What's the most comfortable, least annoying, most easily removable muzzle? Provided it's still covered in the front.

I need it for no other reason than a heeling routine right now.

Anecdotes please.

Steve,
I practice formal OB and such in muzzle as I used to compete in a sport where some muzzle work was required - I think that if somebody is going to do any type of muzzle work in the future,
it's a good idea to get the dog use to a muzzle at an early age.

Plus, I still remember a GSDCA/WDA Nationals a few years ago where the Police Service dogs all came out onto the field in muzzles, and all the dogs but one spent the entire time working to get the muzzle off. There were some big name Police handlers on that field, and I was embarrassed for them.
Ironically, the only Police canine *not* working away at his muzzle was the famed hyper drive nut-job Nitro - goes to show you what good training can accomplish. He sat there like a rock, and that sure left a good impression on the audience.


Ok, back to a recommendation - practice with the muzzle that you'll be using for real training. Get the dog use to the longer period of placement that the serious muzzles take to get on and off. I suspect that you're serious about your training, so you might as well start it while they're young.

so---what type of muzzle would you recommend then?

The Jafco seem ez enough.

http://www.leerburg.com/jafco.htm

"The Jafco muzzle has been around for years. It is a plastic basket muzzle that offers a great deal of security. Many departments around the world use this muzzle for training protection dogs in muzzle work. We keep them in our kennel. The muzzle is easy to put on and easy to take off. They go on a lot easier than most muzzles.

If you are looking for a good utility muzzle that will last for years and years, this is your best choice. We use our Jafco muzzles all the time here at Leerburg. They come in different sizes. So when you order, we need to know the breed, age, and sex of your dog to try and determine what size to send."

Steven,
I sent you a PM.

I am not a fan of the way the plastic muzzles are made, i think its to easy for my dog to get cut or cut someone else with them. If you are looking to invest in a good muzzle i would say look for a German Basket Weave Muzzle, i don't own one yet but i am planning on getting one when i get my next dog.

What Will said is correct, but if your training this dog for French Ring. A trick taught to me by some FR'ers when I started training Muzzle was to use a light BS muzzle for FR heeling, and a serious aggitation muzzle if you do different work. What happens here is your dog gets use to the muzzle doing serious muzzle work, and when you put that same muzzle on to do basic FR heeling the equipment gets the dog all jazzed up. Have two different muzzles for such work. I had this problem with my dog who competed where muzzle strikes on an unsuited decoy was on the agenda. I then transfered my dog to training for FR, when I tried to heel she was all geeked up and not heeling perfectly like she could when she's not thinking about engaging someone. Once I started with the BS heel muzzle, she quickly learned the difference. She will heel very nicely in the FR muzzle, and if I take that one off and put on the aggitation muzzle, she knows things are about to get more serious. Thats what alot of FR folks do. particularly try and use a light plastic or wire muzzle for FR, and if you do aggitatin muzzle work use a leather muzzle. That gives them a noticable difference in the muzzles. http://www.dobbsdogs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=190

~CHRIS DUHON

I’ve recently re-thought and made some changes to our muzzle training… Although our dogs are extremely well adjusted to wearing the muzzle and won’t fuss with them, we began to see some issues develop in training we had to fix.
We turned the muzzle into another equipment fixation problem by only using the muzzle for muzzle fighting. Like Chris D. brought up, you saw a behavior change in the dog where he knew it was man fighting time. I question when this happens are we really seeing the dogs potential to fight man?
As a result were placing a major focus on “neutralizing” the muzzle by making it an every day item not just a piece of fighting equipment. Were doing obedience, tracking, drug work…. All in muzzle. If we do it, were gonna do it in muzzle. I’m hoping we can get to a much higher tier of control work using the muzzle.
If you work on making the dog neutral to the muzzle, I don’t see why you woud need to train in two different ones.

Matt,
Great points of discussion. I tried what you are talking about, and it didn't work FOR ME. Of course I'm not the end all be all expert here either. Keep us informed if you could about how this is turning out for you all. I am very intrested to see if it does. That will tell me that I may have been doing something wrong, especially if all your dogs are achieving what you want to see.
The best I ended up hoping for was teaching my dogs that the muzzle is not a restriction per say and I achieved that, because at anytime the muzzle can come off and they can get a bite they just have to keep fighting, same principles as teaching the focus heel. I of course did this using the loose muzzle slip method. I go a step further than just slipping the muzzle off while a suited decoy is there, I'll use a hidden sleeve, while the handler has total control or backtie with a gazzillion leashes and back up collars on the dog for safety, I'll go in and pull the muzzle off the dog and present my arm with the hidden sleeve. Another method is a short sleeve shirt and backtied muzzled dog, and go in for a fight and during it when my body has cleared his area, I'll pull it off and jump back quickly and give him civil aggitation. This is extremely dangerous I might say for obvious reasons, and the decoy really has to be good in reading, and quick on his feet. So it be known, using these methods sooner or later you will get caught. I have dog teeth tattos everywhere, but quick thinking on my feet allows me to minimize the damage. I just got my bandages off my right hand from training 2 weeks ago, LOL. But I can't stress how very dangerous this can be for a novice decoy.

I just keep the dogs always thinking the muzzle is not a restriction. Otherwise the dog learns it will never get a bite in muzzle and eventually IMO just starts to go through the motions of muzzle fighting. I am still able to get control over my dogs and they have OB in the muzzle, but are much more amped when they think things are about to get serious.

~CHRIS DUHON

Chris…
One thing we also changed was taking the muzzle off of the dog. When we do obedience in muzzle or drug work we’ll reward the dog with their toy with the muzzle on…. The dog’s go CRAZY and actually enjoy playing with the muzzle on.
We also stopped slipping the muzzle at the end of the muzzle fighting session… I want the drive satisfaction to come from the fight with the man himself and not the bite after. The win is running the decoy off the field while the dog retains the field that he just won.
We changed how we fight as well… we no longer go to ground unless the dog takes the decoy down, and if we do we get right up and fight the dog. Young dogs just starting out in muzzle fighting will get some ground time. IMO we were spending so much time on the ground that it was becoming a prey exercise and was not working the dog at all in fight. IMO prey takes the dog to the fight.. but the fight keeps him there. Just my two cents.