My pup has had happy tail for about a month now. This muzzle has been a life saver to keep him from licking!

I bought this because my dog eats dead fish on the beach. She has good recall but once she finds a dead fish it becomes a game of keep away and ruins our whole day, and possibly the next several days if she gets sick.

This works. Perhaps not perfectly but my expectations are not perfection. I expected a lot of resistance and discomfort, but she actually didn't seem too bothered by it. I put the muzzle on, gave some treats and let her run. Sure enough, she found a dead fish. Pre-muzzle, she would have had the fish in her mouth and been a complete a**hole until it was gone. I was able to get to her before she could get the fish in her mouth (she would have been able to with more time), get her away from it and give her some treats. This has happened a few times, and she also found an injured bird on the beach and this muzzle probably saved the bird's life (I took it to a rescue). I think this is going to help me train recall too, because she's learning that she's not going to get the fish before I get her, so maybe the treat I'm offering is a better bet.

Overall, a mesh muzzle is great if you have a dog that eats gross stuff. Now that I know it works, I'll invest in a better one. This is a cheap option that you can get fast, which is what I needed because we were at the beach and I needed it ASAP. Better ones take weeks to ship, but I will be ordering something that's higher quality.

As far as fit, the band that goes across the top is really close to my dog's eyes, so I have it fitted really loose. I probably would have gone a size down to allow for a looser adjustment to avoid the band interfering with vision or comfort. It's pretty adjustable so don't stress too much about sizing and if you're undecided, I'd say go with the smaller size. Importantly, my review is based on preventing eating dead stuff, not biting or aggression. A tighter fit would be needed to prevent biting.

11/22/2022 - the dogs eventually did learn to drink through the mesh so it is definitely possible for them to figure it out after many tries and over a few months. I think that if we used these daily, it would have been a lot faster. I upgraded this item to 5 stars. It did work as advertised eventually with a steep learning curve for older dogs.

Finally something that works well partially anyway...

If you're looking for something your dog can drink through, keep searching, this is not it, even though it says it is.

Two of my dogs are highly reactive, getting worse as they are getting older (9 and 10 years old) and they displace their aggression toward each other when they cannot get to the dog, cat, plastic bag or leaf that had the audacity of showing up in their field of vision. That means no walking them together, no keeping them in the same room when I am not home, constant supervision when they are together in the yard etc...

I had given up on finding a muzzle until their last fight broke my finger and sent their blood flying all over my room, I still don't know what started it, it was 4 AM and everyone should have been asleep.

These just seemed more humane and easier to deal with and THEY ARE!!
One dog has a very long muzzle so he got the large, the other pointy but shorter muzzle so he got the medium.

This is a slip on and buckle behind the ears muzzle made of breathable mesh which is ideal for Florida weather. There is no hard rubber to irritate them, nothing that will hurt if they bang their head and best of all, no matter how hard they try, they can't remove it but let it be known that they got used to it in minutes, just drop a really delicious small treat in the whole and praise them for keeping it on.

We went for a ride in the car, one dog trampled the other and what would have normally escalated into a blood bath to the death ended up with no reaction because I think they quickly realized that even growling was pointless. Of course, they got high praise for not getting unruly and we went on our ride.

What was surprising is that once we got home, they didn't attempt to have them taken off until they tried to get water and that just doesn't work. There is no way for them to stick their tongue out to get a drink. It might be possible for them to plunge their whole snout into a bowl of water but if they don't do it naturally, I won't be forcing it and this will stay at a personal rating of 4.2 because they cannot drink through it naturally.

So far so good in terms of confortability and durability! My girl likes to eat other dog's poo-poo, grass, and small sticks when we go on walks. It got to the point where I dreaded walking her because I had to constantly watch a few steps ahead for poo (PSA: people, PLEASE, pick up after your dogs)!!!! She knows the "leave it" command..inside the house that is, still working on it during our walks! I have to pull on her leash when we approach poo because she pulls me aggressively to get a piece of it, so it looks like I'm being mean by yanking back. Outside stimulants are just too exciting for my baby so, yea, we're still working on it (Molly is 8.5yrs old, a rescue I've had for a little over 2yrs now). Too many vet visits to ensure she doesn't catch parasites motivated me to buy this 'muzzle.' Anyway, she tolerates wearing it for our 30min walk, was able to still sniff the grass, breathe comfortably, and run wild when it was time to let her loose (although she tried to take it off when I wasn't near her...lol)! I wasn't sure if the extra space from the tip of her nose to the end of the 'muzzle' would allow her to snatch things off the ground or allow het to use that space as leverage to take it off her, but it stayed on securely and she wasn't able to put another in her mouth. I feel like that extra space offers a sense of freedom vs a traditional muzzle that wraps around the nose which makes dogs feel entrapped and uncomfortable. I have a traditional nylon muzzle for our vet visits, which Molly always tries to remove. I'm hoping this piece is durable and lasts for a while. If not, the price is very reasonable that I'll buy again. I purchased the medium size and it fits perfectly, not up too high where it bothers her eyes either.

While this has held up well, it wasn't restrictive enough for my lab pup who eats everything. Because it leaves the area just below the nose open, he was able to get his tongue out and, like an ant eater, snatch non-edibles right into his gob. Ended up getting one that cover the mouth and nose entirely. However, those don't hold up for long. The struggle is real.