I hate to disagree with you Helen, you know that , but the soft Mikki-type muzzles are far more restrictive and distressing to a dog than the basket ones. With a basket muzzle, the dog is able to drink, pant and even eat small treats, with a soft muzzle, the jaws are forced shut and the dog cannot pant or drink. I hate them! I can understand for a quick examination at the vets they are ok, but I certainly would not want a soft material muzzle on my dogs when out exercising, as they would have no way of cooling down (panting) or having a drink.

Hi there.

No I know there are lots of reasons a dog may be muzzled, what I meant was dogs that are aggressive may be even more difficult to get used to wearing a muzzle as they are already fighting for their mouth, if you like, but people and dogs with these issues do it for the safety of that dog and others around them. Dogs that are normal well balanced animals will probably get used to them a lot quicker due to their abilities to cope with day to day things calmly.
Dawn.

Ah I see, thanks for clarifying! I agree with you that calmer dogs would probably adjust to most things better than an agressive dog who probably has very high stress levels.

It's also the owners perception of what is aggressive. I dreaded the dogs that had owners who say 'oh he growls but doesn't mean it' as they are usually the worse, where owners who say 'oh he might need to be muzzled as he bites' tends to have dogs who are actually very easy to handle!
Becky

Oh I see I'd never even seen one until he put this on her and that was many years ago when she didn't like her claws being clipped! After what you have now told me, there would be no way in this World I'd put one of those on any dog whilst out on a walk!!! Certainly not!!! I just didn't like the look of those cage ones, they look so hard on their little faces that's all!

You see, we're agreeing really!

I wouldn't muzzle or want to have to muzzle Keena or Takoda. Takoda is a confident lad off lead and has no probs but he does show fear aggression on lead / restricted. Muzzling would give him more 'issues' and would not help him at all. We make minimal use of headcollars with him for the same reason. He is just far more at ease with less restriction. We already have to restrict dogs enough as it is I just don't feel further restriction will help dogs. It may well reduce incidents but it may well also cause more behaviour probs in my opinion. I can see a future where dogs are kept on short leads, muzzled and people avoiding each other...Dog are supposed to be social. They use body language to communicate properly and restriction hinders that in my opinion. I wish the emphasis can be put on responsible dog ownership in the lines of training in a way that's best for the dog as well as people rather than more and more restraint. I want my dogs to feel freedom in a responsible way as much as possible - it is important to me.

If I had acres of my own land I wouldn't care less what restrictions are placed outside but outside is where my dogs get to run and be dogs, it's up to me to make sure they do that in a way that is controlled yet full filling to them.

If I had an out and out aggressive dog I knew I had no control (aggresion wise) over then yes I would be responsible and muzzle it in public.

But no I don't think it fair to muzzle all dogs - there are too many grey areas with some dogs which would mean it wasn't a good idea.

I'll be there with mine

I remember when I had Brandie we met a dog that was muzzled. It was a huge dog and had come running from across the other side of the field leaving it's owner behind. Even though the dog was muzzled so couldn't do any damage, it was still completely out of control. I was stuck standing there because it was bounding around us refusing to let us move. Even when the owner arrived it wouldn't leave us alone - kept running up to Brandie, pushing and shoving us about. Eventually the owner ran off and the dog followed.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that wearing a muzzle might mean there are less bites, but it won't stop bad behaviour. If it had done that to a child they could easily have been knocked over and hurt, or just terrified.
The dog needed training and to be kept under control, wearing a muzzle didn't help that. Biting is a serious problem, but I think out of control behaviour is just as bad We need to deal with bad behaviour on a whole, not just cover up part of it.


If I walked somewhere not many people went I would risk the fines too!