Just a quick question: what is the normal time for a Sibe's ears to stand upright? Just saw some 7 weeks old pics of Link's litter and one of his brothers still has 2 floppy ears, and one other brother has one up, and one down.

Just curious.

I'm not sure on exact age but I know its pretty young. I have a friend who's GSD's ear wasn't standing up when she got her and she had to tape it up so that it would stay up otherwise it would have had to been surgically fixed. I'm not sure if its the same for huskies or not.

Loki had one ear up and one down at 8 weeks. By about 10 weeks both were full up.

Anakin's ears stay floppy up until his 6th week. At that point his left ear went up(or was it his right? have to go back and look at pictures) but the right one stayed down for awhile. A few in his litter had both up at that point though. I think it really just depends on the dog and how often his ears are getting nibbled on by siblings and what not. Both of his ears were up around 9 weeks tho. Some dogs are both up by around 6, and some just take longer. That's what I've been told and what I've seen first hand. Going on what I've come across so far, I think by 3 months they should both be at least starting to go up.

It depends on the dog. Some ears are simply thick and heavy. Usually, these will be up in no time and are small ears. Some are long and thing, these can take a little longer and usually are taller than other ears. Don't be alarmed if they are down for a while, its normal.

Cool thanks folks. I'm definitely not alarmed, I assumed there was variation in the time and rates in which they stand up. My partner wants know though if there are some Huskies whose ears don't stand up at all: so do floppy eared Huskies exist because they had a genetic glitch??

No. They will stand up. It's part of our breed. My males were up for a logn time, then at six week fell, and were up by 9 weeks. I can post pics if you would like?

6 weeks or so:



About a week or so later -



literally 2 weeks later -



Now (pissed at me!):

Ok, so let's say you take your litter in at 8 weeks for show aptitude. Puppy A has one/two floppy ears that have not stood upright yet. Is puppy A's evaluation at that time, based on the breed standard of upright ears in conjunction with her/his floppy ear(s) right now inconclusive or impossible?? Is the mere possibility of the ear(s) not going to stand up warrant a negative show evaluation??

(My partner is an empirical scientist and he insists that based on the evdence right now puppy A can not be deemed show worthy RIGHT NOW).

I say that's ridiculous because everyone knows a Husky's ears will stand and that mere genetic possibility is an inappropriate standard to have at this evaluation.

Dog is still show worthy. worry more about structure in body right now rather than those ears. Do you have a pedigree? If i see both parents that will be more helpful.

It's not uncommon for larger puppies of the litter to take awhile for their ears to stand.

My understanding is that the ears standing up are tied to the strengthening of the muscles of their face. (I've read this on GSD forums - don't ask me how).

So the ears standing or not standing has little bearing (at the time) on if the dog is a show prospect or not because the primary concern is if the dog has good conformation overall and is balanced according to the standard.

We know our pups are pure bred show Sibes, this is more hypothetical. His claim is that genetic variation is inevitable, and on current empirical evidence, puppy A can not be deemed show worthy.

And this is based on....some arbitrary number of weeks picked that the ears aren't standing by?

I've seen ears not standing by 10+ weeks but they're up the day after? I've seen pups come up by 4 weeks and drop at 8 only to stand at 9.

8 weeks is not an "end all be all" in puppy growth. Many things can and will change. You can evaluate a puppy at 8 weeks as the best show potential in a litter only to have it grow up to not meet expectation while the one you deemed as a pet quality could end up being the best as it matures.

Well, that is a bit silly. Any show breeder will tell you it is completely normal and has nothing to do with the quality of dog. My dogs Sire and Grandpa both had the same thing happen and both are very winning dogs. Incredibly winning, I believe Tenzing was top Siberian for a while. Ears fall and then come up. It's not a big deal.

The most important thing is the thickness of the ears. If they are nice and thick they'll stand up nicely, if they are thin and flimsy they may not stand or if they do they most likely will be over sized. Sometimes the ears stand and then fall again through the teething phases and then stand again. I'd say if you don't have erect ears by 4 months you probably won't have erect ears-

I'll give one of my own examples of ears that didn't fall-

Enya 4 weeks


Enya 6 weeks


Enya 8 weeks


Enya today 9 months

My points in this argument exactly, thanks yall. I finally got him to accept if "pure Husky" is the premise, then upright ears are a given...at least in shows.

It is a show fault not to have upright ears....so does this mean floppy ears are actually possible or is this just stating the obvious in the breed standard?

And ears that came up a bit later-

Juenau 4 weeks-


Juneau 8 weeks-


Juneau 16 weeks-


Juneau today 7 years-

It doesn't happen often - honestly I have never seen or heard of a purebred Sibe having that problem. Seriously though, I would love to know what litter you are getting from. If i remember, they were huskavarna dogs, no?

Floopy ears can be found in Seppala dogs.

True, Ceara. I meant show lines. I'm sure it's more than possible, but I haven't seen it.

Sorry Megan - it wasn't directed at you. It was in response to the question if the floopy ears were possible.

I have seen a poorly bred Siberian, purebred, who's ears did not stand. They were too over sized and too under substanced to be able to stand erect. But that is poor breeding, nothing in that litter would have been evaluated to be anything more than pet quality. Providing the breeding behind the puppy is of quality and proven lines you don't have to worry. Ears will eventually stand, it's part of our breed. The main thing to be evaluating is the structure of the puppy, rears, elbows, angles, etc.

This is a dog with no quality breeding behind it, but is purebred. The ears are way over sized and were paper thin so there was no substance to help the ear stand-

Oh I know!! I just wanted to reiterate what I meant...thats the problem with forums. Sometimes, perception isn't helpful.

Sorry for the misunderstanding <3

Our pup is not from Huskavarna. Our breeder at Kalara does have several dogs from there though. There were 10 ears in our litter, at 7 weeks only 3 aren't up yet. A problem this does not make. more of a "hey, I wonder what is normal for.......??"

And this was in no way questioning our pups breeding, cause they're from show dogs from excellent kennels.

More of an abstraction, not related to actual circumstances in our situation.