We've nicknamed him Calamity Murphy for a reason  (to go along with that he can also be called Million Dollar Murphy- as that is about what he's cost in vet bills since he came home with us at the age of 8 weeks).

Anyway, a few weeks ago Murf must have gotten into a tussle at daycare and he came home with a teensy tiny little nick on his ear. Right at the tip... I didn't think much of it as it wasn't bleeding and didn't seem to be bothering him.  I cleaned it up, put some neosporin on it and thought we were good to go.  Well about a week ago I noticed that it was a much larger cut... bordering on "a notch" as opposed to a nick.  It was beginning to look like his ear was splitting.    And, every time he shook his head and his ears flapped it broke open and started bleeding profusely.  I'll spare you the gross details but let's just say that Murphy shakes A LOT and my walls were beginning to look like a murder scene!

So I decided to take him to the vet and have it looked at and ask for a solution... it was determined that our best option would be to stitch up the wound in order to get good closure and clean margins and keep him in cone for 3-4 days to keep the "shaking" effects at a minimum.  We also needed to keep him quiet for a few days.  Riiiighht How do you stop a dog from shaking his head?! Second question: How do you keep a perfectly healthy GSP quiet?!

Well we spent the weekend holed up in the house with him... lots of bones, belly rubs... toys... trying to stop him from shaking/flapping as much as we could.  Apparently it just wasn't enough, because last night we wound up in the animal ER with him becuase he manged to bust the stitches open! Apparently the stitches had been coming loose for a day or two and at that point were only holding together scab material.  So they stitched him back up... gave us some sedatives and sent us home.

What I need help with is this:
We've been advised that he needs to keep the stitches in for 2 weeks.  They refuse to wrap up the ear and bandage it to his head saying he will just shake or scratch it loose anyway. 

I'm very uncomfortable giving him sedatives when he's not in pain and doesn't NEED them.. I've had a dog have a seizure as an effect of a sedative before and am not a fan of them. 
We plan to keep the cone on him, but it doesn't seem to have helped much previously...

I'm running out of ideas... how on earth can I get this poor dog to stay quiet and manage to keep this set of stitches in? Does anyone have any ideas on how we can keep this ear trauma free for the next two weeks???

I feel terrible for Murf... he's been wearing a cone for 6 days straight now... he's never worn one that long.  Not even when he was neutered!

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!!

Oh Poor Murphy Would get a narrow ace 2 inch ace bandage and wrap it as far back on the neck and head just enough to ancher the ear down.Like this.

Here is a closer look. Rocky tolerated this Ace bandage OK without trying to shake it off. Hopefully it will work for Murphy.

If the ace bandage doesn't work get a snood.  They use them on the long haired long earred dogs (like cockers to keep there ears from dragging. They are looser fitting than the ace, but they should keep the ear from flopping around.  May actually be more comfortable for him.  Just an idea.

Here is a link to the ones they have at Cherrybrook.  You can get them lots of places, just google dog snoods.

www.cherrybrook.com/index.cfm/a/catalog.prodshow/vid/378594/catid/214/vname/Eagle_Print_Snoods

OK... so the ace bandage is ok for when we're home to keep an eye on him. He is always in motion and every little head/neck movement managed to make it slip just a little bit. Somehow last night he managed to slither out of it 4 times in about 5 hours. (Guess we can call him Houdini as well!)  I tried every combination of cone/ace bandage wrap technique I could think of...but within an hour or so I could see it slipping off his head.  I finally gave up, gave him a "relaxing" dose of Benadryl and we went to sleep... this is exhausting!

I have ordered a snood and it should be here tomorrow... so fingers crossed that is the answer!  I'm not very crafty so making one is probably not the best option for us..LOL! Thankfully I am able to work from home today so I can keep an eye on him and stop him from hurting the ear further.  I'll let you all know how the snood works out.  He's currently snoozing on my lap so we'll hope he keeps the energy level on "low" for the day.

Thanks for all the suggestions!!!