grooming ears with no thinning shears

He sounds beautiful... I don't know about the scissors though...??? Just waiting for a pic!

Yes. you can use regular scissors. The diffence is in the finished look. Thinning shears make the "trimming" to look invidisable. Using regular shers you often get scissor marks. It would look like you trimmed the ears but for your need to get some hair out of the way and open the ear canal I would say trim away. Good luck

I worry more about using thinning shears on the outside. I use regular manicure scissors for the hair in their ears.

Trust me if you use regular scissors on the outside it's gonna look bad.
You can buy inexpensive thinning shears at PetSmart or a beauty supply store like Sally's.

i trim ears with regular scissors .Not the best job,but works just fine. Cant wait to see a mahogany boy.What the deal with his name? Sound like a monster name for i (i am sure ) a love bug.

It is mainly the hair behind the ears not the top so I guess it will be ok.

I trim Bailey's ears with regular scissors and I don't think it looks bad. She really doesn't have a really big ear hair problem so it is a pretty minor trim. I'm not a groomer either and probably wouldn't know if she did look bad.

I am with Anney on this one - anything other than thinning scissors is gonna look hacked. Invest in an inexpensive pair at Sally's, or PetSmart, or even the drug store. They can be used behind, on the outside, and up underneath the ear, as well as on the top of feet and the tail.

I bought thinning shears at petsmart about a year ago, and they are terrible. Milly's ears looked more hacked with those so I started using a Solo Comb (they're made for horse's manes - here's what it looks like http://www.smartpakequine.com/ProductClass.aspx?productclassid=1626) and that worked a lot better than the Petsmart thinning shears. A few months ago I picked up a cheap pair of thinning shears at Sally's and they are really great. I'm sure anyone that has used really nice thinning shears is probably laughing that I love my Sally's pair, but they're 100x better than the most expensive ones Petsmart carries, and a heck of a lot better than using a comb made for pulling a horse's mane. I've gotten so much better at doing her ears... they're starting to look half way decent! The thinning shears also work great for de-grinching her feet.

I had a pair of $12.00 thinners from Sally's for a couple years....they worked just fine. Better looking ears then 95% of the Golden ears around here <wink>.
When more & more Goldens kept showing up on my doorstep...I've gotten progressively nicer shears....but my $12.00 thinners are still in the grooming bag!

Beaushel,
Not about the thinning shears but I wanted to say you drfinitely have a "Heart of Golden" with all you do for these rescues & fosters!

I use regular scissors for most things. Couldn't find my shears so did my GSDs ears with normal scissors and considering it was my first time doing GSD ear fluff, and I used scissors, it looked good. But I did some pretty fancy scissoring, I never just cut off chunks of hair. I absolutely suggest you get some shears! I'll be buying a new pair so I can keep up with Spirit's ears without it being so difficult as it was with the scissors.