[Dannay]

We have 2 littermates and they are great together. We keep them separated for most of the time, but they are allowed a little social time together during the day, supervised of course.

They are 11wks old now, and their play typically consists of play-fighting, rolling around in the grass, tails wagging, having a good old time! However, their play-fighting involves a lot of biting to the neck and head area, which is all well and good, but I get concerned when they accidentally bite the others ear. I immediately break them up when ears become involved, because I don't want them to have problems.

I know it's still early. One of them has one ear resting horizontally across his head, with his other ear down, and the other puppy has both ears down, like a lab still. I am just concerned that all this play-fighting could do damage to their ears. Any thoughts/considerations? What bones do you guys normally give them to help them stimulate the cartilage growth?

 

[tracyc]

I don't have any knowledge about the play fighting and damage to ears, but it seems prudent to break up any squabbles where ear-biting is concerned, if only for your own nerves.

Anything that will encourage vigorous chewing will help to strengthen the muscles in the head that are used to hold up the ears. Just be a bit cautious about leaving puppies unsupervised with anything that could be a choking hazard. But as long as you're there to watch over them, you could offer any of the store-bought chew toys. Alternatively, you could offer raw bones (turkey necks, beef or pork ribs, lamb shank) from the grocery store for chewing fun.

As I'm sure you've already read here, ears go up and down in all kinds of crazy ways until the pups are done with teething, so I wouldn't be too concerned about them being up until 5 months of age.