Desensitizing your pet to ear cleaning

You can consult our ear cleaning training and desensitization chart.

You can also watch our demonstration video : 

Show the cotton pads and/or the ear cleansing solution bottle without touching your pet’s ears and give them a treat every time you show them the items. Then, hide the cotton pads and/or the bottle and stop giving them treats. Repeat this several times during each practice session. The goal is to make them understand that when they see the notorious cleansing solution bottle there are treats attached to it!

Every time you touch your pet’s ears, reward them a treat. Make sure that you can touch them, flip them on top of their head, keep them open, and touch the entrance of the ear canal without your pet showing signs of stress.

Repeat these manipulations a few times each practice session, making sure that there is always a treat with each of them.

Using a dry cotton pad, mimic cleaning the ear’s pinna. Wipe the pinna and give a reward every time. Moving forward, increase the number of wipes before giving the reward. Pay attention to your animal’s body language.

Using a closed ear cleansing solution bottle, mimic applying the solution in the ear. Flip the pinna and hold the ear at the base like you did in Step 2.

Once your animal is used to the manipulations, and cooperates when presented with the cleansing solution bottle, you can start cleaning the ear lightly. The goal is to gradually moving toward a more thorough cleansing. If the ear is not dirty, simply pour a few drops of cleansing solution on the cotton pad and wipe once or twice. To practice filling and massaging the ear canal, only use a little bit of ear cleansing solution rather than filling up the ear canal. We want to mimic the situation as much as possible in preparation for an actual deep cleaning in the future.