This is Barney, a one year old Miniature Poodle.
He's about to have his ears cleaned in the hands of a real expert.
Jitka Krizova is one of Europe's top dog groomers.
Sasha is enjoying herself.
Originally from Slovakia, she now lives and works in Britain.
She's been showing and grooming dogs for 20 years and has won an impressive array of awards.
British Groomer of the Year Award 2006, Eurogroom winner three times in a row and in 2011 she
clipped and snipped her way to the World Championships as a member of Groom Team England.
Jitka's sharing her champion tips and techniques to help you keep your dog in pristine condition.
For many dogs a mild swabbing with ear cleanser is enough to keep their ears healthy.
But for curly wavy coated breeds like Poodles, Bichons, Schnauzers, Shih-tzus and Lhasa apsos
- it's not so straight forward.
It's important to keep your dogs ears very clean and tidy.
Dogs' ears should be odour free, hair free and dirt free.
Some of the breeds, like Barney here, have long hair growing from inside the ear canal.
These hairs have to be plucked out and then we will clean the ear with cotton wool and
ear cleanser.
We put a little bit of ear powder in the dog's ears.
Grab a little bit of hair between your thumb and finger and pull.
We're using ear powder to make plucking ears easier.
It helps us to grab the hair and also it releases the hair a little bit.
If you don't pluck your dogs ears the whole ear canal can become blocked with hair.
This stops the air from circulating and can lead to infection.
Dogs with droopy ears are especially susceptible to fungus, waxy ears and ear mites.
People can do ear plucking in cleaning at home.
Sometimes it's not a very pleasant experience for a dog, especially the ear plucking, and
probably would be better if it is done by a professional dog groomer or vet nurse.
When we start early age with ear plucking dogs can get used to it.
It doesn't have to be stressful.
Dogs like Barney with hairy, long ears may be prone to picking up grass seeds in their
ears.
Arrow shaped grass seeds tend to attach themselves to the fur and then work their way down the
ear canal coming to rest right up against the delicate ear drum.
This is very painful and requires immediate veterinary attention.
Next using cotton wool and ear cleanser Jitka gently removes any dirt and excess ear wax
from Barney's ear.
When you're wiping the ear, don't go any further than you can see.
Otherwise it could cause ear irritation.
Ear cleaning can be done every three-four weeks, up to six weeks.
Now Barney's wars are nice and clean.
We should keep an eye on the dog's ears and check them on a regular basis.
If your dog has an infection you will probably notice him scratching or shaking his ears.
If you see any redness, scabs, unpleasant odour, don't try to clean the ears on your
own, take your dog to the vet.