Reg is DA, he's rarely muzzled, he doesn't come off the lead...if he was muzzled I still wouldn't allow him to come off the lead as I'm pretty sure he would charge at any dog that came into sight (he was once off lead in the local park tennis court, when a little yorkie walked past the perimeter fence, he legged it and hurled himself at the fencing, this was enough to convince me never to let him off in an unsecured area)
Me and OH disagree on the muzzle point, he point blank refuses to entertain a muzzle.
I take one with me if I think there might be out of control off lead dogs, but tend to stick to street walks to hopefully avoid this situation.
Reg is an oldish dog (rescue) who weighs around 22lbs so easy to control.
If I had a large breed do that could do serious damage then I'm not sure I'd feel so confident without a muzzle.

I always have a basket muzzle handy when walking, just in case. Although we've been incident-free for about a year and a half now, my dog's history with strangers is not the best, so I carry the muzzle in case we are, for whatever reason, forced to go through an area where there are a lot of people or if we are going through an area with children running about.

Just gives me that little extra security to know that, even if the worst happened (well, except for the muzzle strap breaking), nobody would come out of the situation grievously wounded!

Equally, if Anton somehow managed to injure himself on a walk, the muzzle could be key in preventing damage to anyone trying to help him.

I usually muzzled my dog aggressive dog. Mostly because if another dog approached he would launch into a full on attack with serious intent to harm. And he would not stop until forcibly removed. It didn't mean he was completely defenceless as two dogs found out, one ended up with broken ribs, the other ended up pinned beneath him screaming in fear because it came at him again and again and eventually got past me. I personally feel any dog who will attack with that sort of intensity for no real reason should be muzzled.

I did find the muzzle made him a bit of a target though. I had several people set their dogs on him while he was wearing it and even more people do stupid things like lean down and bark in his face as they passed him trying to get a reaction from him. At one point I stopped muzzling him and just carried it with me in case we needed it but once we moved from that area he wore it all the time in public.

For me it would depend on the dog and whether I knew I could keep him/her in control at all times.

If yes, and the aggression wasn't severe then I probably would not. But if it was risky, and/or the dog couldn't safely let people or other dogs pass on our walks then I probably would.

No need to muzzle most dogs that don't have issues, but if an owner suspects their dogs does not have good bite inhibition or if they know their dog is very likely to strongly react if a dog comes up to theirs (even on lead) then unfortunately I think muzzling should be seriously considered.

The reason being that muzzles when properly introduced are not uncomfortable and it could save the life of a dog. A husky sadly killed a smaller dog when it ran up to say hallo to it, when it was on lead - the husky was dog/dog aggressive.

Yes, the other dog shouldn't have run up to on on lead dog, but then sadly that's where the problem lies - we can't always allow for owners that can't control their dogs well and should the dog pay the price with its life?

Wys
x

I would never like to be involved in a dog fight situation, but my main objective would always be to protect me dog - I don't want him to connect with another dog but I'd also want him to be able to defend himself if it came down to it (assuming another dog ran up to mine while he was onlead - as he is around other dogs)

It's not as easy to say a muzzle will scare off other owners - and I genuinely think when I ask people to call back their dogs they weigh up whether or not their dog could 'take' my dog.

Duncan is fear aggresive with other dogs I can't see muzzling him will make him any less scared of them and could make the problem worse IMO.

Mollie was muzzled when we could stop her eating the takeaways people chuck in the bushes just to give us time to get her back before she woofed the lot down and make herself ill. Better recall and we stopped having to do that.

No I wont be muzzling my DA dog whilst she is on the lead,

Tried that , she got attacked by an off lead dog, so now if your dog comes up to mine , I will do my upmost to avoid a situation, but she will not be muzzled.

We pay enough of a price as it is, her on lead, walking in isolation (for the most part) , I am not going to put her at any more risk due to numpty owners.

This for me.

& a lead is probably an equal hamper in the unlikely event you run into another dog that ought to be onlead or muzzled.

I had one noteable moronic owner who let their dog come bowling up to attack mine (on lead, naff all left in the way of teeth anyway but was muzzled at the time)... and then claim it was the fact she WAS muzzled that had provoked it and made it ok for her dog to have a go!