#muzzle training

[nefja]

She's not sure about the new muzzle and doesn't feel like lifting her head due to idk, weight? It's whooping 100g heavier than her old muzzle, making it 140g. Poor little dog can't possibly lift that.

[tea-time-terrier]

It's been two years of muzzle training with everything but an actual muzzle...

Until now.

[bikedecorations]

Okay this is pretty funny! 🌻🐝🐕 Off-label use of bike spoke decorations! https://homespacecrafts.etsy.com/listing/1684387844

[mercygetbackhere]

The Muzzle Movement

Photo description

spaniel dog sticks face into teal muzzle basket with black straps

I have been wanting to get Mercy a muzzle for a while. I would like to start by saying the dog in the photo is not Mercy. That is a photo directly from the Muzzle Movement Website.

Mercy has behavior issues, resource guarding, people guarding and a bunch of other things, none of them are very severe and she has never tried to latch and bite. However she has done air snaps at Noca before, or at my mom or dad if she got startled.

I have been asking my mom for a muzzle for a while now and she has always been against it. "It makes her look mean", "people are going to think she is a bad owner", "she needs to learn not to bite or air snap"

However there was a breaking point where my mother finally agreed to getting Mercy a muzzle. Im the tiniest bit annoyed that thier had to be a "breaking point" for my mom to allow my to buy a custom muzzle for Mercy.

The breaking point was when Mercy and Noca were outside. I would like to say that Mercy is not a playful dog and generally does not like playing with other dogs. If she does interact with Noca at all it is probably to herd her or chase her for a few seconds max. My mom had taken them out front across on the giant hill that is out there. About 30 minutes later they came back I almost immediately noticed a change in Noca'a hairline in between her shoulder blades above her ridge. I let my mom know cause obviously she had not seen it.

Noca is a very short hair so the change was easy to see, thank God. I turned out that while herding, Mercy had jumped up and bit Noca between the shoulder blades, HARD. it was graphic, and there was a maybe half inch flap of skin that you could pull up to see the real damage. *Noca got stitches and is doing well now

Mercy had gotten completely through her skin and to the next layer, I believe it's called the hypodermics, idk tho. It was not bleeding directly out of the wound under the skin it was completely white, and the sides of the bite were bleeding. Anyway about an hour later my mom tells me that she remembers a change in Noca's behavior while out on the hill. If anyone does anything that Noca does not like or causes her pain, she will immediately go tell my mom. if we are inside she will go wherever my mom is and jump/lick on her until she figures out who is the perp of Noca's comfort. If we are outside she will go stand by my mom and not interact with anyone else proceeding with an incident.

My mom later remembered a change in Noca's behavior. Her and Mercy were running around while she was on the phone. Mercy jumped up in her "herding" Noca and then Noca came right back over to my mom and did not play with Mercy anymore.

That was when Mercy had bit Noca, by accident. We were both mad at Mercy for hurting Noca, so she stayed in the crate for a few hours and any time she cannot be supervised she goes into the crate. We are currently working on creating some sort of management plan for keeping Mercy away from Noca, if she cannot be supervised.

Anyway, I asked my mom one last time if I could get a muzzle for Mercy, and she thought about it and agreed a few days later. I did a lot of research about the different types of muzzles, bio-thane, wire, plasctic, leather, and so on.

My mom talked about a soft muzzle like Biothane and I looked into it and they costed $130 minimum, like we all know its not worth that much but whatever.

I ended up with two brands to pick from

The Muzzle Movement

Leerburg

We decided that The Muzzle Movement would be more light weight and we could pick custom colors, plus I agreed with their training ethics, vs Leerberg having a dominance mindset in training. I triple checked Mercy's measurements and came to the conclusion that she is a size Rex. We are currently still waiting for it to arrive, but I will update you when it does arrive.

[doomspaniels]

Guinevere had a followup at the hospital. Her last visit in July was long and stressful. We expected this visit to have a lot of quiet waiting but not so much added stress. So I brought supplies to try to make the waiting better, and reduce overall stress for future trips. Indeed, right after we got there, Guinevere was already ready to bolt for home, or possibly just blindly into traffic.

The rope disc is one of Gwyn's current favorite activities, so once we were waiting alone in a room, we played some frisbee. Gwyn brightened up and relaxed significantly, even taking the frisbee to go lay down for a while.

Then Gwyn got bold enough to investigate my supplies bag, and found the hat I brought, too. First she played with the pom-pom and ties for a bit, then I put it on her and took it off several times (with appropriate treats).

By then Gwyn was feeling much calmer about being in a strange place with a history of stress, and began investigating the room too. Ridiculously adorable!

Because Gwyn's last visit was awful, the vets wanted to muzzle her for part of her exam. They were happy to move slowly, give treats, and wait for Gwyn to be comfortable at each step; they just also needed to reduce their own risk, entirely reasonable. We had just practiced "hat," of course, so I reminded Gwyn several times that other things go on her head and come back off just like hats, then buckled the muzzle while giving lots of treats. Once the exam was done, we practiced one more time taking the muzzle off (good girl!), putting it back on (lots of treats!), and taking it off again (good girl!).

We return home with a slightly refined medication/food regimen, and we're going to go back to discuss her complete diet (mostly, soluble/insoluble fiber supplements & also added treats) with the nutritionist because it's a complicated issue.

[awoo-crew]

A 👏 MUZZLE 👏 DOES 👏 NOT 👏 AUTOMATICALLY 👏 MEAN 👏 THE 👏 DOG 👏 IS 👏 AGGRESSIVE 👏

[bam-reactive]

Hey yall The Muzzle Movement has a 20% flash sale on their mystery muzzles going on today if you've been wanting to get one

(does not include the sizes they just released since they're still working on pre-orders for those)

Mystery Muzzle - Shipped in 3 working days

Introducing the Mystery Muzzle! Need a muzzle fast and don't care what colour you get? A mystery muzzle his what you need! Get your product

Sizes: (also on their website but just for quick reference)

[makingpotatopasta]

Just the box is so cute though