My Biewer Puppy has floppy ears

As you probably know, the Biewer Terrier originated from the Yorkshire Terrier in Germany in 1984. Purebred Yorkshire Terrier ears are erect and many breeders tape the puppy ears at a young age to support a nice earset for their puppies.

The Biewer Terrier became very popular as the German Yorkshire Terrier or Biewer Yorkshire Terrier because of its white color. Back then, many breeders tried to create the same rare colored coats by adding other breeds to the Biewer Yorkies. Breed detection tests of the early Biewers show that several other breeds, like Maltese, Havanese, Lhasa Apso, Tibetan Terrier have been found in the Biewer Yorkshire Terriers and those are breeds that carry their ears down, also called droopy ears.
Without going too much into canine genetics, some attributes (droopy ears for example) do not appear for generations, and then all the sudden show up again in a puppy, generations later. So it is possible that a puppy born from parents with perfect ears, might have a hard time getting the ears to stand erect. In most cases, this is fixable with “ear taping”.
We tape all puppy ears starting 4-6 weeks, because most puppy parents want to see their very young puppy with erect ears. Most Biewer puppy ears stand on their own around 8-16 weeks. It appears that larger puppies tend to need their ears taped for much longer than very small puppies. Please watch the video below to learn how to tape Biewer Puppy ears. We use transparent medical tape that you can order on Amazon. The ears need to be shaved to the skin for the tape to stick. Biewer ears need to be shaved on a regular basis to prevent them to be weighed down. You can read our grooming guide to learn all about Grooming Biewer Puppies.

We recommend removing the tape after 3 days, clean the ear with rubbing alcohol, and see if they stand erect. If they flop down after a few minutes or hours, just repeat the process and check again in 3 days. Always make sure the ears are shaved. Shaved ears appear really big but the hair will grow back and it will be easier to remove the tape from a shaved ear.

 

4.9/5 - (185 votes)

Karen Hansen @Rocky Mountain Biewer Terriers

You can text me at (970)882-3299.

6 Comments

    • Hi Janet,
      Some Biewers are bigger than others so they could weigh more. If he’s not fat, then I would not consider him overweight.
      There are very solid and stocky Biewers and there are also thin boned (bird bone type) Biewers so the weight alone doesn’t really tell you much. If you are not sure, you could always ask your vet. I honest;y doubt that a 5 months old Biewer puppy could be overweight.
      Text us at (970)882-3299 if you have any questions.
      Thank you,
      Karen H.

  1. Hi, my pup is 16 weeks old .
    Her ears were up but I’ve noticed one ear is beginning to look a tad of a flop !
    Is it too late to tape the one ear . Because of her age .
    I believe her hair is short on the Fri t & backside of her ears .
    Hopefully it’s not too late to tape again ! Thanks Jan

    • Hi Jan,
      It is normal that ears flop a little when the pups are around that age, which is when they are teething. It is not to late to tape the ears. You can do that even when they are 6-8 months old. It doesn’t always help but in most cases it does.
      Keeping the upper end of the ears shaved will help.
      Text us at (970)882-3299 if you have any questions.
      Thank you,
      Karen H.

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