It’s time for a bath! Whether you choose to bathe your dog at home or take your dog to the groomer, the same issue arises. Keeping water out of your dogs ears is difficult. Afterwards, you watch your dog try to shake that water out of their ears for days! Water in your dog’s ears turns into something bad for your dog and for you.
Why Water In Your Dog’s Ears Is Bad
Why is keeping water out of your dogs ears so difficult? Unlike their human counterparts, dogs have long, L-shaped ear canals. Water travels in through the top part of the L-shape and settles in the lower part of the L-shape. Once water gets in the dog’s ear, it is very difficult to get the water back out again.
When water gets trapped in a dog’s ears, that leads to a warm, damp environment. Such an environment fosters the growth of yeast in the dog’s ear canal, ear infections, and eventually, the possibility of hearing loss. Keeping water out of your dogs ears is key!
But My Dog Loves To Play In Water
Have you been on Instagram lately? There are so many cute dogs on Instagram that love water. You can see these dogs enjoying the following sources of water:
- grooming
- swimming pools
- lakes
- rivers
- sprinklers
If your dog loves, water, you need to know the risks of water getting in your dog’s ears. Ear infections are very common in dogs and will affect an estimated 20% of dogs in one or both ears (source). Over time, repeat ear infections or ear infections that never resolve can lead to damaged ears and loss of hearing. Since hearing damage can be irreversible, prevention is the key. Keeping water out of your dogs ears will reduce the likelihood that your dog will develop any of these devastating ear infections.
Why Grooming / Bathing Is The Big Issue
Most of the time you can control your dog’s ears’ exposure to water. You can keep them from going in pools, lakes, rivers, and sprinklers. However, you can’t stop bathing your dog completely. A dirty dog still needs to be groomed. A proper cleaning will require you or your groomer to clean around your dog’s ears. Keeping water out of your dogs ears can prove to be a challenge in grooming your dog.
Keeping Water Out Of Your Dogs Ears While Bathing
Luckily, there is a perfect solution to keeping water out of your dogs ears! Introducing CrittEar Calm dog earplugs. These dog earplugs are made from a specially formulated, medical grade memory foam. When they are rolled and properly inserted, the dog earplugs will expand in both parts of the dog’s L-shaped ear canal and fill it perfectly. There will be no room for water to get into the dog’s ear canal.
CrittEar Calm dog earplugs help keep the dog’s ears clean and dry while you wash around the dog’s ear during grooming. It also helps keep the dog’s ears dry while they swim, dock-dive, and generally frolic in the water that they love so much! Try a 3-pack of CrittEar Calm dog earplugs so that you have one pair at home, one pair in the car, and one pair in your purse or bag for water play on the go.
These are such an interesting product! I’m unsure how well my dogs would tolerate having something in their ears, unless I really spent a lot of time training them to accept it. I do know how important it is to keep water out of their ears, though. One of my dogs is prone to ear infections so I have to be especially careful when I bathe him.
We find that dogs, like people, have a wide range of reactions to our earplugs. Some dogs accept them without questions, and others do take a week or two of training. It all depends on the dog’s personality as well as the handler/owner’s ability to remain calm and train using positive feedback.
CritterEar has thought of everything. Bathtime is definitely a good occasion to use these ear plugs. It’s so much easier and helpful instead of attempting to strategically bath your dog without getting water and soap in their ears.
We have been battling ear infections throughout Dav girl’s life due to her allergies. That being said, while I know that preventing hers aren’t quite as easy, I have become far more aware of risk factors like this with our other two dogs. I love that this is such as simple solution. I am definitely going to be sharing it with my other dog parent friends!
I really am very intrigued with the CrittEar Calm Dog Ear Plugs. These seem like such a huge game changer in so many different ways!
We had a spaniel mix years ago who loved water, including taking baths. Unfortunately, she did have some ear infections. These ear plugs would have helped her a lot.
Layla hates water LOL but when I bathe her or the groomer bathes her we make sure no water goes in her ears as I am aware it can cause problems, it is something I am very careful about. Thanks for the great post and reminder
I would never have thought of doing this, I doubt of the local dog wash does either so I need to spread the word. I also had no idea it could be bad for the dog YIKES!
Thanks for this, I learned something to share with my dog buddies!!!
This seems to be amazingly diverse product, useful for all sorts of situations.
Yes! Keeping your pup’s ears dry is so important, especially if you have a floppy-eared water-loving dog like a labrador! Poor guys get so many ear infections because of it!
You are so right!
I always have to pay close attention not to get water in Phoebe’s ears when I bathe her. Fortunately, neither of my dogs is particularly fond of going in the water! This looks like a good solution, especially for dogs who love going in the water.
Thanks – we have a lot of groomers who love our product, so they give us great feedback!