Dog Muzzles, yes or no?

A dog muzzle is not a last resort or an admission of a dog that is vicious…

When Australians think of putting a muzzle on their dog, they seem to gain the wrong idea about muzzles quite a lot of the time. Often Muzzling a dog is a dog owners “last resort” and they have come to the conclusion their dog is dangerous and they have no other choice?.

I have seen people … apologising to their dog when fitting a muzzle, crying at the thought of it too.

There are a couple of things that I would like to share with you on muzzles and perhaps give you a different perspective.

The first point I would like to make is that a dog that is fitted with a correctly sized and shape basket style muzzle will not be uncomfortable or in any pain. Muzzles don’t hurt and they are not supposed to restrict anything but access to the dogs mouth. So no biting or eating things you don’t want them eating, such as poisons etc.

There are essentially two types of muzzles, one is the Basket Muzzle that comes and a variety of designs, and the other style are known as Occlusive muzzles. Occlusive muzzles lock the dogs mouth shut, they won’t allow the dog to display any signs of stress, the dog cannot bark, bite, pant or drink. These types are often found at vets and groomers, and they can add quite a degree of stress to your dog. They are also dangerous if left on your dog as the dog cannot drink or pant, meaning the dog may dehydrate or over heat.

Occlusive muzzles are often cheap like the cloth style nylon dog muzzles, but we don’t use or recommend them here.

Basket Muzzles though like the Jafco Muzzles that we sell are very comfortable light and well ventilated so your dog can feel normal, minus the biting aspect.

Another thing to think about is that, there are too many dogs bites in our country, this is inspiring insane laws and restrictions on dogs. Going with the feeling that muzzles are a last report means many people who have a moderately aggressive dog don’t muzzle their dogs and on a bad day, we have a dog bite.

They aren’t a last resort, but they are a responsible measure of prevention and risk management and can be a vital part of rehabilitating your dog. Don’t leave muzzling your dog until it has bitten someone; instead fit one so that you can avoid needing a last resort.

Here at K9 Pro, one of the most common reasons that we recommend a muzzle for a client and their dog is to give the client more confidence, knowing that their dog cannot bite allows them to work with their dog without the risk of anyone or another dog being bitten.

Here are some things many people don’t know about Muzzle use throughout the world.

• Whilst we in Australia tend to think of a dog wearing a muzzle is a very dangerous dog, in other parts of the world they are part of many dogs every day non aggressive lives.
• Strange that people will walk up to a dog on the street that has no muzzle fitted and perhaps be bitten but avoid a dog wearing a muzzle when it cannot bite?
• There are many places around the world that allow you to take your dog on public transport as long as your dog is muzzled.
• There are competitions in Europe that have exercises such as Heel off Leash with Muzzles?, where the dog isn’t aggressive as such, it is a standard exercise in sports such as Belgian Ring Sport.
• Dogs that are conditioned to wear a muzzle properly will be taught to drink, work track and behaviour quite normally when wearing a muzzle.
• Dog aggression is often driven by fear or insecurity, conditioning your dog to wear a muzzle without concern can really help with the fear and reactivity but not fitting a muzzle only after your dog bites, making matters worse.
• At K9 Pro we supply a muzzle training program with every muzzle we sell, we want dogs trained properly to wear a muzzle without stress.
• We only sell Basket style muzzles, not Occlusive style muzzles that add stress etc. to your dog whilst wearing.
• We have muzzles that suit all sized dogs and muzzles for various purposes, from the Jafco Plastic Basket muzzles for just about all dogs to the super heavy duty leather basket muzzles for Police and Protection dogs.

Of course like anything else there are many myths that float around and common sense is not as common as we would like it to be. I was sent an article that really gives the complete wrong idea, the article is called The Dangers of Dog Muzzles? and describes how a friend of the author bought a muzzle, left it on her dog and went out, leaving the dog no way to access water. On a hot day the dog was in a bad way on the owners return.

The article perhaps should have been called Dumb and Dumber buy a muzzle?. Maybe their next article will be “Back yards are Dangerous, I left my dog in my back yard with no food or water and it died…”

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