Are ear problems common?

[Boone & Susan]

Let me start this discussion by saying that my last dog was a Cocker Spaniel named Lacey whom I had from birth until she passed at 14 years. She was my best friend and companion and I loved her beyond words. She and I fought her chronic ear infections on a daily basis. She had that constant dark brown build up in her ear canal and covering her inner ear flap. It smelled so bad, required countless hours of cleaning, and it clearly caused her a lot of pain and irritation.

Fast forward to today, and you can imagine my horror when I checked my 12 week old Labradoodle's ears the other night and found this dark brown evil substance in both his ears. I've been checking his ears frequently since we got him at 8 weeks (simply because I'm paranoid) and even the vet checked them 2 weeks ago, but we didn't see anything until just this week. It doesn't seem to be bothering him just yet but when I attempted to clean them, he had some obvious objections. I will definitely be getting him to the vet for inspection but I just wondered if any of you had experienced this with your Doodles or knew of ear issues being a problem with these guys. It kind of makes sense since their ears flap over similar to a Cocker's. Lacey died in 2009 and I'm hoping there have been some advancements in doggie medicine and there is a better solution for keeping this under control. 

Any advice?

P.S. With Lacey, I had different vets tell me all kinds of different things about her problem. Some said it was yeast, some said it was food allergies, some said I just had to keep her ears trimmed short...I heard it all and never really found a solution.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Ear infections are so common in purebred Poodles that chronic ear infections are referred to as "Poodle Ear". It's due to a number of factors, including the size and shape of the ear canal, the woolly, non-shedding coat, and the long floppy ears that keep air and light out and moisture in.

I had to be diligent about cleaning my last Poodle's ears, but my labradoodle Jack has a thin, straight, shedding coat and according to my vet, "nice big wide ear canals", so he has never had ear issues. Many others here have, though. We have many, many discussions here about it, but the bottom line is that you must see a vet, because yeast infections and bacterial infections are treated differently, and there is no way to know which you're dealing with (or possibly both) without having a culture done. 

[F, Calla & Luca]

When my doodles were young they needed me to clean their ears at least every other week. Now I can clean them less frequently but ear cleaning is vital if you want to keep infections away. It is relatively easy if your doodle doesn't require pulling hair. Mine haven't got much hair in their ear canals and I have never had to remove any. It does help to have the hair under the ear kept short. I don't think the length of the ear flap hair matters.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Ear problems are common with Doodles and I've found that keeping the ears clean really helps with my guys.  I clean with Epi Otic and then just wipe out the ear with a gauze pad.  My groomer does a good job of taking care of the hair inside the ear.  I really hated plucking it and since they go to the groomers once a month I just let her take care of it.  They've had very few ear infections, but I think that may be because we try to stay on top of the cleaning.

[Leslie, Yogi & Maci Bear]

I clean my dood's ears about every two weeks. I just use an ear cleaning product without alcohol and clean with cotton balls. Knock on wood, no infections yet. I also try to keep them trimmed shorter under their ears.