MUZZLE MASTERY

How to Choose a Muzzle and Train your Dog to Wear it Comfortably. Suitable for all breeds of dog.

Need more training support to prepare your Bully for the Ban?

My best advice is to have a couple of ‘at-home’ goals, e.g. muzzle training and calmness when visitors arrive, or confidence being handled by strangers should they need an assessment.

And also have an ‘on-walks’ goal e.g. walking nicely on the lead or not jumping up at people.

These are the issues we help dog owners with every single day inside our private training community, Club Dogwood.

Walking calmly on the lead, greeting people with 4 paws on the floor, calmness around strangers and body handling – these are the key skills to prioritise in the next 3 months.

Muzzle training clips

Don’t try this part until you’ve watched the full class.

Creedie Steps 1-4

➡️ Your early muzzle training sessions will involve combinations of steps 1 through to 4 (there are 2 more steps afterwards but spend plenty of time at steps 1-4).

➡️ Don’t try to work through the steps in a linear fashion, i.e. always increasing ‘difficulty’ with a requirement for your dog to keep offering more.

➡️ Inevitably, you will hit a point which feels uncomfortable for your dog and continuously working up to and then pushing against that barrier becomes stressful and builds negativity.

➡️ Keep moving up and down the steps, keeping motivation and enthusiasm high. Lots of ‘easy’ wins between asking for more.

Creedie's progression

This is Emily & Creedie a few weeks on from the video above.

THIS is the response we’re aiming for… ”Quick quick quick get me into my muzzle!”

Emily is moving AWAY from Creedie with the muzzle, Creedie is doing his damndest to keep up so his nose stays in. This is the opposite of chasing our dogs around the house trying to get their muzzle on; Creedie is chasing Emily! Note his happy tail, loose body language and how Emily offers the muzzle again so that she can reward through it. She walks away with the muzzle at the end of the clip and Creedie follows wanting MORE muzzle fun.

If you haven’t watched Muzzle Mastery yet, don’t skip straight to this part! Emily & Creedie did weeks of work before this point

Step 3, Parts #2, #3 & #4 of the Muzzle Mastery Method.

See if you can spot the moments when Emily switches between:

#2 Let the muzzle be the cue

#3 Duration

#4 Fastening

In this particular video Emily goes through #2-4 linearly – but remember the Muzzle Mastery motto: Progress isn’t Linear! We use ‘Up & Down’ criteria to achieve success ⭐

Step 3, Part #5 of the Muzzle Mastery Method.

Once you’ve chosen and introduced the muzzle, Step 3 is Direct Training.

Direct Training is broken down into:

#1 Luring

#2 Let the muzzle be the cue

#3 Duration

#4 Fasten

#5 Have Fun!

#6 Get Walking

Here’s Emily & Creedie at #5 – Having Fun!

⭐Create positive associations with the muzzle by putting it on for fun training time indoors and outdoors.

⭐This will help accustom your dog to how the muzzle feels as they move around before you head out for a walk.

⭐ Take occasional breaks as you’re working on duration – a few repetitions with the muzzle, then a few repetitions without.

Here’s another one from Step 3 #5 of the Muzzle Mastery Method.

Emily is practicing some simple training with Creedie while he’s wearing his muzzle.

It’s something that Creedie has learned before so it’s:

⭐Nice and familiar – Emily already knows this will enhance positive muzzle feelings

⭐Confidence boosting because it’s easy to achieve – again, we’re creating small, easy wins.

💫 The added bonus of incorporating a hand touch into the fun training stage is that Creedie is learning that the pressure from the muzzle touching his nose is not a bad thing, as he’s associating it with feel-good partnership moments and bonding with Emily, plus his favourite rewards, of course!

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