Each Muzzle Monday post provides an opportunity to celebrate owners and their pets who use muzzles, share their "why we muzzle" stories as well as work to breakdown the stigma that "a muzzled dog is a bad dog".
This week, we are honored to share Chance's Muzzle Monday Story!
Chance is an incredible rescue pup who is currently living in Ontario with his loving and dedicated family!
Chance's story is one that shows us the importance of being a responsible pet owner when you know that your dog is having some reactivity concerns in order to ensure everyone's safety. His story is also one that shows how much progress a fear reactive dog can make with the dedication and love from their humans!
Why did you choose to muzzle train Chance?
Chance is fear reactive, which made it of our activities really limited or stressful.
His initially reaction to meeting a dog is fear and to scare it away. So we started muzzle training.
What has muzzle training allowed for Chance to do?
This has really given him freedom to be on the long line, meet new dogs through pack walks, go hiking with other dogs... Go to the beach.
I don't have to be constantly worrying about altercations and can let him run and goof around. Just be a dog!
What kind of Muzzle does Chance use?
He is wearing a wire basket muzzle, it's is 100% bite proof. It has lots of air flow and he can drink with it on as well as take treats!
How did you positively Muzzle train Chance?
We did a lot of shaping with the muzzle. We started out with getting him to look at the muzzle and as soon as he did, he would get a treat. When he was comfortable with that, we let him start to touch it with his nose and would reward again with a treat treat then progressed to allowing for him to put his nose in it voluntarily and always getting rewarded along the way. Eventually we worked up to him being completely comfortable with wearing it for longer periods of time. Something else that we did that also helped him get used to the feeling of having the muzzle around his face was putting it in his food bowl and allowing for him to eat his food out of the muzzle.
Because of the hard work and dedication that Chance's owner has put into his training, Chance has begun to be able to explore his world not only safely but also confidently! We are so proud of them and can't wait to continue watching their journey together.
Thank you so much for sharing your story with us as well as the Muzzle Supporting community!
Do you love this story? Please share your love for Chance by sharing this post on Instagram and tagging @suns_out_paws_out_yyc and @loverofnerds to help breakdown the stigma of dog's who wear muzzles.
