A grooming session is the natural ear inspection you already own. Your hands are on the head, the dog is settled, the light is usually good, and any change in how an ear looks, smells or feels under handling stands out against last month's session. Professional groomers flag ear trouble constantly for exactly this reason. Give both ears a deliberate minute before the bath rather than a glance during it, and treat what you find as information for the vet, not a problem to solve with the grooming kit.
What Handling Reveals
Handle each ear the same way and compare sides. A dog who leans into ear handling on one side and flinches, pulls away or shakes the head when you reach the other is localising the problem for you. Feel for thickened, rough or warm skin on the inner flap, scabs at the flap edge from scratching, and hair matted with discharge around the ear opening. Watch the dog's whole response as you dry after bathing: repeated head shaking, scratching at an ear, tilting the head or rubbing it along the floor once the session ends belongs to the same sign set as redness and wax, and a new reluctance to have the ears touched during a routine the dog normally enjoys is often the very first entry in it.
What You See and Smell Mid-Groom
Lift the flap in good light and read the skin you can see without probing. Early trouble shows as redness inside the flap, dark wax building up where last month there was little, discharge of any colour, or a sour, yeasty smell that rises as you handle the ear, noticeably stronger than the dog's ordinary coat smell. Spaniels and other drop-eared breeds deserve the closest look, since the flap seals in warmth and moisture; long hair growing at the ear opening can hold damp against the skin after bathing, so dry the flap and the hair around it thoroughly with the dog comfortable, and stop if drying itself clearly hurts.
What Grooming Should Not Turn Into
Finding signs is where grooming's role ends. Do not put drops, cleaners or home remedies into a red, smelly or sore ear, do not pluck or probe deep in the canal, and do not wash and rewash a painful ear hoping the smell improves: the canal is L-shaped and delicate, products can complicate the vet's examination, and some are unsafe if the eardrum is damaged. Note what you found, keep the ear dry, finish the rest of the groom gently, and book the vet. If you use a professional groomer, ask them to tell you exactly what they saw; a groomer's mid-session observation, passed on promptly, has started many an early treatment.
Acting on What You Spotted
Book promptly when handling signs come with redness, discharge or smell, and the same day for a swollen ear flap, sudden head tilt, loss of balance, obvious pain, or a suspected grass seed after a walk in long grass. Tell the vet which ear, what you saw and smelled, when the dog last seemed comfortable having it handled, and whether baths or swimming came just before. Repeat offenders benefit from the pattern across grooms: an ear that flares every spring tells a different story from a first-ever episode after one swim.
Dated notes from each session turn a groomer's hunch into a timeline the vet can work with, and in KinsLe the Pet Passport files those mid-groom observations beside clinic findings in your dog's single health record.