Help! I'm getting bitten by my cute fluffy dog.

[wendalah]

Smokey has an ear infection and isn't taking kindly to the ear drops. No matter how we grasp hold of him he manages to bite one of us.

I told him sternly NO today and he sat there, baring his teeth at me...it would be funny if it weren't so annoying. He's a little fluffy poodle and usually is the soul of good nature. I finally got some medicine in his ear but not sure if it got far enough into the ear canal.

Any tips on how to restrain a (OK, I'm laughing now) 15-pound fluffy poodle so I can get the damned drops in his ear?

[Camdynlyn]

I've got the same problem and my Shih Tzu has taken bites out of my hands and sent me to Urgent Care. We called vets around to see what to do (we were trying to pop his bottom with newspapers and he would charge after us) and the vets we talked to told us to do a combo of things:

1) Always look them in the eye and in a growl voice, tell them NO! Look them in the eye until they look away... letting them know YOU are boss, not them.

2) If they become violent, try to turn them on their backs, restrain them and then look them in the eye. It's sounds horrible but has worked wonders!

[wendalah]

The stern "NO" worked, sort of. He sat for me after that, but was still mighty pissed. He's been tolerating the treatment just barely and yesterday, he finally snapped.

[wendalah]

BTW, this is the dog that's biting me. Go ahead, laugh!

http://static.flickr.com/49/125781182_83a3e81891.jpg?v=0

[wendalah]

And THIS is what he's acting like!

http://bajaoasis.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/mohawk.jpg

[pewee9196]

I have a cute fluffy terrier that is prone to ear infections- I can so relate. We have a couple things we do. The breed is known to respond to the next so please don't think I am a horrible puppy mommy- we have had to pin him on his back with our hand pressed on his chest until he submits by sticking his tongue out. After that he will take the drops. That is only used when he is really really bad. The other is we hold his snout closed so he can not snap at us.

Good Luck. I actually just came from the vet because of his ears. I know that frustration!

[Hello Kitty]

You can try to wrap him tightly (swaddle) him in a towel, which should leave just his head free - one person can control his head and the other can administer drops. Another idea, that works with or in lieu of the towel thing, is to lay with your leg over his body, and one hand on the snout.

We used to have to wrestle a 75lb boxer for her ear treatments and these helped a lot!

[jesvet]

I'm not laughing at you, those little guys can be land sharks!

Seb's Kitty's suggestion of a towel burrito is a good one. If he's really wriggly you may be stuck with a two man job.

[pewee9196]

What a great idea!

[wendalah]

Poor Smokey...he's not going to be happy about this :)

[jnettie]

LMAO! I haven't seen "Poodle with a Mohawk" in years! Wasn't that from "Sylvia" cartoons?

While I had to wrestle a 6 pound cat not a 15 pound dog, I can relate! We did the burrito thing, too, and that does work well, but ear infections are so painful and they really hate when you touch their ears while they hurt. She put a huge scratch on my leg and both arms trying to get away. Poor kitty. Eventually I just stopped the ear drops and ear cleanings (drops 3x a day, cleanings 2x) because she'd just run and hide every time she'd see me comming. It was far too stressfull on both of us. But I also had anti-biotics to put in her food, so she was still getting something.

[~queen~]

Not laughing at you at all! I have 2 MinPins who can get very snippy if you let 'em.

My big thing to do is grab them by the scruff of the neck like their birth mom used to do and say a stern No!! and shake a little bit. It works every time!

[wendalah]

Update: His ear is much improved tonight, and--while he did growl at me--I said a stern "NO." And he sat quietly (baring his teeth, but whatever) and let me clean and medicate his ear. The teeth were bared the whole time, I must reiterate. But he didn't bite. I think he's feeling better.

[Rose]

Oh the cute the little baby, the little honey bunny. ;) For the future could you get some type of gentle leader or muzzle?

[katiadarling]

A gentle leader is just a walking/training aid head collar and won't do anything to keep a dog from biting. If the issue is really severe and you feel a muzzle is necessary, petsmart and petco sell mesh muzzles that are pretty good (my dog wears one on road trips when we leave him alone in the car with our snacks (for short periods of time only)... he's a huge food hound!)