Papillon Eating his Own Earfringe

Someone recently asked me for advise, as their young Papillon developed a habit of pulling his ear down with his paw, to then chew on his fringe.

I am sure he is not the only fringed ear dog doing this, and in my own experience, there where some occasions, where a dog of mine got some left -over food on his ear fringe, or even chest hair, and then tried to eat the food out of his fringe, or hair.
This can be a dangerous situation, as the Pap's teeth may get entangled in the hair, and it may force his jaw to stay open, or pull his head down toward his chest, or twist his neck towards  the side; not to speak of loosing his so valued fringe.

As my dogs only had occasional accidents like this, a dog with a bad habit of steadily chewing on his own ear fringe, or hair, is a tough problem to solve.

Here is what I would do, if it would be my Papillon:
Ask , why is he doing this? Boredom, frustration? Is he a "hyper" dog? Does he come from a line of highly agile, active,high strung type dogs? (The ones who act like little Border Collies) ?
All this will help to assess the nature of the problem, and hopefully in finding a solution.

• Make sure the dog's ear, and chest hair is always well groomed, and has no tangles, where teeth possible could get hang up on. 
• Spray the hair with half apple cider vinegar/water.
• Get a snoot on him while he eats. 
• Give him plenty of real bones throughout the day. Mine always have beef backbones available 

• Get him a lot of toys.
• Get him so much exercise that he is too tired to think about hair chewing.
• Get him a play mate, if you can not provide him the exercise he needs.