How To Muzzle Train A Chihuahua

The chihuahua is a small but feisty breed, and that can sometimes lead to a spot of trouble with them. If your pup is nippy, a muzzle can make retraining them safer for you, but that’s not the only reason why muzzle training your dog is a good idea.

Muzzles can be used in a variety of situations for your pet, including:

• Some emergency shelters only allow muzzled pets (if they’re allowed at all.)
• Stops dogs from eating poop, trash, or even poison out on walks
• Reduces stress if they need to be muzzled for the vet or groomer
• Reducing risk of injury when two or more dogs in the same house don’t get along

While a muzzle might be used if there’s a risk of a bite, eating inappropriate items or where it’s required for the pet’s safety are also valid reasons.

This article is aimed at anyone who wants their dog to feel confident wearing a muzzle. We will be using a positive reinforcement strategy to make wearing the muzzle an exciting and fun event for your dog, rather than something they associate with fear or pain.

If your dog is ‘muzzle wise’ meaning they won’t let a muzzle be put on because they know it means something bad is going to happen, you can still use this article. You may have to go a lot slower, an spend a lot more time on each level to achieve the same results, but it can be done.

Start With A Pup Cup

The first step in making a dog comfortable with a muzzle, is letting them practice putting their face into something roughly the size of their muzzle. A pup cup is a perfect way to introduce the idea that their muzzle can be covered and it’s fun.

For small dogs, pup cups work great, but baby food jars and other small containers can also work. The ideal size lets your dog reach to the bottom of the container to lick the treat, but doesn’t cover their eyes.

If you have a bigger dog, large yogurt tubs can work in the same way a pup cup does for the small ones. If they can just reach their tongue in without putting their face in the cup, it won’t have the same effect.

Keep giving your pets a daily pup cup until they are diving in to get every last crumb without a care in the world.

Introduce the Muzzle

You want the dog’s first experience with the muzzle to be great! The best way to make introductions as positive as possible is to show the muzzle to the dog (without trying to put it on) and rewarding any interest or interactions with it. Did they look at the muzzle? Yay!! They get a treat! Did they sniff it? Yay! A treat!

It’s important not to try and put the muzzle on during this first introduction lesson, nor to do anything pressuring with it. If your dog is muzzle wise, they may be suspicious if it’s even in your hands. If that’s the case, just put it on the ground and reward any interactions your dog gives the muzzle—even if it’s a baleful gaze.

When the dog is less suspicious of the muzzle, you can pick it up, but continue rewarding interactions until your dog is happy to look at or sniff the muzzle for snacks.

Treats in the Muzzle

The next step is to put a smeary treat at the bottom of the muzzle, so your pup has to reach in to lick it out. Offer these daily, just like the pup cup, until your dog is enjoying their rather unusual treat bowl without any tension.

Simply eating the treats isn’t a good enough sign that the dog is comfortable. If your dog is cautiously leaning forward to get the treats instead of standing normally, that’s a sign of tension. If they leap back the second it moves or they finish the treat, that’s also a sign they’re not ready to move on.

A relaxed dog will stand normally, carefully finish their goodies, and won’t leap back if the muzzle moves slightly.

Once the dog is extremely comfortable with eating out of the muzzle, you can even test to see if they’re ready to move on by slowly moving it two or three inches to one side and see if they’ll follow the muzzle. A comfortable dog will be happy enough to follow the treats wherever they’re going.

Moving Hands

In order to put the muzzle on, you’ll need to be able to move your hands while the dog’s head is in the muzzle. This might not seem like a big deal, but many dogs jerk back the second you so much as twitch a pinky.

The next stage in training is for your pup to learn you can move your hands and it doesn’t make a difference in their safety (or treats!)

Try holding the muzzle by the straps instead of by the base. Try moving one hand away from the muzzle an inch. Putting the muzzle on means lots of messing around with straps while they wait patiently with their face in the muzzle.

Moving hands also works as a kind of proofing for keeping their face in the muzzle. The more we can “proof” the behavior, the more likely your dog will feel comfortable when muzzle training is complete.

Putting a Cue On

Now that your pup is likely to put their face in the muzzle to get those snacks, you can add a cue on. When ever your dog puts their face in the muzzle, give them a cue such as, “Muzzle On!” to let them know you want them to put their face in the muzzle.

When they are about to take their face out, say “Break!” so they know when it’s time to take their muzzle out. Although a release cue isn’t as commonly used as a word to begin a new behavior, it’s very helpful to your dog.

When they don’t know when they will be released, they tend to look for any sign you’re done with the cue. This can lead to them breaking a behavior early, because they think you stepping back or turning your head is a release.

When you always let them know you’re done with a behavior through a release cue, they’ll be more likely to hold the behavior until they receive it. This works on all behaviors, and is a big relief for your pet.

Fading Treats in the Muzzle

To start this, put a single solid treat (like a hotdog piece) in the bottom of the muzzle, for your dog to reach in and take. As soon as they put their face in the muzzle, click! Offer another treat when they are out of the muzzle.

Keep doing this until the dog knows that what you want is the face in the muzzle, not just treat snagging. (Make sure to do this after the other steps listed, so the dog is very comfortable with putting their face in. Nobody learns very well when they’re nervous.)

Next, try offering the muzzle with no treat in there. If they put their face in, click and treat immediately. Keep building up until your dog puts their face in, even with no treats present, to get an anticipated reward.

Adding Time

Now you will want your pet to be able to keep their face in for longer and longer periods of time. Give the cue but delay a split second before adding the break cue. Reward them staying in for that split second longer, but don’t reward if they take their face out early.

Be careful when you do this. If your dog fails too many times, they may give up. If you try to delay twice and the pup fails both times, go back to immediately rewarding and try again until they can keep their face in the muzzle that split second.

When your dog can delay a split second before removing their face from the muzzle, build up to a full second, and then several seconds. Once your dog can hold the pose in the muzzle for several seconds, you can move on to the next step.

Touching Straps

Here, we’re going to make things a bit easier for the pup, by putting treats back inside the muzzle. Go back to that trusty spray cheese, peanut butter or whipped cream inside the muzzle. While your pet is enjoying their treats, reach up and touch the strap.

Many dogs are nervous about the straps, because they enclose the head. Just your hand moving past their eye can be frightening.

Start with just touching the straps, and build up to touching their neck with the strap, and holding the muzzle by the straps while they’re eating.

Watch carefully for signs of tension, such as pulling back, eating quicker, or side eye. If your dog shows any fear signals, back off to something easier and try again later.

Keep working on the straps until your pup doesn’t care if you’re messing with the straps while they are eating out of the muzzle.

Combining Training

We worked on each piece individually to make things easier on your pup. Now we’re going to combine some of the training, but we’re going to go back to an easier step to make your pet more comfortable.

Do a refresher session where you asked for the dog to put their muzzle in, wait a few seconds, and then take their face out.

Now ask for your dog to put their face in the muzzle, touch the strap, and then ask for them to release. Reward them with a jackpot of several small pieces of treat if they can do it. This is hard work!

If they can’t, repeat the easier request to put their face in the muzzle and release on cue, and then just move your hand up a little, nowhere near the strap. Find a point where you can move your hand, even if it is just a twitch, where they won’t break the cue.

Build up in tiny increments until you can ask your dog to put their face in the muzzle, mess with the straps, and then release them.

Buckling the Muzzle

Once your dog is able to hold the muzzle cue while you hold the straps, it’s time to think about buckling. Here’s where it’s good to take a step back and think about what you are doing. Some questions to ask yourself:

• How do you want to put the muzzle on?
  I actually prefer to put the muzzle on while the dog is facing away from me, so I can easier see the buckle. That’s not how we worked originally though! You’ll need to train the ‘face away’ behavior if you want that.
  
  If you want the dog to wait with their face in the muzzle, facing you, while you put it on, have you practice with both your hands all the way past their face while they’re eating? Make sure you’ve mimicked the posture of putting it on.
• Does your dog wear buckle collars?
  If your dog already associates the sound of a collar with fun activities like going out for a walk, they shouldn’t have a problem with the sound of the muzzle buckling. If they don’t have any experience with the sound however, you’ll want to build a positive association with the sound.

To do this, clip the muzzle together (not on the dog, just dangling from your hands, but where the dog can hear and see) then immediately give the dog a treat. Unbuckle it and make the buckle sound again, repeating the sound with a treat until the dog is excited to hear that sound.

The final step for muzzle training is to buckle the muzzle on, praise your dog lavishly, and remove the muzzle immediately.

Hopefully this is anticlimactic thanks to all the work you have done building up to this moment. If your dog has a complete panic attack, repeat training from the very beginning and spend more time on the final steps.

If your dog is uncomfortable, the dog is likely to have more mild symptoms such as:

• Shaking their head
• Pawing at the muzzle
• Holding their head super awkwardly

If this is the case, spend more time on the previous steps, heavily reinforcing keeping their face in the muzzle. It can take a long time for a dog to acclimate to this. Keep reinforcing their face in the muzzle and try again after several sessions.

Positive Association

When working with Tank, it took 6 months before he was comfortable with the muzzle. (It would have been a month shorter, but we did not work during some construction on our house, for fear he’d associate the loud bangs with the muzzle.)

Despite many months of working with the straps, he was very nervous about having it buckled. A strategy that ended up working with him was to associate the buckling on of the muzzle with going for a walk.

It took no more than 5 sessions for him to notice that he got to go for a walk if the muzzle was on. We took it off the moment he left the building, and off he went!

This was the final key to helping him look forward to the muzzle with joy, rather than with suspicion.

It may be helpful to think about what your dog really loves, and see if it is possible to pair that joy with the muzzle.

Conclusion

Every dog should be familiar with a muzzle. Even if your dog doesn’t bite, it’s possible they will end up needing to wear one at some point during their life. This could be to keep them from getting sick or hurt, or because they need emergency medical treatment.

Muzzle training your pet gives them a chance to familiarize themselves with muzzles before they’re forced to wear one during an emergency.

Although there’s a huge stigma with muzzles, they should be viewed as lifesaving, and made part of every dog’s training.

Sample Homework Sheet

This is a sample homework sheet of how you might desensitize the dog to the muzzle. It doesn’t include the cue word at this time, as it is as simple and straight forward as possible. I may add a second homework sheet later for cue words.

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