Has anyone had to muzzle their dog?

[judaznana]

Mariah is a wonderful dog. Sweet, very loving with us, playful, and very intelligent. Her problem is that she does not like children. She growls when they are approaching and when my grandson was here for week, she nipped him on the face. It was not a vicious attack, but I do not trust her around him. He is coming back, now 20 months old and very active. The fact that she went over and nipped him him when he was not bothering her, indicated to me that she was jealous of the attention he was getting that she usually gets.

Someone has suggested that I get a muzzle for her while he is here. I have never muzzled any dog and I just wander if any one has had to do that and what type of muzzle I should use.

[Mumzy]

Sounds like she was establishing pecking order. It is never ok to bite a human including a child. I would skip the muzzle and go speak to someone about her behavior. Because she will find other ways to express her rank then resulting anger.

[seadream]

My one dog has to wear a muzzle when we go to the vet as he does not like strangers and did try to bite him.
I have never muzzled him at home although when people come over that he does not see much I always put him in a separate room by him self.

[PrairieRose]

I'd be very concerned and would definitely muzzle the dog when children are around. I mean, I love my dog but if she bit my grandchild, I'd hurt the dog for sure.

[jamie79]

I would like to muzzle my 15 yr old son, does that count?

[Persimmon Lace]

You dog would benefit from training for her dominance issues. Muzzles can sometimes make the problem worse and she needs definite help in finding her place in your household.

[lwlynch]

We have one just like that. He can't for some reason stand kids that visit. He is great with just the family and my kids, but he has no tolerance for anything under 5 ft. and more so if they are blond. Weird right? We just keep him separate when company comes, what more can I do. It works for us.

[pita1213]

so far the only time we muzzle our beagle is when i clip his toenails, and when he goes to the vet. though most of the time at the vet we wait until the vet is actually going to do something that would make him try to bite. i bring the muzzle along just in case it's needed. so far it's only been needed twice and both times he had hurt himself and was in a lot of pain. i'd prolly try to bite someone too if i was in pain and he was making it worse.
as far as when children are visiting, i'd try to keep the dog in a seperate room and talk to the vet about the behavior and what he would recommend for training. defiantly don't leave them alone together, but i'm sure you already know that or you wouldn't be asking for advice.
we have 2 gates that block off our back room. when my nephew visits i close both gates. he's only 3 and not too sure about the dog. they can visit with each other through the gates, but they both have their own space to retreat to when they have had enough.

[Neeley]

I have never been in your shoes so I cannot know for certain what I would do. I would like to think I would try to keep the dog and child seperate. That would be the ideal situation for me. My second idea would be to board my dog. In the past I have had parties for my kids and have boarded my pets, more for my animals sanity than anything else. I just think I would use a muzzle as a last resort. I would be afraid he/she may begin to relate having to wear the muzzle to the child and possible become more aggressive towards kids as a result. I could be way off though - it's just my thinking. As I said, I cannot say for sure what I would do other than absolutely NOT have the two in the same room.
Keep us informed as to what you decide and how it works out. I am curious to see how it works out.

[robert]

Mariah is a wonderful dog. Sweet, very loving with us, playful, and very intelligent. Her problem is that she does not like children. She growls when they are approaching and when my grandson was here for week, she nipped him on the face. It was not a vicious attack, but I do not trust her around him. He is coming back, now 20 months old and very active. The fact that she went over and nipped him him when he was not bothering her, indicated to me that she was jealous of the attention he was getting that she usually gets.

Someone has suggested that I get a muzzle for her while he is here. I have never muzzled any dog and I just wander if any one has had to do that and what type of muzzle I should use.

It was very careless of you to let your dog play with your grandson. Some dogs are vicious by nature. But you need to socialize them when they are young and teach the kids too to behave well with the dog. If the kid irritates or harasses the dog even a socialized pet would harm the kid. so for now keep both of them away from each other...

[ama]

I have a rather unruly shar-pei who does not like strangers. He's never had a problem with children but I would keep him seperated to avoid any situation. I even went to speak to a behaviorist at the Humane Society who suggested that I aggressively try to avoid any situation that will result in a bite. A bad enough bite and you have a tough situation -- so avoidance at all costs. We like to think of our dogs as our family but sometimes we need to put the dog in a seperate room when we have guests over. Let us know what happens!

[Sari]

It was very careless of you to let your dog play with your grandson.

It was an accident, and unless you NEVER let a pet EVER get near your child, it may happen.

Anyway, luckily it was just a nip, and there are things you can do to respond. I agree with previous posters to not get a muzzle and focus more on training your dog and teaching the child to be around dogs, as age appropriate (not saying it was the child's fault). Muzzles are not supposed to be left on long term (longer than a few minutes) because the dogs will get overheated and could die from that (it's happened!). Get with a good trainer who can show you how to prevent some of this, and properly respond when it does happen.

Good luck.