Muzzle Training

Muzzle training has hands down been the most useful training that we have done. In fact, it’s something that we’ve discussed that every single dog we own (regardless of any reactivity) will be trained on. We had originally started muzzle training in May/June of 2022 for vet visits only. G had a terrible vet visit in April 2022 where he was pinned to table for a vaccination and it pushed him over the edge. He went from happy to see strangers and the vet, to being absolutely terrified to the point where he felt the need to defend himself. In the 9 months we had him, we had already seen the vet and emergency vet a couple of times, and each time he had happily wagged and walked off with the vet. But in that moment, we realized that muzzle training was going to be a must for future vet visits.

 

Muzzle training was something I knew absolutely nothing about. 

 

I didn’t know what types of muzzles exists; or how to measure one for my dog; or how to get started in training. Baskerville muzzles are probably the most “well-known” muzzles, so we opted for that. We went to our local pet store, and went to check out what muzzles they had. They only had one muzzle in stock (a Baskerville), and it was gigantic. The whole muzzle fit G’s entire head. So I walked out, and immediately messaged a friend to see what size Baskerville her rescue used, and bought the same one off of Amazon. 

 

We ended up starting out with a Baskerville size 5. 

 

And then I started my never ending search on IG on how to train muzzles. To be honest, it was pretty hard to find. It’s not “social media pretty” so most dogstagram accounts don’t have dogs with muzzles. The one’s that do, have their dogs trained with it already. Not a lot of accounts broke it down. One account I did fine to be pretty helpful was @thetobyproject.

 

Training started slow:

1. Treat every time he interacted with the muzzle (nudging it with his nose or pawing at it)

2. Treat when putting his face in it (luring him to do so with a treat inside the muzzle) - eventually adding a command to this action (we use the term “muzzle”)

3. Treat for duration of having his face in the muzzle (lots of greek yogurt or PB helped)

 

The next step was getting the around his head and to ensure it was correctly sized. This was probably the thing we struggled with the most. As soon as the muzzle was correctly on his face, we would reach around for the strap, but he would immediately back away and freak out. So we needed to break this step down in a similar manner.

 

1. Expand the loop on the Baskerville muzzle as far as it would go creating a big loop that G could stick his head through

2. Treat for interacting with the strap (nudging it with his nose)

3. Treat to lure his face through the loop - eventually adding a command for this action (we use “head”)

4. Once he is able to make the choice of putting his head through the loop, let the muzzle go so that he can feel the weight of the muzzle with the strap. Treat for putting his head through the straps, and treat when you pick the muzzle back up to pull the loop out of his head (when removing his head from the strap, we say “head out”)

5. Treat when you handle the strap on his neck (while the muzzle is hanging around his neck) - eventually adding a word to this (we use the term “strap”; this isn’t a command, but rather a heads up to him that we are going to handle the strap). Handling started off slow - touching the strap to eventually grabbing the strap and moving it back and forth. 

6. Similar to “strap”, we added a word for the clicking noise that quick release snaps make - we use the word “clip”. This is just to let him know that he should expect the snap noise - this is trained by saying the word, clipping the buckle, and then giving him a treat. Again, this isn’t a command, it’s just to get him used to the noise and the action. 

7. Finally all of this should be put together - “muzzle” command, “strap” notice, and “clip” notice.

 

We started in about May/June 2022 and didn’t get to finish all of these steps until about September 2022. At that point, I did some more research, joined the Muzzle Up, Pup! - The Pro-Muzzle Community Facebook Group, and chatted with fellow muzzled dog owners on IG. I learned the importance of pant space in the summer, but had wanted to wait until he was muzzle trained to get his measurements and invest in a better muzzle. By September 2022, we hit another road block and it was evident that the reason was the muzzle was too small for him to feel comfortable. I purchased a better sized muzzle from the Muzzle Movement, which arrived in October 2022. We were able to clip that muzzle almost immediately without him trying to paw it off his face. 

 

Like most dogs, even with all of these consent actions and a better fitting muzzle with pant space, it can still be a little uncomfortable or strange for your dog to have something on their face. So even after all of these steps, it’s important to continue with positive associations. 

 

We would put the muzzle on, and have Grayson chase us; or we would put the muzzle on and immediately go out for a walk where his focus would shift to being outside; or we’d put it on at the park; and etc. Slowly the muzzle started to stay on for a couple of minutes, to a full walk, to longer as needed.

 

Still to this day, we will muzzle randomly even when it’s not necessary. This ensures that the muzzle isn’t associated with only one thing (like a vet visit).