The Daily Telegraph - Features
Muzzles aren’t just for XL bullies – your posh pooch needs one, too
“The dog is a gentleman,” Mark Twain wrote. “I hope to go to his heaven, not man’s.” My dog, I thought, as I watched him drag a dinky bichon frisé to the muddy ground by its collar while I maniacally flapped a piece of ham in an attempt to distract him, is certainly not a gentleman.
It was late 2020 and we had owned Griffin for about three months; the result of a concerted campaign of emotional blackmail inflicted upon my formerly dognostic fiancé. “Lurcher puppy plays too roughly,” I implored of Google and LurcherLink.org, in an attempt to find some answers. For Griffin is no XL bully. No squat pitbull. No breed beloved of bad boys but an elegant, beautiful lurcher. “How to stop a teenage dog going for the neck,” I asked. The answer I received was always the same: “Use a muzzle.”
Surely not. Muzzles are for aggressive dogs. Griff was just playing! He was a typically mouthy sighthound. He didn’t mean any harm! (Apart from to that deer, those two rabbits and our friend’s rooster.) How would we play fetch if we used a muzzle? What would people think of him? By which I mean, what would people think of me? Hell is other dog owners, as every dog owner knows. A muzzle simply didn’t align with my idea of my dog, which was largely based on my mother’s saluki, who was perfect in every way. Three months later, when we were already the scourge of every park in our corner of north-east London, the real trouble began.
We need to learn that stopping our dogs from snapping and biting is good for them – and us, writes Ella Cory-Wright
‘There’s this very pervasive idea that all dogs love people and love being stroked’
Griff, startled by a jogger, snapped at him. It was the final straw. We called a vet, a behaviourist and, armed with squeezy cheese, reluctantly began muzzle-training.
My initial resistance to the muzzle is not unique. As of this year, it is an offence to keep an XL bully unmuzzled and off-lead in public – and it has proved a much contested piece of legislation, even prompting one man in Cheshire to wear a muzzle to the pub in protest. The internet teems with echoes of that outrage, as owners cry that muzzles are only for vicious dogs; that they are cruel. Or, for that matter, that their dog could never hurt a fly…
“I wish every dog were muzzletrained from an early age,” says Dr Jon Bowen, behaviour consultant at the Royal Veterinary College. “That way, they wouldn’t see the muzzle as stressful or uncomfortable. Unfortunately, the first experience many dogs have with muzzling is when they are already upset and defensive.”
If you have a dog, there’s a good chance they may have to wear one at some stage. Even the mildestmannered cockapoo can play too rough, become defensive at the vet, develop a culinary interest in their own poo, or, like Griffin, become stranger-reactive. “Muzzles are a great tool that can be used to manage and prevent behaviour problems. It’s a shame they have become overlooked and somewhat stigmatised in recent years,” says Bowen. “If people were used to using them, and seeing muzzled dogs, the stigma would be reduced and we could avoid a lot of dog bite incidents.”
As a nation of dog lovers, as well as a people naturally disposed to self-consciousness, we assume our dog’s behaviour reflects on us as owners – something that both my teenage brothers would call Main Character Syndrome. “There’s this very pervasive idea that all dogs love people and love being stroked,” says Hannah Birrell, a London-based clinical animal behaviourist. “Owners get embarrassed if their dog isn’t one of those stereotypically friendly ones, and the muzzle is an indicator of that.”
But muzzle shame, say experts, is completely mistaken. “The muzzled dog is the safest dog in the park,” says Kristina Glover, head of clinical behaviour services at Dogs Trust. “It’s the only one that can’t bite. When we see them, we should think ‘what a responsible owner’ rather than ‘what a vicious dog’.”
And it is in recognition of that responsibility that muzzlepositivity is breaking out in corners of the internet – if not on Hampstead Heath.
“I thought I had done all the research before I brought my vizsla puppy home – I even had a spreadsheet to keep track of all our training,” says Jessie Montague, owner of three-year-old vizsla Atlas, and the person behind the @Story_Of_Atlas Instagram account. But poor training advice left her with an adolescent dog exhibiting increasing degrees of aggression. “We were advised by vets to put him to sleep. It was only when the bites got so bad that my husband had to have 16 stitches in his face that I called Vizsla Welfare to give him up. They advised a muzzle and a new trainer.”
Not to spoil the plot, but Atlas and Jessie are now thriving.
“I try to post as much as I can to spread the word that muzzles can be great tools. I am passionate about showing that muzzles can give dogs more freedom and allow them to live better lives,” says Montague.
So, next time you see a muzzled dog cresting a hill, rather than assuming the worst, walk on, nod and remember that they’re the safest dog in the park. As for Griff, when I see him running with his gang, all muzzles and ribs akimbo, I couldn’t be more proud of him, gentleman or not.