Life with a dog agressive dog...

lionheartedgirl

I use a basket muzzle on one of my greyhounds if there are a lot of other dogs around, as I feel it makes me more confident, which makes my dog worry less. As others have said, it really acts as a bit of a warning to other owners - lots of them pick their dogs up before they get too close which is what I would prefer.

My girl hound is very scared of other dogs, and does the major barking thing to get them to back off. This is quite common with retired racers, they have spent their entire life with other greyhounds and often don't recognise anything that is shaped differently as another dog.

They are used to wearing muzzles from racing, she happily wears it, can drink and play in it etc. She is a bit keen on my mum's new whippet puppy and the muzzle protects both of them, as the whippet hasn't quite worked out she's a puppy yet and annoys the hell out of my greyhound :rotfl:

She can even eat in it - i forgot she had it on and gave her her dinner... wondered why she was taking longer than normal and turned round. whoops. baaad mummy!

I hope Zara recovers soon, it's so stressful all round when they are barky.

Caroline_a

Hope you get it sorted soon GR. I've never had a problem with Oakley, so never needed a muzzle - he loves all dogs, and if they ever have a go he just trots back looking a bit embarrassed! Not that they'd ever get teeth through the depth of his coat anyway lol!

elsien

The people who make the Baskerville muzzle are helpful on the phone if you have any queries about the size and suitability of the different muzzles. I had to ring them when I was trying to work out which was best for mutt.

Wellyboots6

Nail varnish or spray paint if you can only get a beige one?

Tyson met the little white horror again this evening. Turns out it is a Westie but it never stands still enough for you to get a good look at it!

It came round a corner and they met head on and it went in to full on bouncy shouty mode. Tyson of course had to have a go back so it all got very noisy! They were both on leads and I know Tyson well enough to know he shouts a lot but doesn't go to bite now and so he rarely needs his muzzle.

We eventually got both dogs to calm down and sit near each other without staring, and they even had a sniff and a wag!

It took about 15 minutes with them, but we are both now hoping it will reduce some of the noise when they meet next time.

Luckily people round here are starting to realise he isn't a demon dog and are actually willing to help me out with training him.

It has taken a lot of time and embarrassment, but stick with it GR and you will get through it. Zara has more brains than Tyson so I am sure she will get through it a lot quicker!

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi, sorry to hear you are having a hard time of it GR. We have a rescue terrier who has never been socialised so is very reactive to other dogs. We didnt know his history and were advised to muzzle him at first just in case his OTT reaction to other dogs became aggressive. I was horrified. No way was I putting a muzzle on my dog, I would send him back to the rescue centre if it came to that.

And then I did some more reading on the internet and contacted a trainer. She said that muzzles are brilliant for warning off other approaching dog owners and even if you just carry it somewhere visible it helps to get the point across.

Shortly after that she did some work assessing our terrier and said that he is not aggressive. He just doesnt know how to deal with other dogs and we are working on getting him socialised better.

I have to say that now I would be much more open minded to using a muzzle. Those pics of the dogs on the beach are lovely and maybe if more people did muzzle their dogs we would all be much more accepting of it.

gettingready

krlyr - this one in size 5 does not say GS.....

http://www.mrpets.co.uk/index.php?moreinfo=10368

not sure... is size 5 for GS? i thought you said somewhere that ultra 5 was for GS size... hmmmmm

gettingready

ok, found it here - 5 is for GR

http://www.companyofanimals.co.uk/products/muzzles-travel-and-visibility/muzzles/baskerville-ultra-muzzle

Ordering from here:

http://www.mrpets.co.uk/index.php?moreinfo=10368

At £8.95 it is the cheapest I could find....

at last decent photos of that particular muzzle

http://www.dogmuzzlestore.com/m_ultra.php

OK_ ordered the muzzle..... will see....

It will not stop her barking/lounging at other dogs while on a lead and trying to break my arm.. and that is the biggest problem - but....

krlyr

Yup, it was on the Company of Animals website I'd seen it on.
The muzzle is just a management tool which should help with training too - the less dogs that Zara reacts to, the less scared she'll be and the less ingrained the behaviour will be. The muzzle should help give an obvious warning to other dog owners to not approach, which should help prevent less of these barking and lunging reactions from Zara.

I think that spider phobia analogy is always a good one. So, say you're afraid of spiders and scream, jump, wave your arms around every time you're near one - the muzzle on a dog is like the plastic glass over the spider. It doesn't get rid of the spider but it keeps the spider away from you until you get someone to take it outside. OK, in this instance, you're not using the muzzle on the scary dog but on Zara herself, but it still helps create that distance and allows you to get Zara away from that scary dog. So that's your management technique. But if you want to actually get over your spider phobia, you're going to have to do more than pop a glass over them. You need to slowly create a different association with spiders - so you pop that glass over the spider and you staying in the room until your friend comes and removes the spider, instead of running out into the next room. You do this for a while until you're more comfortable, and then you progress to standing next to the glass with the spider in. The next stage may be getting your friend to put a lid on the glass, but you pick it up and carry the spider outside. Just like babysteps in dealing with a spider phobia, you need to actively start little babysteps to dealing with Zara's fear of other dogs.
http://thecognitivecanine.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/dog-dog-issues-series-part-two-treating-leash-reactivity/

A behaviourist may be a big help but there's plenty of articles on dog reactivity online, and lots of good books if you can budget for them eventually.
It's not overnight - I've had Casper 2 years and it's still an ongoing situation, I doubt he'll ever be a 'normal' dog but we should reach the stage where he'll ignore dogs and that will be fine with me.

gettingready

Thanks - we are going to the park at 3pm today and already dreading it.

Got to go as need to take mikki rake for a friend - ordered it for his dog ad the old boy (owner) does not use the internet and did not know how ...

The dog, Prince is Zara's good friend though - it is what we meet on the way that I worry about.. sigh...

Halti on and off will go at 3...

zaksmum

gettingready wrote: »

Thanks - we are going to the park at 3pm today and already dreading it.

Got to go as need to take mikki rake for a friend - ordered it for his dog ad the old boy (owner) does not use the internet and did not know how ...

The dog, Prince is Zara's good friend though - it is what we meet on the way that I worry about.. sigh...

Halti on and off will go at 3...

Let us know how you get on!