

He is older, and it has cut down some, but the only relief we ever got was to catch and scold.

Betty

Our boy started this as a puppy with our pet girl and eventually stopped at around 2 years of age only to recently (past couple of months) start again at 3 years old. It may have started during the teething process as a "comfort" behavior, but soon became habit for him.

We hadn't ever had a problem with it (except for that unpleasant cold slimey feeling when you reach down to pet her ears) until this Thanksgiving when we had house-sitters (a veterinarian and her husband) watching things. When we got home, our girl had a hot-spot on the side of her face the same size as her ear pinna (huge!) right under where the ear flap normally lies. It turns out that our boy was then constantly licking her hot spot in addition to sucking on her ear. Sheesh!

That has since cleared up, and our boy has slowed down a bit with the ear-sucking, thankfully. May have had something to do with the Gold Bond powder we were using on the hot spot to keep it dried up while it healed.

No ear infections in our household (knock on wood) in spite of lots of swimming, but having chronically wet (especially slimey, saliva- "wet") ear flaps/pinnae can wreak havoc with skin! Just something to be aware of...

My 4 1/2 year old gal has been doing this to an older gal since she's a puppy no one else just the older gal and the old gal seems to enjoy it go figure no problems with ears. Although I dislike the wet soppy ears on the older gal....I've tried the bitter apple with no luck at all. Anyone else out there with other remedies?
Sharon

Our Maggie who will be 3 yrs this April has been an ear sucker most of her young life. She would only suck on our old girl Momma Mia but since Mia passed on this past summer, Maggie has stopped her ear sucking. The bad news is that now all 3 of my Southern Belles have started sucking on Maggie and Lola's ears. Makes for some nice quality photos, goopy, matted looking ears on poor Lola and Maggie. I correct the 3 girls when they start sucking but they do it so fast as they are making their way into the house, the 3 girls will glom onto Mag and Lola's ears. Sometimes one girl will be sucking Maggie's one ear while the other chocoalte girl is going to town on the other side of Maggie's ear. I guess what goes around comes around dear sweet Mag Pie (-;

Also meant to say that our old girl Mia who got her ears sucked on all the time developed a really bad hot spot under hear ear flap. It took forever to get healed.

I have a one year old girl who does this, esp. to one of my older girls, who allows it, and then sometimes gets yeasty ears from them being wet. I keep the ear sucker with one or two "grouchy" girls, who won't tolerate it. that has been the only thing to stop her....just keeping her away from her "target"

I would put some powdered goldenseal on there - hot spot and all.

I'll often hear my husband saying--"Martha, don't do ears!" She's 4 years old and has always gently chewed with her molars and sucked everyone's ears. But I do worry about frostbite. They all seem to enjoy it. This grooming behavior strengthens the bonds in our "pack."

There must be some canine psychology to this. I wonder if it's 1) an ear problem that we, as humans, can't see and 2) hierarchy.

Maybe this is the canine equivalent of thumb-sucking.

I think that my boy thinks of it as courting and prelude to you know what.