Using a dog muzzle for one of our own

Have we gone to the dark side? Are we really using a dog muzzle for Simon?

No, we haven’t succumbed to evil. And yes, we have started putting a muzzle on Simon, Fran’s 2-year-old Boston Terrier, whenever we take the dogs out in our yard.

Why on earth would you do that?

The explanation starts with the two-plus feet of snow that’s melted in the last week or so. And continues with the question we saw one of our neighbors post on “Next Door” – “What are all those round brown things on the lawn?”

Lots and lots of neighbors quickly enlightened him. That’s rabbit poop. Which emerges from the depths of winter like a luxuriant crop when the snow melts. And which Simon considers a delicacy of the first order. And he’s not alone.

Ewww. Why do dogs do that?

Just a quick internet search will turn up a wealth of articles on “why dogs like eating rabbit poop.” We don’t really care. We’re glad it’s not considered harmful, just disgusting. We just want it to stop. 

Simon, using a dog muzzle

That’s why we got the muzzle. As you can see, Simon can breathe and see perfectly fine. He can also sniff to his heart’s content, and we can give him lots and lots of treats for being a good boy. About the only thing this muzzle doesn’t let him do is eat stuff from the ground. Which he delighted in doing – mud, grass, weeds, and of course, that caviar of the lawn – rabbit poop.

Isn’t using a dog muzzle cheating?

It would be possible to teach a dog not to eat stuff in the yard. We chose this route instead for a few reasons. The most important one is we want Simon to have the opportunity to be “good” all the time. Other means of achieving this would be to have him on a collar or harness and leash all the time. It would require micro-managing his outings, rather than letting him run around, play with the other dogs, and enjoy the outside. If we went that route, we’d also have to take him out by himself, since he would require our complete attention.

And we’re way too lazy to take “sets” of dogs out. When it’s time to go outside – everybody out!

Been here. Done that.

We’re actually not new to using a dog muzzle. Tango, Fran’s 11-year-old Brussels Griffon, was an aggressive, reactive, obnoxious creature when she got him. It was fear-aggression, but it was aggression. It took months of dedicated, positive-reinforcement training to turn him into the model canine citizen he’s become. You can read the story of how she changed him in Fran’s book: The Reactive Dog Recipe. We tell him he’d better live to be at least 50 – he owes us lots of time with “good Tango.”

The muzzle is a tool. It allowed Fran to take Tango out and about and be confident that no one, including Tango, would get hurt. It let every single interaction have a positive outcome. She was able to reward him for being calm. And he learned that other dogs, people, and places could be fun.

Just the beginning

We’re hoping that, in time, Simon’s habit of grubbing for goodies in the dirt will be broken. We’re also hoping that rabbits will stop living in our yard. We don’t really understand why they do. There are lots of yards in the area that dogs don’t inhabit. 

Maybe the rabbits enjoy doing a mad dash for the gate with a dog hot on their heels. Stupid rabbits. Tricks are for dogs.

2 thoughts on “Using a dog muzzle for one of our own

    1. Golly Gear Post author

      Hi, Terry! We actually got it on Amazon. There are so many different types, sizes, materials, etc. that we just picked one that looked like it would work for a short-muzzled dog, allowed us to deliver treats for him, and looked comfortable. So far, it’s working like a charm!

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