How about ears?

[Susan Gordon]

OK, I've been grooming my own Newfs for 15 years but have yet to learn a good method for doing ears. I know you should cut the bottoms of the ears with a straight sissor but how far back do you cut? I feel like I'm taking the half way back his neck. I don't have any trouble with the thinning shears it's just that straight cut. And while I'm on the subject, I have had 5 Newfs, only 2 of which have needed extensive trimming. Both of these Newfs had quite a few Landseers in their pedigrees. Is this a factor? Jubal, who I have now, has a landseer mom and I have never had a dog that I had to trim their eybrows till him. They get so long that he starts to look like an Old English Sheepdog and the hair underneath his eyes starts growing up to meet the eybrows. He also gets extremely shaggy looking ears and has the longest hair on his tummy I have ever seen. My other Newf, Tasha, thank god, looks like she has just been trimmed all the time.

 

[Jeannie]

Susan,
I take the straight cut all the way back to almost to where the ears connects to the head. I think the trick to getting the ears to look good is using the thinning shears to cut the hair under and behind the ear so that the ear is "seperated" from the neck. Understand?

I find it very easy to do, but hard to explain. I hope this helps some. I too have a newf that has Landseer in her background, she needs to be trimmed only every 4-6 weeks, my other newf needs to be trimmed every 2 weeks. Must be something about the Landseer!!! By the way, I am a professional groomer, so I hope I can answer people's questions!!!!!

 

[sarnewfie]

i think it depends on your lineage, i have topmast lineage and none of my newfs out of 4 and 1 a landseer and 1 recessive never had that problem, the topmast dogs seem to have cleaner heads, whereas and i am not critisizing some other lines have hairy heads.
i am a groomer also,i prefer to use the thinning shear all along the edges of the ears, thinning the outer ear so it stands out from the head. i also think the neck area and trim very short at the base of the inner ear.
so air gets into the ear canal.