Muzzle Training

[Better Late]

So I finally bit the bullet and am starting to train my girl to wear a Jafco muzzle that I bought from K9Pro due to her reactivity and my need for peace of mind. I just wondered if anyone else has had experience training an older dog to wear one? To her credit she picks things up pretty quickly.

I started off popping some tasty things in the basket and getting her to eat out of it, then once she was comfortable with that I moved onto free shaping. In tonights session I raised the criteria a bit more and asked her to put her muzzle in the basket and leave it there for a few seconds, moving up from muzzle-in-bump-the-end-and-dart-straight-back-out she had previously offered. I want to work up to a point where I can do it up with her standing patiently and make it part of our pre-walk routine, a fun thing just like her harness and leash.

Am I going about things the right way do you think?

Edited June 17, 2015 by Better Late

[persephone]

Sounds good . :)

[Guest crazydoglady99]

There are some excellent videos on youtube how to do it!!

I can't remember the site but I bought one of those soft rubber muzzles (it's the brand everyone recommends) the company website gives detailed info how to desensitize.

Gee.. that's not even slightly helpful is it!!

[teekay]

I'd say it sounds like you are doing everything right. My only tip would be to go sloooooooowly. Don't try to skip ahead. ie go straight from her being fine with putting her muzzle in to trying to do the straps up. Baby steps. I'm sure you already new this though :)

Good luck, I'm actually doing this with my boy at the moment. It's only a just in case for us though. He won't wear it normally but just in case we need to visit a vet he doesn't know in an emergency or something, he would probably need to be muzzled. He does not like strangers. It always pays to be prepared.

[Jigsaw]

This is one of the best muzzle training videos I've seen.

[DeltaCharlie]

Not sure if there is something she really highly values (walk etc) but with Cody I did a session similar to what you have done and then straight away jumped to "every time you leave the house the muzzle is on". Whether he needed it or not it went on for every walk and every training session away from home. It took him hardly any time at all to connect muzzle with fun things are going to happen.

[Nekhbet]

That is the perfect way to do it. Up your criteria one step at a time, keep it short what you ask and always really positive.

Start all the dogs like that from young to accept a muzzle. Once they learn it there is no problems at all, I say 'muzzle' and they even put their faces into it for me.