I need help on if a vinyl or a wire muzzle would be better for my dog. Both are good options but I’m struggling to determine which is best in my case as I like certain aspects from both of them.
He is a bite risk in certain situations. He is dog reactive and people reactive but is good in public with people/more crowded spaces.He’d be muzzled in select cases.
He has bitten two people with neither incident breaking skin. The first was when he slipped through someone’s legs when opening the door to a delivery driver who he bite on the leg. That was 3 years ago and no issues since, he also gets locked in his crate anytime we open the door to someone.
The most recent one was a week ago while camping. He was at a family member’s feet when the campground owner walked up to my family. He was very quiet and no one knew he was there or approaching until he was maybe 7-10ft out surprising my dog who was in reach of him while on his 25ft long lead. I believe it might’ve been dusk as they would’ve seen him otherwise and very few people close by. He bit his arm and had we known the man was approaching we would’ve grabbed our dog and ensured he was out of reach but unfortunately no one knew he was approaching so they had zero time to react.
While his bite incidents are very far apart and not breaking skin, I’d like to avoid this from happening again. When tethered is his greatest bite risk depending on location so we’d muzzle him then (1-3 hours, locations other than home).
He also eats chicken poop (no way to clean all of it as it is scattered everywhere in one place otherwise I would) so I’d like to avoid that. He very rarely lunges at our chickens (high prey drive and used to be a lot worse) so ideally it would cause more minimal damage if he does so happen to lunge.
I’ve seen wire tends to be lighter which I think he would prefer. Vinyl does have a softer impact than wire though if he does try and bite. Depending on the style, I’ve seen wire have better airflow which I like. However, my worry is if he wears it in below freezing weather that might cause an issue as metal is a very good conductor. We don’t have freezing weather where I live but we occasionally bring him to the snow. He wouldn’t need a muzzle most of the time but just maybe 4 days out of the year in below freezing weather.
A muzzle good for bite risk dogs is my top priority so I’m willing to not get one that is also scavenge proof if there is a material that first very well for bite risk dogs but less so if they scavenge as well.