Please take your time! You don’t have to worry about your dog wearing the muzzle. You can start by rewarding yourself for just being around the muzzle—a reward for sniffing/interacting etc. You can use it with fetch and rewards or target training. Once your dog is confident in play with it you can start feeding in the muzzle and rewarding. Then slowly work your way up. Just go your dogs pace, keep it fun. Rushing won’t help this situation.

Just like the gradual muzzle training you’ve done, the same thing should be done with the strap. Work on slowly moving it up and rewarding, then repeating until you can have it rest over the neck and then do it up. To do this step, your dog needs to be able to hold its head in the muzzle for longer durations. If they can’t do that, you should go back and work on it until they can.

The first thing to check when muzzle training is that your muzzle fits correctly. If it’s too small or narrow, it can cause the dog to be uncomfortable. That would be unfair on the dog being asked to tolerate something uncomfortable and is likely a significant factor in why training is going forward.

If you do have a well-fit muzzle and you’re still having problems, what are you getting stuck on? Have you tried going back a few steps? Are you asking too much of your dog? Are you rushing it? Is your dog confused?

Usually, going back a few steps can help with a dog being stuck on something. Gradually adding duration between rewards/movement etc., instead of expecting them to move 2ft straight away, as well as making sure you’ve worked on training long enough.

Working out what the issue is and changing what you're doing is the best way to do this; if you can't pinpoint the problem, change what you're doing and go back to the start.

Once your dog has a good understanding of the step before, your dog could get the first step in 2 minutes but take two days for the next. Go at their pace; make it fun and rewarding. The next step is only when they understand and complete what you’re asking. If you go up a step and they seem confused. Go back a step and work a little more gradually towards the next step.

We recommend you go back a few steps when getting a new muzzle. Most dogs will pick it up straight away, but it never hurts to touch upon training. We recommend working on muzzle training each week, even when your dog is completely muzzle trained.

Even dogs that are fully muzzle trained will benefit from revisiting muzzle training. Like all training should be worked on regularly, muzzle training is no exception.

Spending at least once a month (more is better) going back over the steps and creating fun games with rewards will help keep your dog happy to see the muzzle.

We asked members to write about muzzle training upkeep.

Their answers:

“I try to do it every day. My dog gets hand-fed her three meals every day. Muzzle training is often the quickest to do, so I usually do that in the morning before leaving.”- CHARLIE HALL

“At least once a week, my dog gets a walk-in her muzzle, so it stays something good and not just the vet thing. Often more than once a week. I also give her a treat every time she puts it on, just to keep it up.”- CINDY MELLO

“I try to walk my fully muzzle trained pup once a week with the muzzle on to keep it up. She took forever to take to the muzzle so I don’t want to backtrack.”- ALLIE GARTLAND-GREY

This very likely is not possible and is asking way too much of your dog. Either pre-plan to get the muzzle well before you need it, and if you can’t, or it was a last-minute decision...Don’t expect your dog to love it in that amount of time. Taking a dog to a place where they could become nervous in a muzzle when not muzzle trained can cause negative associations with it. This can be undone and fixed later, but it’s not recommended unless necessary.

We should be teaching our dogs to put their faces into the muzzle. Make sure you’re keeping the muzzle still and asking the dog to place their nose in and hold.

If they try to pull away, likely, you’re too far ahead; go back a few steps with muzzle training and work your way back up gradually. It’s not a race.

Some dogs can’t or won’t have treats as rewards. This may because of dietary issues, not food motivated etc.

You can reward with something they are motivated with. 

Technically this can be with anything they enjoy, from fetch to tug. Free shaping and rewarding when near it, then touching it, then face in it and building duration. Training may take longer this way depending on the dog because of less repetitions before they’re tired.

The only difference is you can’t reward through the muzzles with a toy which is what makes gaining duration easier. You can target train and ask for duration and then transfer to that object at the front of the muzzle and ask the same thing. There is multiple ways to do this. You do what works for you and your dogs.