Ep. 119 Muzzle Training: A Must for Every Dog Owner w/ Heather Moore

In this episode of the Family Pet Podcast, hosts Michael and Stephen Shirley interview guest Heather Moore to discuss the importance of muzzle training for dogs. They explore the reasons why dogs may bite, the role of muzzles in veterinary care, and how to choose the right muzzle for your pet. The conversation also covers effective training techniques to help dogs accept muzzles without stress, emphasizing the need for patience and positive reinforcement.

Visit https://wagitbetter.com/ for more information

Keywords

dog training, muzzle training, pet care, dog behavior, veterinary advice, pet safety, dog aggression, pet podcast, dog muzzles, pet health

Transcript

Michael Shirley (00:01)
Welcome into the Family Pet Podcast, the podcast for curious pet parents where we believe the more you know about pet healthcare, the better pet parent you can be. I'm your host, Michael Shirley. Rolled that intro right off my tongue, even though it's been a minute since you- A minute or months. Or months. But joined once more, brought him out of retirement. ⁓ Brother Stephen. Yeah, when we last recorded, we were in short sleeves because it was the beginning of spring. It's hard for our listeners out there. I just need you to send me

communications from time to time that's like encouraging so that I know that people are listening. of information. Yeah, that's my motivation. If you enjoy our content and want us to keep looking for great guests, let us know that you're listening and we'll continue to pump out content. it has, the podcast is not something that we make money on. It's been something that we started over a hundred episodes ago. The purpose of the podcast was to answer the 10 most commonly answered, or

commonly asked questions in the vet office. And then 10 became 10 became 20, then 20 became 50. Yeah, and we just kept going. And we've just had a lot going on, I think. And it's just fallen beside or fallen back a little bit. But we genuinely enjoy the podcast. And now we've just we start making episodes when we have something we need to talk about. That's it. And today, ⁓ we have something to talk about something that every pet

parent, specifically dog parent should be aware of. That's right. If you own a dog, you need to listen to this episode today. We're going to be talking about muzzle training your dog. Now, what is a muzzle Stephen? Well, the muzzle is the nose of the dog. the muzzle. But the muzzle, the product is what goes over and prevents the dog from biting. Did you know that in the United States, the CDC

says that there are an average of 4.5 million dog bites in the United States annually. Surprisingly, I did know that since I gave you that stat, but sure. so now how many of them require medical attention? 800,000. Yes. So I think it is safe to say, I think we would, the three of us at this table, we'll tell you who our guest is in a minute. The three of us would agree that there's probably more than four and a half million dog bites, but that's what's reported.

⁓ reportable dog bites to the CDC each year. So ⁓ we're going to get into some of the reasons that that happens. But the main thing that we're going to be talking about today is muzzle training. What can we put over your dog's face, over their muzzle, to prevent them from breaking the skin or biting somebody? ⁓ And there are all sorts of different designs for muzzles ⁓ that are out there.

but we're gonna be talking specifically about the ones that we like at Family Pet Health as a fear-free certified veterinary practice. There are muzzles that are better than others. Once you pick out what muzzle, we're gonna talk about how to select them, but then you gotta train your dog to wear it. And that's why we have, drum roll please. Do I have that sound effect? I don't think so. think I have a megaphone. You can't hear that. We have Heather Moore.

who is the owner and lead trainer at Wag It Better Dog Training and Boutique here in Murfreesboro. Heather, this is, it has to be at least your fourth time on the podcast, maybe more. think it's six. I think so. ⁓ was going by, it's, you were one of the earliest and you've obviously been one of the most frequent. That's right. mean, where's my applause bow? Way to go. Heather Moore, ladies and gentlemen, Heather Moore. Heather, welcome back to the podcast. We appreciate, you're like our

resident dog trainer. Whenever we have dog training questions, we give you a call. And we're gonna be talking about muzzles today. what is your experience with dogs and muzzles and things like that? Well, I use them a lot in my training. If you have a dog that you are uncomfortable around or is showing signs that they're uncomfortable, the possibility of biting is always there. All dogs bite.

Right. If it has a mouth, can bite. It can, whether it's out of aggression, fear, based, or we were even discussing injured, so out of pain, you know, if all dogs will bite. So it is really good to have your dog used to a muzzle where it's no big deal to put on the muzzle. I like to say like when you pick up the muzzle, they should run to you excited just like when you pick up their leash. Okay.

That is your goal. So we'll get to that today, but let's go back. You mentioned three reasons that dogs may bite, ⁓ aggression, fear, and pain. And I've heard it, we do a lot of training here where we talk about, there dogs that are really aggressive or are they biting and we call it aggression, but really it's more fear. It is, 90 % of aggression is fear-based.

So there are dogs that are trained to bite, like a working dog, like a police dog, or even a protection dog. There are dogs that have been bred over the centuries specifically for bite work. And even they aren't really aggressive, they're just trained to bite. And most of those dogs wear muzzles when they are not working. ⁓

Yes. Okay. So, all right. I wish the people, if you're watching the video at home, you can see Michael's face of, know, away and there's like nodding, but Michael's like, no speak. We don't, don't script this out. This is not script. I couldn't even go back and repeat the last five minutes word for word, right? Okay. But, aggression, Yes. What do you, what is, why would a dog bite? Why would a dog bite when it's scared? Stranger danger.

if they're not comfortable with people they don't know and they're giving all the warning signs, that's the next step is I'm gonna bite if you don't back up. So there are oftentimes warning signs before they go to bite. There's always warning signs before they bite, always. Whether we see them or not, they're there. right. So Heather, wanna jump in. We had a guest, Dr. Amy Pike, ⁓ one of the, I don't remember which episode, referred to it as

Distance increasing behavior. right. That's what she called this fear and aggression is distance increasing behavior. And when you talk about a dog, I'm thinking about if someone got into my space ⁓ and was making me uncomfortable and I was maybe, Hey, get back or whatever. I would push. Yeah. I would take my hands and I would push the person back, but a dog doesn't have that function. so theirs is.

Mouth. They're going to use their mouth and it's pushing back is the way that that she kind of referred ⁓ referred to it as yeah reference distance increasing behavior. So that's what I really liked about what you were describing. Yes. Do you have do you work with a lot of dogs that are quick to to do that to to to give signs like back away from me friend?

or not friend? Yes, I wish I could say, no, those are rare. But yes, and at Waggit Better, we actually have a reactive rover class that is specifically for not necessarily dogs that bite, but dogs that are reactive, that are barking at people or other dogs. you know, if you push it and you push them over threshold, it will turn into a bite. We have a dog, our little border terrier, who is super small. ⁓

but she uses her mouth, like she gets overstimulated. She doesn't have a mean bone in her body, but she gets overstimulated and then she'll start like mouthing other dogs when they're playing or trying to play. So that could happen with people instead of doing it to other dogs, they could do it with people too. So, okay. So aggression, fear, and then the last one that we're gonna talk about as a reason that a dog may ⁓ bite is out of pain. So Stephen, I know you are ⁓ one of our...

our customer service representatives here, you see a lot of dogs coming in that are injured. Have you seen any, do you have any personal anecdotal experience of dogs biting out of pain? Well, I'm not being in the room, so I don't have it from our patients, our clients, but I've actually got it from my own dog. When Maverick, we went to the ER Thanksgiving of 2024. A year ago. We were worried about a foreign body and he didn't know anybody and he's

never bitten anybody kind of situation. Let me rephrase it. sound like every dog owner that has had dog I started to think of it, wait a minute, wait a minute. My dog in this building with all of our team members, anytime he's going to get a vaccination, he doesn't like needles. And he loves our team members and they'll play with the ball and he'll play with them for hours if given the opportunity.

But if they bring out the needle, he backs up, gets the hair on the back. His hackles go And starts showing his teeth and growling. And because he is afraid, he doesn't like the needle poke. And ⁓ when he comes out of sedation, he's, I don't know where I am and we have to put a muzzle on him because when it's like, come with us and he's just.

He's a different dog in that moment. So yeah, the pain, ⁓ he is very reactive to a needle poke. I mean, he'll spin around and try to bite you. we put a, spoiler alert, we put a muzzle on him before the procedure. Well, what I was thinking, ⁓ sometimes we'll have patients or ⁓ owners that will call and say, my dog is limping. Like, all right, we can come on in. We'll need to do an evaluation. Well, that'll take the dog maybe into the garage and...

take it off leash and let it walk around, like, yep, it's definitely limping. Then the doctor goes to manipulate that leg or joint, wherever it may be, and that causes discomfort. And the dog is like sitting there and all of is like, ow, hey, ouch. And just like Stephen said, they might push away if they were a human, use their hands, but the dog's reaction is to turn and nip or bite. And so that's an example of a pain situation that would... ⁓

maybe it would be beneficial for all involved to use a muzzle. The reason, especially if we talk about at a vet office, the reason your dog should be muzzle trained is that when our team knows that the dog has a muzzle on, they're able to do a more thorough examination of the dog because they know that they're not gonna get bit. And I don't know about you, Heather, I don't like getting bit. It has only happened to me, I think twice, did not enjoy it and it definitely gives me

PTSD. So people are like, you're afraid of my dog. I'm like, yeah, I am. Yes, because he's showing me signs that he's going to bite. He's telling me to leave him alone. He's saying stop. because he's hurt, we have to keep going. We have to keep going. Normally we would stop, but because this pet needs medical attention, we can't stop. So knowing that that dog is muzzle trained already is a big relief to our team.

And I don't care who's out there listening. They may not say that they're scared. I'm not scared of any dog. It's just not true. everybody, you should, we all should be very respectful of our dogs, whether it's a Chihuahua or a Great Dane, they all have teeth and those teeth can break our skin. So we want to make ourselves as safe as possible. We want the pet to be as safe as, you know, as protected and safe as possible as well. We want to provide at the veterinary office,

the best care that we can and muzzle training is a big part of that. It's best that the first time your dog has a muzzle put on it isn't when it's at the office hurt, right? Okay, so if we can all work on this at home, ⁓ then wherever, whenever and wherever you are, when you feel like you need a muzzle, you can put it on your dog, your dog's not gonna freak out and life will be better, right? Okay, so we all agree.

We're going to move forward in this podcast under the assumption that all of our listeners believe that every dog should know how to accept and wear a muzzle without being stressed. Okay? So, Heather, what muzzle would we not want to use? What is an example of a muzzle we would not want to use? don't like closed mouth muzzles, which are typically cloth muzzles and they go on and hold the mouth shut. It's almost like a funnel.

Right. There's no give to it. We were just you and I were before we started recording We're talking about that and Stephen goes what what what are you talking? Yeah, don't have the experience with them But what you were describing is basically with that funnel is putting the mouth in as far as it will go to where it can't There's no give there's no opportunity for the and so I mean a dog breathes through his nose and mouth. Yeah, but if you're if you're

forcing the mouth closed. ⁓ I feel like that would be stressful. It's scary for the dog. No, no, right. Because they use their mouth and when they can't open it, then they know that it would be like tying your hands behind your back as a human and then going in to where you're going to have to fight. And they're like, wait a minute, I just lost, I can't fight, I'm not going to win. And so then you start to panic. The dogs do the same thing.

close their mouth where they can't open it or breathe through it or let their pant. ⁓ Not only do they panic for that, but it's also, medically speaking, it is ⁓ not ideal. It raises their anxiety, it raises their heart rate, their respiration rate. It can cause some of our brachycephalic breeds to overheat. So this is a no-no. ⁓ I can't even show you what that looks like for those that are watching on our YouTube channel.

because we don't have any. threw them all away. When we bought our practice, that's the only kind they had. And we immediately ordered some basket muzzles and we threw away all the cloth muzzles. We don't have any of them. It's also important for the vet to be able, if he or she is examining the dog, they can read the dog if the dog actually can pant or growl or, you know, lip lick, that kind of thing. Yeah, one of the signs that

Something bad is happening is the dog's going or licking. Wait, they just interrupted me. We don't need go.

And then they hard stare. That's like all the backup. You're about to get bit. So, ⁓ they can't do that with the closed muzzle. And so you don't know that they're getting more stressed with the basket muzzle. They can do all that stuff and communicate to us. So Heather, I didn't know this. I didn't know that a cloth muzzle is bad. And that's what I've got. If someone's saying that that's what I've got. That's what I've got. And that's what my dogs used to. What would you say to that?

Try a basket muzzle. Your dog might be happier. Even if they're used to it, they're gonna be happier being able to breathe and their mouth being open. So if a dog already takes a cloth muzzle, they're gonna take a basket muzzle with... Easy. Should be very easy transition. And then they would be happy, the dog would be happier. So for those that are out there listening, you can open up your web browser as long you're not driving ⁓ and just Google basket muzzle dog.

and it'll pop up what we're talking about. We at our office use what's called a Baskerville muzzle. ⁓ But Heather brought in a couple of examples of these. ⁓ And you can show the people that are watching, Heather, if you want to pick one up. For those that are listening, a basket muzzle is like a wire basket. ⁓ Like it reminds me of what we go. a second. Isn't that upside down? look at me. I know my muzzle. ⁓ So yeah, that's the largest size.

It's a ⁓ mesh, a wire mesh. These are actually plastic that are kind of malleable. it allows the dog to ⁓ breathe and open its mouth, pant, accept treats. It also allows the vet, if they would like, they can still stick their fingers in and lift a lip ⁓ and look at the teeth and gums. ⁓

be able to not get bit and accept treats. ⁓ But Heather, so what are some challenges with this type of a muzzle? Like as far as wearing it? You gotta get close to the mic there. ⁓ sorry, I moved away. ⁓ Once you get the dog used to it, it's no big deal because it doesn't fit tight. I actually, if you have to, if you're between sizes,

and you don't know which size to go for, I always say go big. So there's more space. I'd rather there be more space. If they actually get to the point where they ⁓ paw it off, even then it takes a bit to get it off if you have it fitted properly so you know it's gonna come off. And that gives you time to react and say, hold on, stop, he's getting the muzzle off, you know.

But really if it fits properly, it shouldn't come off. So talk about fitting properly. How do people learn how to, and that's my insulin. How do you learn, how do you fit it properly? Is there instructions or do they watch videos? How do they need to do that? Yeah. Well, you want to make sure that basically your dog's nose will fit in here comfortably, that it's not tight, that it's not falling off and that you can give treats through the muzzle.

⁓ I mean, I don't know that there's any like so many fingers, like a collar, it's different ⁓ for every dog and depends on the breed. Like if they have a long nose or a short nose, that's gonna depend on the size. The Baskerville is not necessarily a perfect fit for dogs, but it is an inexpensive muzzle to start with. If you know that you're going to,

have a muzzle for life and your dog's going to need it on a regular basis. There are some companies that will custom make muzzles for you and you can send in their sizes. The muzzle movement online, I think it's probably muzzle movement.com, something like that, ⁓ makes amazing muzzles, but they're a lot more expensive than something like this. ⁓ And usually who I work with clients, like the muzzle is a temporary thing, hopefully, ⁓ that you only use when you go to the vet once a year or

while we work twice a year, Twice a that sounds great. ⁓ But now, so I'm looking because we're asking how do you how do you size it? I'm looking at the back of this box and I'll just kind of turn it around that on the backside you pick on the clients I'm showing this. It's actually got a guide which gives the the link of the muzzle so you can kind of look at your dog and just kind of measure the the snout.

If your dog's got a three inch snout, there you might want a size four on the Baskerville. And that's where Maverick, he wears a size four. But we had to do a little bit of a trial and error because first time he's a German shepherd. He needs a big one, right? And he's got a big nose. And so we actually went with a size five and he pawed it off ⁓ when he was getting his injection. ⁓ So it was too big. But we did that at

the clinic, was the client at that time, not an employee. So I'm here with my pet. Hey, you guys, let's figure out. So they brought two. They tried the five first. We found it's too big. We then got the four and now I have a size. I went what size? That's the size. That's the brand. I will go home after trying it at the clinic at my vet office. Now I know exactly which size to wear. They showed me how to put it on and

We have one at home in case he goes to the ER again. you have it fitted. You've adjusted the straps so that it fits his head. That's also part of our learning curve is that the straps are adjustable and it's making sure that just like ⁓ the collar of a dog, I have one collar that can fit any number of dogs and have to size it down.

correctly because I'm like, my collar, it's on well, but when Maverick decides to go in the other direction, that collar can pop right off. Now, Heather, not all dogs can fit in a traditional basket type muzzle. What are some dogs that can't, can't, you gotta find a different type. Frenchies, pugs, the smushed noses. All right, so all of our brachycephalic dogs, the smushed face or the short faced dogs.

They need a different option. This is a mesh muzzle. OK. So this goes on their face so they can still see out. And there's a little hole right where their nose and mouth would be so that if I needed to give a little treat, I could and that they can breathe easily. But then they can't actually bite you. So it has nylon down towards the bottom where the teeth would be and the face at the eyes and where the nose is is mesh. It looks like a fly mask for a horse. People ⁓ have that. So.

Another good option, again, it's putting what a muzzle is doing is putting a barrier between that dog's teeth and mouth and the humans or other dogs as well. Because we also use muzzles when dogs are playing. Some dogs do. I have a dog in our neighborhood that wears a muzzle all the time on the walks because the dog's hyper reactive and because people

encounter each other with very little notice ⁓ as you're coming between cars or whatever. ⁓ That owner just says for the safety of all involved, my dog will just wear a muzzle anytime in public. Yeah, it's not that the dog's a bad dog. Well, and we use it if I have clients that have dog fights within their home and we've separated the dogs, we've talked about the triggers and they want to try again so that it's safe.

put muzzles on the dogs, muzzle train the dogs so that when that introduction happens, no one gets hurt. And get them used to where then they can coexist again and they don't need muzzles. Right. What about our last muzzle there? What is that one for? The clear one? The clear one. This is actually the exact same. It's just, this is new on the market this year, the clear. And ⁓ I will say it's, and it has padding around it. It is a little harder to fit though than

this kind, this kind you can kind of mold, can put in hot water and kind of make it fit your dog better. know that. That's kind Yes, this you can't, so this you'd have to have a good fit right from the beginning. But a lot of people like it because it's clear. The black ones are big and ugly and scary sometimes. I will say the black ones do look you think of Silas of the Lambs. I've got a German Shepherd and he's wearing that muzzle.

He looks scary. Yes. So this is a little more friendly looking and ⁓ we carry all of these. it's dog braces. It's a headgear. It's got braces That's right. That's right. We carry all of these in our store and if you are concerned about a fit, as long as your dog is friendly with strangers, my staff can help you. We can do custom fitting. Yes. I like it. Let's break some stereotypes. Steven just said, you know, the black

muzzle that we have here on display. It looks kind of scary. It's intimidating. Heather, when you see a dog in public, let's say it's real popular now to take your dogs to the hardware store. So let's say we're shopping at one of these big box hardware stores and you see a dog coming down the aisle wearing a basket muzzle. What goes through your brain? Well, if I wanted to interact with the dog, you definitely ask first. So you say, your dog friendly?

where a lot of people don't and they go straight to petting the dog. So it stops people and has them ask questions. Well, that's kind of nice. If you're out there listening and you want people to leave you alone, put a basket of us on. Yes, and no one will talk to you. Until we break down these stereotypes, for now, it's an anti-people will stay away from you And you've encouraged me when training my dog to walk on a leash that it's not the dog's playtime. It's not...

for the dog to go meet everybody. And so that actually might be a really cool way to keep, I'm training my dog, stay back. Not that my dog will be mean, not that you'll be bad. I'm just trying to train my dog appropriate behavior. I like that. Well, anything else that you think of when you see a dog walking down the street or down the trail wearing a basket muzzle? No, usually I just assume that

They have a trainer and they've been working with the trainer if their dog's in a muzzle. There's a reason their dog's in a muzzle. yeah. You don't make any assumptions about the dog? Not necessarily. Yeah. So you need there's so many reasons they could be wearing a muzzle. So that's what I'm getting at. Tell me some of the Why would people put a muzzle on their dog? Yeah. I mean. listen to the family pet podcast. We told them to do it. That's right. That's right. But even walking, if there was wildlife that they could

you know, run after and a muzzle would prevent them from fetching a squirrel. Okay. something like that, know, and bringing back. That's, that's unusual, but you know, the, the normal is they're not good with people. They're not good with other dogs, things like that. Okay. If my dog just had a dental and had a significant tooth removed and I need to prevent the dog from mouthing anything, that, that,

would protect my dog's teeth from further injury. They can take treats through this. They can still eat and drink through the basket muzzle, but they're not going to pick up a big stick and start chewing on it or a walnut. My dogs are addicted to walnuts in the backyard. It's awful. It's not good at all. ⁓ We had to bring one of the dogs in because it got stuck on its teeth on a Saturday. So that was what we got to do. But some of the walnuts would fit through the larger muzzles here, but

Anyway, as Stephen mentioned, you could keep your dog from picking up certain sized objects in the yard or along the trail. Maybe keep them from eating poop on the walk. Maybe. That's a different podcast episode. So if people are interested in learning more, there ⁓ training? Tell me about the training process. Like are they going to do this? Yes. So the first thing, if your dog has never seen a muzzle before, that's the first thing. You don't go and just

shove it on. I actually never put the muzzle on a dog. The dog puts it on themselves. How do you do that? Yes, yes. So the first session I would say you just show the dog the muzzle and give them a treat. So get them to look at it, like move it over to the side. They look that way, they get a treat and praise and just get them where they kind of are interested in the muzzle and treat or muzzle equals treat.

⁓ you want to do it in a couple different environments to not just always in your kitchen. Okay. You know, if it's going well, take it out on your walk and have it appear out of your pocket and give a treat, you know? ⁓ and once you can pull it out and they run over cause they know they're going to get a treat, then it's time to try it on. And usually I just, ⁓ put a bunch of treats in my hand and place the muzzle in my hand. Okay. You're watching, can see, what I'm doing and the dog gets interested. It needs to be high value treats, but.

they get interested and they'll put their nose in and start eating the treats. So they put the muzzle on themselves. Remember, the muzzles that we recommend allow the dog to take treats and drink water and open their mouth. I'm going to paint this picture again, because you said it really quickly, but I want people to hear it. You take your palm face up and you cup, make a cup with your hand. So you kind of bend the fingers back. You put the treats in the palm of your hand in that little bowl that you've created. Then you put the muzzle

just down on top of the treats on top of your hand. And now you're holding. And I let them explore to find the treats. Another little secret is if they really like peanut butter or whipped cream or anything, you can put that down in the muzzle so that they put it on and they leave their nose in to lick, lick, lick, lick the peanut butter or the whipped cream or whatever they like like that. You could use pumpkin, peanut butter's the less messy.

Peanut butter also takes a lot longer to get off. There's a lot of licking involved. Yes, yes. And so that's a fun little session that you do. ⁓ I do not clip it usually during that session at all. It's just about them learning to put their nose in, get the treats, and then take it out. And then we start working on duration. They put their nose in, and as long as their nose in, the treats keep coming to build duration. At that point, the treats aren't in the palm of your hand.

You're still holding the muzzle with the palm of your hand with the opening facing the dog so they can come up, put their nose in or their muzzle in the muzzle and then you're feeding them treats through the front of it. Yes. And then when you get some duration and you can stop and they're waiting with their nose in the muzzle, then you can go and clip it. Okay. Because clipping it's the hard part because you got to have two hands. So can I do all this in one day? It depends on the dog. I don't...

encourage it to be in one day? No, don't do it in one day. She's so nice. I was waiting for her to be like, no, you moron. I don't encourage that. You want to take it nice and slow. I mean, why stress them out over this? Let's make it fun. But there are some dogs that really have no issues with it and don't fight it. And so they progress a lot more quickly than a dog who's a little leery like, I don't know about this. I don't know if I want this on me. They're going to take a little longer.

take it's worth it to put the time in to train it and go at their pace. Yeah. So you got time. Remember we're trying to get you to get your dogs used to this so that if they have a need for it to come around one day in the future that they are accepting of this. it is again a trait that every dog should have is to accept the muzzle. I have more. Okay. you've got, okay. I've got more. I thought we were done. Yeah. No. So now you, your dog sees the muzzle runs over.

will put it on themselves and you can clip it behind. That's wonderful. The next step is to get them to wear it around and ignore it. And so what I typically do is ask for some obedience cues they might know and their favorite, like if they love to shake, have them sit and shake with it on and tell them how cute they are with that muzzle on. There's like this light bulb going off. I'm like, I've never done that with him.

Yeah, I've always just put it on and we go straight to the needle poke. associating the needle poke with the muzzle. No, we want to have a lot of fun and you want to make it simple. So touches, sits, shakes, again, something they enjoy doing and want to show you whatever they like to offer, but with the muzzle on and keep it on for short durations in the beginning, but you want to start building up time. Short durations of

of wearing the 30 seconds? I would think by the time that you've got it clipped and you're giving treats and you ask for a sit, that's going to be at least 30 seconds to a minute. Okay. And you can build up to five minutes really quickly. But you don't want to put the muzzle on and walk in the other room because then they're going to pull it right off and you're going to undo.

everything you've been working on. Because now I know how to get it off. Right. If this is annoying, I'll just take it off. All right. So I to recap this. So I'm going to introduce, show, my instruction is look, right? That was the, so when we would do, he always had to, I'd hold the ball and that's what got his attention. I made him look at me, but I can reverse and hold the muzzle, look, and he's got to look over here, get a treat. So that's introducing. Yep. Then I'm going to do the muzzle and the palm of my hand with the treats and he'll come in. He puts it on himself.

then we're gonna keep working on that. That to me is the part that's gonna take the longest. Then we're gonna work on the clip and sizing it and then wearing it. always, I did never do the wearing it part. ⁓ It seems, yeah. Anything else for training? No, if you do all those super easy steps. and again, just every now and then you wanna pull it out and put it on. So it's not twice a year when they go to the vet.

Just like training your cats to get in the carrier, which is another podcast that's coming up with more videos. So with that in mind, how long should it take ⁓ an acclimated dog to put on the muzzle? How long is that process? If you pull it out, let's go. To train it? No, once he's trained, once he's acclimated, I pull it out. How long should it take that process to get it on and let's go?

30 seconds at the most. be like clipping a leash on however long it takes you to put on. Like they should be excited. yay. I'm going to get my muzzle. And then you're good to go. Now, how long does it take to get to that point? That depends on the dog. on how much you practice. yeah, shorter sessions are better. Little five minutes here, five minutes there. But if you do it three times a day, you're going to get it a lot faster than if you do it once a week. So. We are out of time.

Okay. We're out of practice. We're at 34 minutes. So we guys, we gotta wrap this up. But I think we, I think we touched on everything. You've got some, you have some actionable steps. I need to go home and Maverick's got to wear and do treats cause he'll sit, lay down. He's not going to be able to fetch his ball. Spin around. can't fetch. That might be kind fun to watch him. I digress. Heather, I know you have recorded some muzzle training videos. Where can people find you and watch your videos and learn more about Wag It Better?

Right now, the muzzle videos are on my Facebook page and my TikTok page. WagItBetter.com ⁓ is my website that'll take you to those. WagItBetter.com. Heather Moore, thank you for joining us. for having me. Before we let you go. I know you know this part of the show. It is time. Even though we are running over, we are not going to deprive our listeners of learning.

some piece of random information that may help them win trivia or impress their friends and family at upcoming ⁓ dinners with their family. ⁓ what do you have for us today? What is your fun fact? you know what Scotland's national animal is? Scotland's national, a yak. No, it would be like some sort of... It's a Highland cow. No, that would be Scotland. A Highland cow. A sea monster.

Nessie. I'm going with the Highland Cow. It's a unicorn. Really? It is. Okay. They a lot of unicorns in Scotland. Apparently so. It's magical place out here. Have you ever been there? No, I'd love to go. I would like to go too. Scotland's coming here in 2026 for the Cup. Yeah. Are you going to be there to watch that one? We are not going to Boston. We're going to go to Kansas City. All right. Well, you better get your muzzles on. hear it's rough over there. Crazy, Kansas City. Heather, thank you for coming in.

and talking to our curious pet parents today about muzzle training. I think we gave some really great information. Go to our website ⁓ or her website, waggetbetter.com. Learn more about all the different training options that you have with Waggett Better and her team over there. And Heather, until next time. Thank you. Yes. All right. And to all you pet parents out there, until next time, stay curious.