01/18/2024
Had a great session with Nola yesterday! After working her in a public setting with people, dogs and cars around without issue, we talked about muzzle training. I had given the owner some homework to see if she could get the muzzle on the dog using the typical approach of conditioning it with food. It didn’t go well…
I had figured this would be the case so we took an entirely different approach. I played a bit with her and then eventually put the ball in my pocket, took the muzzle out and tried to put it on her. She wanted nothing to do with it and dodged every attempt so I told her “no” and that was the end of it… I could then slip the muzzle right on!
I would not be able to do this with any dog off the street. I relied on everything I had built with the dog up until this point. The dog trusted me and knew I would not let her down! The secret is as simple as building trust!
As we were packing up to head home something amazing happened. I picked up the muzzle to hand off to the owner and Nola ran over to me. She sat before me and put her head up high. She actually wanted me to put the muzzle on her! I put it on her one last time and of course gave her as much praise as I could possibly give. Moments like these are what I love about dog training!
