How & Why EVERY DOG Should LOVE Wearing a MUZZLE

How to teach your dog to LOVE wearing a muzzle

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Some of you were confused as to why I decided to show you how to teach your dog to enjoy a muzzle. After all, positive trainers shouldn’t need such a restrictive “tool”, right? The fact is that there are a variety of scenarios where a muzzle can be used to keep people and other animals safer without causing significant stress to the dog wearing a muzzle. I should also mention that every credible positive trainer that I am aware of endorses muzzle use when necessary and properly introduced.

There is a negative stigma associated with muzzle training, and for good reason in some cases. There is absolutely a way to misuse a muzzle. For example it would not be a good idea to let dog with a bite history and no training approach, say, another dog, simply because the dog with the bite history was wearing a muzzle. This could easily cause the dog to reach a level of “amygdala hijack”, where the dog loses control and becomes and becomes difficult to manage. A muzzle would only add to that distressing situation making future training unnecessarily harder.

In the case of working with a dog with a bite history, having a muzzle on that dog may be advisable in certain situations. Then, as I’m sure some of you can relate with, there are dogs that are generally good unless they are surprised by another dog, say, on a walk in a public setting (where it is harder to control the environment), and having your dog comfortable wearing a muzzle is a good idea simply as a failsafe. The main priority is maintaining a proper working distance when one is working with a dog that might be likely to bite another dog or person of course. But things don’t always go as planned, particularly in more public settings.

Furthermore, any one of our dogs could be injured and require medical attention and need to be muzzled, as most dogs are not themselves when in pain. Therefore it’s advisable to make sure that your dog has at least been through the process of learning to wear a muzzle before this happens. The type of muzzle also matters. I always use a particular basket muzzle that allows the dog to pant and drink water at will as well as receive treats during training if necessary.

At the end of the day, it is our responsibility to keep our dogs safe and to make sure that we do everything we can to keep training an enjoyable, productive process. I hope this clears things up for those of you who were a bit confused!

Thanks for reading.
Zak George

This is the muzzle I used in this video:

Videos I reference in this episode:
How to Housetrain your dog:

The Art of Communicating with your Dog:

Teach your dog to STOP STEALING FOOD:

If your dog isn’t great with other dogs Or you ever go to the vet with them or You just want to feel more confident When you go in public today I’m going to Show you your first steps most people Think that muscles are scary or for bad Dogs but today I’m gonna show you why Every dog should be comfortable wearing A muzzle click thumbs up for rescue dogs And click subscribe to learn how to Teach them today you’re gonna meet Daniel loving father two for rescue dogs And of course Molly who occasionally Acts out towards other dogs we’re gonna Get Molly warmed up with a sit and a Stay while I tell you why automatic pet Food delivery is a must-have service if You have a dog simply put you get to Stay home stay out of traffic and let Those heavy bags of dog food Come to you stay good girl you’re doing A great job your food is always there When you need it and you don’t even have To remember to order it not to mention Your supporting content like this I’ll Have a special link and a coupon code in Almost you’re doing so well I’ll have a Special link and a coupon code in the Description that’ll give you 20% off of Your first order Molly that was a Fantastic stay come here good girl Daniel tell me what’s going on with Molly what issues you haven’t well we Really kind of got two things going on

With her and the first is that she’s not Interacting well with other dogs she Sent a little aggression and just kind Of get gotten out of hand a few times Okay the other thing we’ve been doing With is is her leash walking skills are Very poor she pulls she’s like a sled Dog what happens if he counters a dog Falling on a wall it is quite an episode We were walking in the neighborhood Recently and a dog came out of her house And it was awful leash and they got into A pretty intense altercation was a good 30 second one-minute dog bite we were Trying to pull them off of each other so There’s a couple of issues going on here Then that we probably need to address in A very specific order I mean you never Know what you’re going to encounter in Public whether it’s an off-leash dog or Any other situation that you’re just not Prepared for so we want to make sure That we do everything we can to keep Everyone safe and really it’s a good Idea to have any dog comfortable wearing A muzzle even if it’s just for the vet Or the rumor today we’ll work on getting Her comfortable wearing a muzzle and in A future video we’ll address her social Skills while on a walk how does that Sound that sounds great See the goal with muzzle training is to Get them to 1 to put their nose into the Muzzle rather than just forcing it onto

Their face this is a basket muzzle I Really like these muzzles because They’re nice and open you can easily Give your dogs treats in them and they Can also drink water when they’re Wearing it so these are the most humane Muzzles that I’m aware of but don’t Leave a muzzle on your dog for too long A period and definitely don’t leave it On them unsupervised so how does one go About getting a dog to voluntarily and Enthusiastically want to wear a muzzle Well we’re about to find out The first thing I’m gonna want to do is Place the muzzle on the ground I love That she’s sniffing it right there she Reacted well so guess what I’m gonna do I’m gonna give her some chicken I wanted To be in a good mood around this muzzle Chicken has a funny way of doing that I Like that she’s not showing stress about It and there’s no reason for her to be Stressed out by this because I haven’t Created an experience that’s unpleasant She’s in a generally good mood I want to Keep it that way Let’s get Molly to use that smart brain Of hers and see if she can get the Chicken when I put it right here on the End of the So this she went right into it did you See that I love it when that happens she Makes it look easy look at that the Slower you go with muzzle training the

Faster your progress is going to be Making your dog want to do something so Much more profound so much more Effective look at that tail wagging no Stress at all that I can detect anyway Good job they’re just letting tiny Pieces of chicken go through my finger Real slowly here just letting her nibble On it just to kind of get her Comfortable I’m only supporting from the bottom I’m In no way forcing or pushing this muzzle On her face right now you see that and I’m just gonna let go of it hey that was Good nice work good job by letting go of It I’m not rushing the process I’m doing It one step at a time In general it should be a pretty smooth Transition once your dog has that Positive association with giving the Chicken as you lower them you ought to Be able to kind of coax them to put Their snout into the muzzle without Having to lower them I’m gonna hold out The muzzle and it’ll let her brain Strong yeah it’s good really good work Right there she thought for a second you Could see it in her eyes and she’s like Oh I know what you want I’ll just put my Nose in there but again I’m still kind Of making sure that the chicken is there For her but now I’m gonna try and reward Her after she puts her nose into the Muzzle yes good girl here once see how I

Let her take her nose out of the muzzle And then I rewarded her because I want Her enthusiastically just being like Okay I’m ready so I think we’re at the Point now where we can start to teach a New phrase to Molly maybe something like Put your muzzle on let’s try just Waiting for to brainstorm put your Muzzle on very good nice work let’s find Out what happens if I ask her to put her Muzzle on now in advance put your muzzle On yes excellent job really good work Now my next step is securing this collar Portion around here I don’t want to do It all at once so I kind of want to do The same thing I just did with the Muzzle and go nice and slow so step one I’m just gonna put it around here let go Of it let her know that can happen no Big deal go ahead and give her a reward Now I’m gonna try and see if I can Secure the collar around your neck will You sit very good She’s getting a little weird there so I’m just gonna go ahead and ease up on Her and go nice and slow but look you Can see it’s actually hanging from her Right now good job sit good let’s see if We can get her to put her muzzle on hey Put your muzzle on And of course over here you can put this Part on if your dog was stressing a Little bit you would want to go real Slow with this but Molly’s doing

Terrific let’s take her outside and see How she does Molly’s very interested in that cat Right now so I want to make sure that She keeps her distance ideally we need To teach our dogs to listen to us no Matter how distracted they are coming no Ma’am come on over here come here good Girl very good I’m just gonna walk back And forth here in front of the house Just to get her comfortable wearing the Muzzle outside in a public setting you Can see there’s a lot of tension on the Leash and we want to teach her how to Walk more politely than this but that’ll Be in our next video Educating the public on responsible Modern dog training is the central goal Of the dog training revolution help me Continue to do this by supporting me on Patreon and contributing any amount you Like to the cause make sure you click Thumbs up if you thought she did a good Job and subscribe so you don’t miss her Future video setup automatic pet food Delivery with pet flow comm will have All of the details in the description Alright see you next time let’s go come On whoa oh boy boy we should do Jovi’s Walking video right now goodness I can’t Wait to work with Molly again in my next Video I’ll be showing you how to resolve Puppy biting once and for all with Remi The Boykin Spaniel in the meantime check

Out how to house train your dog with Bb-8 the awesome Alaskan Klee Kai or the Art of communicating with your dog with Miss may the German Shorthaired Pointer If your dog ceases every opportunity to Steal food off of the counter war table See my lesson on that too thank you so Much and we’ll see Next time You