Muzzling

Is muzzling a dog indoors cruel.

Having problems with my bitch at the moment,we leave her indoors at night,if we're going out etc,and recently she's been chewing anything she can get her teeth into,mum suggested muzzling her just while she is indoors to shop her doing the damage.

Do you think she will learn if we do muzzle her?

Hi Flow wolf how old is your dog, is she still teething, does she have plenty of chewable things to occupy her, perhaps she is bored or stressed at being left.

I personally don't like muzzles at all and can't think of many instances when I would use one.

No she won't learn anything by wearing a muzzle, you will just be preventing her doing what is natural for a dog, using its jaws. She will only learn anything by having wanted behaviour reinforced by reward.

I agree with Mini in general with most dogs, and thats good advice.

But...(theres always one isn't there!) We used to have a dog that was so destructive, he was left with chewables, kongs, and another very well behaved dog (he was a young pup and the other dog was an adult, they both lived with us the pup was a second pup, rescued) whenever we went out. No matter what even if we were only out half an hour he caused so much destruction and mayhem while we weren't there! I mean a total of hundreds of pounds worth of damage, literally, and the potential to damage himself with what he chewed and ate.

We tried everything, the vet checked his teeth, we tried leaving for 5 minutes, then ten, then random amounts of time up to a maximum of 30 minutes, none of it worked!

Finally in desperation, and for the sake of anything left in the house unbroken, we sadly decided to muzzle him when we went out.

He did seem to know why we did it, and he hated it and couldn't wait to get it off when we got back. This was a last ditch thing you understand, but we started to leave him muzzle off, using the same five mins, ten mins, random times theory, if he chewed back it went.

He learned that if he chewed he was muzzled, if he didn't he wasn't. It was like magic, he learned VERY quickly not to chew and we never looked back.

Sorry for the very long post, but I know how frustrating it can be, and if this helps well, all to the good. Some will I'm sure disagree with what we did, but it worked for us.

I always thought leaving a dog alone with a muzzle on can be dangerous to them because they might try to take it off + get caught + well that could lead to loads of other things so the dog could get hurt + do you have any kongs or chewing toys that you could leave with the dog could be there bored or they need to chew

Hi

I would try avoiding using a muzzle if it was one of my own dogs...

I have never had a problem with them chewing things that arn't theirs, both dogs had a couple attempts when pups and both were told 'no' with the object removed and swapped with one of their own toys. Ever since when ever they want to chew it is always only ever on something that 'belongs' to them.

So my advice would be, everytime you catch the dog chewing, either say nothing or just a simple 'no' (nothing more than a simple word), swap what they are chewing for something they are allowed to chew, when they start to chew the allowed object give lots of praise then do it every time.

Another tip is to keep all their toys in a designated area / box and available at all times so they get used to going to them when they want something to play with / chew. My dogs know that everything in that box is theirs to do what they like with and if they didn't get it from that box it isn't theirs.

Also don't ever give them objects like old slippers or anything that is very similar to things you don't want them to chew, they wont understand why they can chew / play with this slipper but not other ones etc.

If the problem was really severe I would rather get the dog used to sleeping in a crate while I couldn't keep my eye on the dog over nights etc rather than I would muzzle it.

Other than that maybe look at increasing excersize or making it more interesting if it is felt the dog gets plenty or the right amount already and maybe add more training to excersize the dogs mind more and take it's mind off chewing.

I would think in your situation, if you muzzle her, it will aggrevate her and may send her stir crazy and she may want to chew all the more .....

I just want to say after reading everyone elses comments, please try everything else suggested here first, its very good advice and better than muzzling him. (Unfortunately we DID try all this to no avail) Like I said it was a last ditch attempt for us, and sad to do it. and yes it did work for us, but it probs wouldn't for most dogs. You know your own dog so must weigh up the pros and cons, and I wouldn't generally recommend muzzling if at all possible and have never done so on any of our dogs before or since, just this one. Just wanted to clear that up

She's 3 in May.

Yes she does have toys left for her,when we leave her in the house,the only reason

I leave her in the house is because I dont like leaving her out for the night....she's started to chew things which are dangerous like wires etc.luckily none of the things have been plugged in at the time..she's chewed the wire on my partners clippers,telephone charger,xbox cable and now one of my daughters brand new present.....I never thought a dog would chew anything like that....we leave her a kong,her teddies and an old rag that she carries everywhere...about 3 weeks ago we bought a brand new duvet set,she shredded it.

We are at our wits end at the moment and thats why the muzzling question was risen,it was an idea of my mums,she used to muzzle our English Bull for doing similar.

I may try what Animal said in their post.

I personally don't like muzzles, but if you are going to get one I would get a wired basket muzzle, one that goes over their noses without actually closing the dog's mouth down, just for saftey. Sometimes the dog's teeth can be pushed down causing teeth problems, or sometimes if you leave it on for a long period of time the dog can have some breathing problems. If it is just going to be for 20 minutes then any muzzle would be fine, I think. But for longer periods of time i would do a wired basket muzzle or any kind of muzzle that doesnot cover the dog's nose but just prevents the dog from chewing.