Say you’ve been working with dog-aggression issues between your own canine family members, or you’ve done a ton of counter-conditioning with your dog’s dog-reactive behavior, and you think you’re ready to let her interact with other dogs. A muzzle can be a useful tool in situations where, based on all the behavior-modification work you’ve been doing, you’re 99.9 percent sure it’s going to go okay, but you’d like a little extra insurance. Of course, you will need to fiercely protect her to prevent people and other dogs from interacting with her, even if she is muzzled the muzzle itself is just a backup. It also tends to keep people away, as they assume (often correctly) that a dog who must wear a muzzle would prefer not to be social. Muzzling her when you take her out in public keeps everyone safe (and her out of trouble!). A muzzle is an appropriate tool if you know that your dog might try to bite a toddler who rushes up to hug her, a well-meaning dog person who insists that “all dogs love me,” or an off-leash dog who bounces up to say hi.Įven if your dog is on a leash, you will still be responsible (and she will be in big trouble) if she bites someone who invades her space. Most veterinarians will allow you to use your own good-quality muzzle. Note: While veterinarians often use “sleeve” muzzles, these are not recommended, as they inhibit your dog’s ability to pant and take treats, and they can be very stressful for dogs. If your dog needs to be muzzled for routine care or grooming, you have some counter-conditioning work to do to help her learn to love (or at least happily tolerate) these events!

Muzzles should be used as needed for emergency or unavoidable procedures. When your dog must be handled or examined by your veterinarian for an unexpected condition, or treated at home for an injury, and there’s a good likelihood she will bite during the procedure, she will need to be muzzled for everyone’s safety. This, of course, will be easier and less stressful for everyone during an already stressful event if you have taken the time to convince her that a muzzle is wonderful.

If your dog is injured and must be moved or handled it is strongly advised to muzzle her. Here are some appropriate times when a muzzle could or should be used:Įmergencies.

Photo by Aditi Joshi When It IS A Good Time to Use the Muzzle Let’s muzzle him and show him we can take his bowl away from him because he needs to learn that humans are the boss.” NO, NOT EVER! Let’s muzzle him and take him along.” NO! Rocky doesn’t get to go to the dog park.

“My friend wants to take her dog to the dog park, and she wants us to come with her, but Rocky, who loves my friend’s dog, might bite the other dogs at the park.

Let’s muzzle her so the kids can have fun with her and she can’t bite them.” NO! Instead, either use scrupulous management to keep her and the kids safe from each other while the young’uns are visiting, send her to a friend’s house for the day, or perhaps board her for a longer grandkid-visit.

“Oh gee, the grandkids are coming over and Muffy might bite them.It is not ever appropriate to muzzle your dog so you can put her over-threshold in an avoidable situation. Let’s start with the situations when it is definitely not appropriate to muzzle your dog. Duh! But there are a few certain circumstances where it is appropriate to use a muzzle and many others where it is definitely not. The “why” seems obvious: You use a muzzle to prevent your dog from biting someone – human or other animal. My answer is almost always, “Good idea!” In each case, however, we have a serious discussion about the reason why the client’s wants to use a muzzle, when and how the dog’s aggressive behavior presents, and – this is the clincher – whether the client is willing and able to take the time to condition her dog to love the muzzle before starting to use it. Often, they will ask me if their dogs should wear a muzzle. A significant percentage of my clients come to see me because they have dogs with aggressive behaviors.

Dog muzzle for biting