text: Patience and practice is the rule of this game. There are several things you can do to make administering eardrops more pleasant for your dog. Like teaching anything, a task broken down into smaller increments is the best way to go. Here are some suggestions.
  Through the course of your dogs life deliver touch to many parts of his body so that by the time he ever needs e.g. his ears mucked about with he already has a tolerance for that type of handling. Many dogs will tolerate a finger in the ear and some relish it.
  Don’t just bring a bottle of drops out when its time for drops as this can become the signal for your dog to leave immediately. Bring the bottle in sight and toss your dog a few treats. Put it away and repeat. Try placing it on different counters. Play it cool like it’s no big deal.
  Once he is used to be touched around the ears and used to the presence of the bottle, leave the cap on the bottle and get him used to the bottle coming near his ear. Build up to a ‘pretend’ delivery with the cap still on. This will get you more used to it to minus feeling tense about putting the drops in. Keep those treats coming each time the bottle touches around or inside his ear. Later you should also give him the chance you smell the solution. Just leaving the cap off will be enough. Bottle in sight, cap off, reward, cap back on and bottle out of sight.
  When it seems easy enough for your dog to be around the bottle and the smell you can move onto administering the drops and still he should be heavily rewarded the second they’re done. Ask you vet if it is ok to warm the bottle gently in some warm water as something blood temperature in an ear is less alarming than something cold. Go gently to try and avoid the ‘squirty’ sound right in your dog ear. Holding pressure on the bottle until you remove it from his ear will help avoid the slurp sound of air which often happens after we’ve squirted.
  Leah & Angela OMeara
  Hound Dog Day Care (Specialists in Dog Minding & Dog Boarding, Pet Sitting Brisbane & Doggy Day Care Brisbane)