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Hair on head/ears

We have a new Maltese puppy named Gidget. She's been with us just 3 weeks. I would like to let her hair grow and have been working on grooming with her, although it has not been pleasant for either of us. She is so frisky, she will not allow me to handle her ears or facial area. have 2 questions:

1. The hair on her head is not quite long enough to put up but so long it hangs in her eyes. Any suggestions?
2. She has had one ear infection and her ears have lots of hair in them. Our vet suggested plucking it out although, I have tried and it is virtually impossible without hurting her, not from the plucking but because she is so uncooperative that I'm afraid I will poke her with the tweezers. I have also tried the ear cleaners (drops) which I got from our vet. But not much success. Any suggestions?

• In response to your 2nd question, I pluck the hair from our Maltese ears late at night when she is most tired. She's much more cooperative and really doesn't have the energy to put up much of a fuss.

• You should try to determine the cause of the ear infection. Reasons include: ear mites, bacteria, allergies. The cause will determine the treatment. My 10 year old Maltese had chronic ear infections and the vet ruled out mites and bacteria. He suggested that she might be allergic to something and dogs exhibit skin irritation as a reaction to allergies. I didn't believe it for a long time. Mostly because I changed her diet without effect. By chance, I needed to put her on a diet and stopped giving her favorite treat - peanuts. Within days, the ear cleared up. My advice is to have your vet do a thorough exam of your dog's ears, including tests to rule out bacteria or mites. Also, some drops work very well to stop your dog from scratching the ear and making the irritation worse. A trick I use with my dog (to keep her from shaking the drops back out of her ears) is to hold down her ears, after I put the drops in, hold her close, kiss her and say soothing things to her. It seems to calm her long enough to allow the drops to settle deeper in the ear and she often doesn't shake at all. I hope this helps.