Picnic season - shall I muzzle?

[Bathsheba3]

My golden retriever is on the constant scrounge for food. I am contemplating getting a soft muzzle of some sort for picnic season, so he can have some off-lead time without the fear of ruining another picnic.

Even this morning he managed to locate and demolish a foil-wrapped sandwich from workman's carrier bag in the 30 seconds I was distracted picking up his poo. 9am I thought it was safe to let him off lead.

Anyone use a muzzle for this reason? Is there a brand of muzzle that will prevent him eating but not make him look scary? If you use a muzzle did your dog get used to it?

Please don't use a cloth muzzle. They cannot pant to regulate their temperature in one and can very quickly over heat.

The muzzle I use on my Lab and recommend is a baskerville type. They can still pant, take food rewards through it and also drink but can't pick up random picnic items.

Also, don't just slap it on and expect a dog to accept it. they need to be carefully conditioned to associate a muzzle as a positive thing. Have a look at the Kikopup Channel on YouTube for muzzle conditioning tips.

I'm thinking about a muzzle for my lab as he's a terrible scavenger but I know he'd hate it as the whole point of walks, for him, is to sniff out and eat rotting dead things.

We often see a GR wearing a basket muzzle and he looks really happy and friendly. He nearly died last year from eating something in the woods so owner didn't want to risk it happening again and thought better a muzzle than never going off lead. Says dog accepted it really well.
Perhaps I need to get a grip and buy that muzzle before my dog gets ill, rather than after.

Lilcamper - one thing that puts me off a basket muzzle is that my lab has a problem with the skin on his nose (congenital nasal keratosis) under control, but easily damaged if he rubs it. Would he be able to push his nose against a Baskerville muzzle? If he finds food he's likely to really try and eat it and I'm worried he might end up with a mashed up nose.

Thanks both - and great advice Lilcamper on both choice of muzzle and conditioning. My GR had 24 hour D & V last week, through eating something rank, so it will be a good thing him too.

To be honest a muzzle won't really stop him ruining a picnic/other people's food. He will still paw at it etc if he can't grab with his mouth. If you can't control him then you need to keep him leashed or carry lots of cash with you I pay for what he wrecks.

To pay

A properly fitted baskerville should not touch the nose.

But I agree, i little work on a recall and a leave wouldn't hurt. A long line and harness would help too.

My dogs muzzled for well, the not biting things reason, lol.

It's a Baskerville and fits him fine, so a good distance from his nose , but...

He can still eat things through a combination of squashing them into his muzzle and sticking his tongue out.

He can for instance play fetch with a glove or sock with it on, not as efficiently, but fairly easily.

So while it might slow him down, it won't completely stop him being able to eat.

are you hoping to prevent your dog from eating things he shouldn't that could make him ill (muzzle will hopefully slow him down), or prevent him ruining other peoples picnics (muzzle mostly unlikely to stop this behaviour)?

If the latter, the only way to prevent this is to not take him to picnic areas, or training a strong recall/leave around food. (I've a lab and would never allow off lead in a picnic area).

Primarily picnics. We normally avoid picnic areas like the plague in the summer, go 1st thing, or at least keep him on lead for duration of walk.

Recall is generally v good (reward with tasty treats!). And I do always carry a fiver / tenner around just incase.

If I got a muzzle it would be for the occasional walk .... it was just a thought out loud. Thanks for everyone's replies. Much appreciated.

Another thing to think about if it's for picnicking people...IME people react very very differently to a muzzled dog.

So while people may well be annoyed at a picnic interrupting dog, a muzzle makes them think dangerous dog, so any reactions are going to be more heightened because of that.

If you can't prevent your dog going over and investigating picnics, he should be on a leash.

It should be on a lead surely? My children oils be terrified of a random dog came running over onto picnic rug even with a muzzle on. Some people aren't fans of dogs so you shouldn't impose your dog on other people when they have chosen not to have one

your dog has good recall and yet you can't stop it taking food/ruining picknicks?
sorry doesn't add up.

it seems to me that you need to keep it on the lead and only let it off in a secure area.

My dog has excellent recall in virtually every situation except if there's a picnic in sight

It's not just the food, it's also the people - he is convinced that everyone he meets will love him and is yet to understand that this is not always the case...

So I avoid picnic areas and if we come across one unexpectedly I always put him on the lead

In the meantime we control to work on recall.., he's only young so I hope that at some point I'll be able to say he has excellent recall in all situations with no exceptions

Gah continue not control

People always assume muzzles are for aggression rather than scavenging. A fat lab trying to eat a picnic would be seen as annoying, a muzzled fat lab trying to eat a picnic is seen as terrifying.

Agree that a muzzle won't always stop them eating. Ours still retrieved dead rabbits (then used to sit beautifully asking for her muzzle to be taken off so she could crunch them!)

Dreading the picnic season with our new pup.