advise on muzzle please

[mckenzie]

I've been working on getting our 4 year old dog used to a muzzle for the last few weeks, feeding him tasty treats while holding it over his nose. He is really happy to stick his nose in and seems quite chilled while eating the treats. I've kept it really relaxed and fun(I think)
As soon as I go one step further and try to do up the strap he gets really agitated and ignores the treats and tries to remove it with his paw. I do it with me doing up the strap while DH or a DC feeds the treats. What else can I do to get over this next step?

It's a Baskerville one, I think maybe a size too big and I'm going to get the smaller one today.

Bump

You are just going a little bit too quick for you dog

Look at this video from Chirag this should help sort out any issues you have.

A couple of things to consider and are mentioned on the video - make sure the dog is able to charge into the muzzle whilst you move it away from them

Make sure you are rewarding the dog for pushing into the muzzle not pulling the head out

Handle the straps only when the dog is happy for duration in the muzzle

DO not do up the neck strap for a while and keep the straps very loose to start with.

Another thing to think about is use the muzzle as an indicator to a game - my guys use a muzzle to push a large football - to them the muzzle means games so there is never any tension re the muzzle.

If you only put the muzzle on when going to the vet or when a reactive dog is going to meet dogs you will have issues with the muzzle.

thank you very much. I shall go back to the beginning.

What you can also do is use cones of mugs for you dog to put his nose into.

Using different items seems to give some dogs more confidence and makes it a more normal behaviour (also great for teaching scent work indication so more fun can be had! )

same idea but more fun based

cones or mugs!

Thank you again for that first clip. It is so helpful, informative, easy to follow.
I shall follow it totally. I feel confident now that we can both succeed.

we ALWAYS put a smear of peanut butter in the bottom of the baskerville muzzle we use for our JRT. It has to fit well and be small enough. It is fair to say our JRT hates the muzzle but we have to use it for vet visits , sometimes when people visit the house, and when he is travelling in the car or he would have to be PTS because he would bite. So we see the muzzle as a life saver. He AWAYS gets a reward when the muzzle comes off. But he will always hate it even though he can run play pant bark and drink when wearing it.