11/04/2026
Mav wore a muzzle for the first time ever in his life on our walk this morning.
For the first 3–5 minutes, he pawed at it a few times. Then he stopped and got on with the walk. Still walking, still sniffing, still thinking. No shutdown, no escalation.
That tells you a lot.
The pawing at the start wasn’t stress or panic — it was just mild discomfort. Something new on his face that he wasn’t sure about.
The important part is that he worked through it. He didn’t escalate. He didn’t fixate. He didn’t shut down. He self-regulated. And that’s what you want.
What he actually learned from this:
The muzzle doesn’t stop him moving.
It doesn’t stop him sniffing.
It doesn’t change the walk.
Nothing bad happens.
So it stops being important.
Where people go wrong is here:
They put something new on the dog, the dog shows a bit of discomfort, and they immediately step in.
They take it off.
They reassure the dog.
They stop the session.
Which teaches the dog:
“this is a problem”
and
“if I fuss, it goes away”
What I did instead was simple.
Put it on → go straight into the walk → ignore the initial fuss → keep moving.
No emotion, no negotiation.
So he learned: “this is just part of what we’re doing”
And that’s why it worked.
Because it wasn’t a separate “muzzle training session”.
It was just part of normal behaviour.
This is how you build dogs that can handle pressure, new environments, and real-world situations.
Not by avoiding things.
Not by over-comforting them.
By guiding them through it, letting them process it, and showing them it’s not a big deal.
