11/04/2025
Why should your dog be muzzle trained?
I can give you a hundred reasons, scenarios, and benefits to muzzle training your dog. Instead, I’ll give you my top reasons why you should train your dog to confidently and comfortably wear a muzzle!
1) Protect yourself, others, and your dog
The most common reason would be to prevent a bite. Whether you are directly working on behavioural issues like aggression and reactivity, a muzzle can give you the confidence to work with your dog in public or around triggers. It can also give your dog confidence in these situations as well, if conditioned properly!
2) Emergency Situations
Following an injury, surgical procedure, or illness, a dog may experience a heightened sense of vulnerability, increasing the chances of displaying aggressive behaviour towards people or other dogs. This out-of-character demeanour highlights the importance of including muzzle training in your overall training. Having your dog prepared and trained to wear a muzzle in these situations can keep everyone safe and significantly reduce stress.
3) Pica
Some dogs have a habit of eating dangerous and harmful objects garbage, rocks, p**p, or anything they can put in their mouth. Muzzle training is a great way to keep your dog safe while directly working on stopping this behaviour.
4) Breed-Specific Legislation & Travel
With the increase of breed-specific legislation in different countries, states, and provinces, you may be required to have your dog wear a muzzle in public. In some travel situations, you may also need to muzzle your dog for example, when taking a ferry or using public transportation.
5) Use the stigma to your advantage
Unfortunately, there is a lot of stigma around muzzles. People often assume your dog is dangerous or has a bite history. This ignorance, like most ignorance, stems from a lack of education or experience. Still, as a trainer, I like to use this to my advantage.
If I’m working with an anxious, nervous, or flighty dog, muzzle training them in the beginning before working in public can play a key role in building their confidence. In this situation, a muzzled dog often has fewer strangers approaching to say “hi.” Utilizing this stigma to help create space for your nervous dog can really work to your benefit!
6) Bonding and trust building
Dogs are creatures that are always learning. Sometimes, we can create a “learned behaviour” by accident.
If you’re one of those people who says, “My dog doesn’t enjoy the muzzle,” it could be because you either:
A) didn’t condition your dog to it properly possibly because you were in a rush, were asked by someone else, or didn’t know how and had to put it on your dog quickly without practice; or
your dog has built a negative association, as they only wear the muzzle during events that don’t have a positive association (like getting vaccines or stitches at the vet).
But this can be changed or prevented by proper conditioning with the muzzle over time. Train them to wear it and get used to it in all scenarios not just when they need it. If done correctly, it can massively increase your bond with your dog and your dog’s trust in you by being patient and setting them up to feel confident and calm in stressful situations!
