Two days ago one of the foam tubes in Savage's ear slipped out of the ear canal and caused the whole brace to fall to one side. Which, in turn, caused his ears to stand crooked. So we struggled to take the tape off, along with the tubes, and then I attempted my first ear-taping. The theory is very simple, and it's pretty quick and easy. Then comes the part where you must make sure both ears are standing straight and even. Fine. That was also fairly easy. Then as soon as I was finished Savage shook his head and one tube popped right out of the ear canal again! Now I know that the tubes have to be further down and the ear has to be stretched out to it's full length before being taped to the tube. Well, then I had to try it again, and this time I made sure the tube was secured farther down. However, it seems it was far enough into the ear that it bothered the puppy, and yesterday he began scratching at it a lot. This morning both his tape and tubes were laying in his crate when I woke up and his little ears were standing beautifully, though I was less than pleased at the job ahead of me. Because this is a two-person job I will have to wait til R. comes home, which means I will be late for work. But K. told me not to leave the ears out for long because once they fall again I will be working against the progress they had made in standing before that. Right now the tip on one ear is already drooping. Damn! I guess I will need to try this a few times before I get it right. The thing that really worries me is getting the ears even. Before he even tore these off I was looking for an excuse to re-tape, as they were still a bit crooked. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise and I certainly need the practice. I think one of the reasons that the taping came off so easily is that I used a cloth tape that didn't stick half as well as the original the vet clinic worker put on. I do have some skin-bond glue but hesitate to use it. The original taping was difficult to get off his ears and took some fur with it. I've heard baby oil works well to soften the glue, but K. warns me that the ears have to be cleaned extremely well after in order to accept the tape again. Tonight we will try this taping stuff again. Hopefully with success!