Talk to me about basket muzzles

[4Martini]

Has anyone used one?

we have a what appears to be lab/ greyhound mix. She will put anything in her mouth. We are really worried about her safety and have already been to the emergency vet twice over things that ended up in her mouth/ belly. Other than her desire to eat the plastic handles off a pair of scissors and the handle of a disposable razor she is a great dog.

even the vet suggested the possibility of a muzzle to try and keep her safe from her poor choices in snacks.

i know nothing about these. They look pretty common for greyhounds. Can anyone teach me anything and help me keep my dog safe???

I’m open to alternative ideas- but she is big and fast and sneaky and grabs things I just don’t fathom would be tempting to her. We do have a massive crate but she would much rather be hanging out with me and my other dog even when I am working or cooking and not able to fully police her choices.

[chestnutmarebeware]

I use one on my cranky old pound-puppy cocker spaniel whenever I have to do something she objects to (brushing, clipping nails, pulling burrs, etc.) and she’s fine with it, but I’d never leave it on when unsupervised. The one I have has a nylon neck loop which absolutely wouldn’t break under pressure if she got into trouble.I’ve also noticed that even with the strap fastened snugly, she can brush it off her snout with a single swipe of her paw.

Pluses are that most dogs don’t seem to mind wearing the basket-style muzzles because they don’t clamp the mouth closed and restrict breathing like the nylon “funnel” types. They seem to be quite comfortable for them.

[SonnysMom]

Years ago I came across a greyhound running down the middle of the street with a basket muzzle. The dog was a former racer. She and 3 or her closest greyhound friends had gotten loose and were roaming the neighborhood. DH and I picked her up, finished delivering some fencing to a local horse rescue and then went back to where we found the dog. We got lucky. The humane society van was in somebody’s driveway so we pulled in behind them. They were there to pick up the 3 other dogs that somebody else had corralled. The owner of all 4 dogs showed up. Her husband had accidently left the gate open. She turned the dogs out for one last potty break the night before and they had been roaming since then. They had been frantically looking for them most of the night.
She said she always turns them all out with the basket muzzles to prevent squabbling. She does greyhound rescue so has a constantly changing pack. None of them minded the muzzles but they would have been used to them from the track. I don’t remember if there was a breakaway of any kind on the muzzle.

[Beckham03]

They very much can be helpful! They can learn to drink from them and trained properly, can be just fine with them. Greyhounds tracks/rescues do use them.

have a friend with a pittie that won’t stay in a crate and has had two foreign body surgeries. She has now gone the leaving her out wearing a basket muzzle route and she and dog are both happy.

[SlabSided]

My current dog went thru a period when she was younger where eating her own poop was the highlight of her day. So I started putting a basket muzzle on her before she was allowed outside unsupervised. She was only out for less than 10 minutes at a time and, while she hated the putting-on process, she seemed quite comfortable once outside. I did end up having to afix a solid piece of plastic to the very end because she figured out if she just jammed her face into a fresh pile of poop she could still get a taste. :disgust: Thank dog she outgrew that habit.

[Aly]

Had to delurk and add my two cents. 10-12 years ago, I adopted a 3 month old terrier mix from the local shelter. Puppy came with a few issues, not the least of which was inappropriate food preferences with rocks heading his list of all time favorites. I am not a lawn enthusiast, so the front and side yards are mulched for the dogs, with shrubs and trees along the perimeter and raised beds in the center. Despite virtually daily searches, that little bugger still found rocks in the yard to consume. Walkies were an absolute nightmare. After several ER visits for potential blockages, I threw in the towel and went hardcore. Bought a basket muzzle which he wore every.time he went outside for the next nine months. NO exceptions. He could take treats, drink water (had to practice this with him a few times) and easily pant to throw off heat. Using the muzzle gave me time to train and proof both a “Drop it” and “Leave it” command, while saving my sanity and my checkbook. Of course, the neighbors laughed and called him Hannibal Lector and passing walkers/runners would swerve into the street to avoid this obviously vicious PUPPY. Whatever…

It worked for us and, after a year, I could dispense with the muzzle altogether. I’d recommend it highly.

[S1969]

My thoughts on this is that it probably would work best as a multi-step approach. If you must muzzle the dog for the time being, I think it will be fine. However, I think the idea that this dog would have to be muzzled 24/7 for life is unfair, so I would be working on other solutions.

First of all, I hate to say it but you just can’t leave things like disposable razors or scissors where the dog can reach them, or really anything small and portable for now. My dogs are pretty good but my youngest is a taker of things, and we’ve all learned not to leave things lying around unless we expect them ruined. Luckily he doesn’t consume things, but he will definitely take them and chew them. My kids’s rooms are off-limits to the dogs because they simply cannot seem to manage keeping their rooms dog-proofed. But if you look around the rest of my house…there really isn’t anything sitting out at a height of less than 4’. If it’s really important or dangerous, it’s put up even higher.

I’d also work on training “leave it” and would definitely employ a crate, barricades/gates, and/or contained area for times you can’t keep an eye on the dog - when you’re not home, for sure, and if certain times are just too likely to busy to watch him. My dogs only have access to some rooms of the house, so that we don’t have to dog-proof them all. Upstairs loft/bedroom and basements are totally off limits, for example.

Good luck. I feel your pain.

[csaper58]

Yup, had one that needed a ‘grazing muzzle’ on walks. We could not leave him out side unsupervised. I used a basket muzzle covered with a piece of a nylon knee-hi in the summer, and this ‘Soft Guard Muzzle’ in cool weather.

www.morrco.com/progsofdogmu.html

www.morrco.com/dog-muzzle.html

The above site also has good info on fitting a muzzle, it is very important the dog be able to pant, and that the muzzle not contribute to over-heating in hot weather.