Don’t Avoid Me Just Because I Wear A Muzzle

Dear children and parents-

This is Jinxx. She is a one year old rescue agility dog who also wears a *muzzle* in order to enjoy a free and happy life.

This is because she has a sensitive stomach. Jinxx was starved as a puppy, resulting in a very delicate digestive system, and also no self control when it comes to food (I use the term ‘food’ very loosely!).

This is the only reason she wears a muzzle. She is not aggressive to people or dogs. She is not reactive. She is not a biter. She is a foodie, and I cannot afford hundreds of £s in vet bills every week for drugs and pumps. So she wears a muzzle.

The other day, whilst walking Jinxx and our three other dogs, children walking to school saw her (on a lead) and screamed at her, jumped and ran away from her. As you can imagine, this was quite distressing for our dogs. We also encountered parents yanking their children away from her. No wonder over a third of children in the UK are scared of dogs!

The silly thing that I noticed was that people are not scared of an unmuzzled dog, and yet will scream in the face of a muzzled dog. Surely, an unmuzzled dog will do more damage than a dog who has a barrier over their teeth?

Anyway, my request to parents is to please educate your children that a muzzled dog cannot hurt them, and that a muzzled dog is not always muzzled for aggression.

Of course there are irresponsible dog owners who will not muzzle their aggressive dogs, but I like to think for the most part that dog owners are responsible, compassionate people who care for not only their dogs but also the people and animals around them.

To end this post on a lighter note, thank you to all of the dog owners who we have encountered who allow Jinxx (and her brothers) to have a play with their own dogs 🐕 🐾

If you see us out and about, feel free to ask for a pet of one of our dogs. You can identify Jinxx from her big ears, and the gold coloured muzzle she wears. Thank you.

[TL;DR not all muzzled dogs are aggressive so teach your children not to scream in their faces.]

Credit https://www.facebook.com/LupuSamor