Why a muzzle? Good question. We get that a lot. Our dogs wear muzzles a lot for a few reasons. One of which is obvious; to prevent them from biting someone. The non-working dog population of the world sees a muzzle and assumes the dog is violent, vicious, and willing to do damage. The muzzle, in their eyes, prevents these things from happening. The other portion of dog owners, us working dog people, understand a muzzle is a tool that a dog can use to inflict severe damage, just as it can with it's mouth. We've seen and heard the stories too. Well trained dogs can break ribs and collar bones with a muzzle. You don't need a physics degree to understand a pissed off 80 pound malinois, moving at 30 miles-an-hour, with a piece of stainless steel strapped to it's face is going to do some damage when it hits you.
To wit... we decided to sell these sweet sweet muzzles. What's so sweet you ask? Good question. These bad boys are made in #merica by Amish craftsmen. Now... we can neither confirm nor deny that they are or are not part of the 'Amish Mafia.' What we do know is, they make sweet dog muzzles out of leather, stainless steel and magic.
We have them in a few sizes and a few options. Sizing is covered below in the pics of our un-willing model, Lech. It's the length of the bitey thing and the circumference of the widest part of the bitey thing (see the pics).
The second option is the reinforcement. We can do a standard single bar, from nose to lower jaw. 90% of dogs, that'll be enough. Those other 10% need the side reinforcement. It's a stainless steel bar that wraps around the bitey part PLUS the one that wrap from the bridge of the bitey part to the lower jaw. How do you know what you need? You know. If you have a big dog, that hits REALLY hard, is experienced in muzzle fighting and you have a decoy that knows how to correctly fight a dog with a muzzle on or; you have a decoy that is super green. You'll need the big boy. Other than that go with the first option. We want to prevent damage to the dog above all. Decoys are a dime a dozen, good ones wear suits and muzzle vests and keep the dog from getting hurt as well as themselves. You'll need to prevent the stupid ones from getting hurt so.... use some judgment here.
Custom. Now the part everyone is here for. Yeah, our artist is badass. Yeah, she's talented. If you want it, (with in reason) we can do it. You need to leave a bit of lee-way for artistic variance to fit the muzzle shape. She'll communicate with you on the design and run everything by you; I swear to God. Have a national champion in dog sport? We can do that. Have a unique PD logo? Probably do that too. Just some things we've done: the A10 mouth; the Hulk; Bane; Maligator; Digi-camo is all 4 flavors; Flags; a tiger; zombies; xrays; super heros (and villins); unit logos; MWD numbers.
About the paint. Look, our favorite sin is Vanity (next to Gluttony, but only on Taco Tuesday). Be that as it may, we, nor anyone else, wants to a kill a dog from lead or some weird chemical poisoning. To that end, we use all water based paint and sealers that are non-toxic. It is made for leather, it stretches, it breathes and is based on some plant (probably soy). At any rate, we all ate glue in kindergarten and turned out fine, nothing we use will harm the dog.... or the muzzle in anyway. Promise. The muzzle will probably inflict some damage on a decoy but, they signed up for it, not my problem. Another note on paint. We go to great lengths to insure that the paint adheres to the leather surface. We sought out (like finding the grail...) a muzzle manufacturer that was both functional AND allowed us to get paint to stick to it under it's intended usage. That being said, we've had lack luster results on other 'well known' manufacturers muzzles. They put an extremely hard slippery finishing surface on their muzzles. So.... if you just have to have your muzzle painted, hit us up first to make sure it'll take.
If you want something other than that you need a custom muzzle. The muzzle will be the same but the paint will be whatever you want. Camo? Check. Digi Cam? Sure.... what color? Department or Unit Patch? Been there done that, send it over. Crazy mural of a Star Wars battle scene on your dog's face? We got'cha. These require a significantly higher investment of time by our talented artiest. Prices are $170 and $175 for... almost... whatever you want.
After ordering please shoot us an email with your designs to info@workingdogdrygoods.com
Current lead times are 12-14 weeks from the invoice payment date.
Fitting goes as follows:
- Small- Small Malinois or Extra Small Shepherd. Typically 35 to 45-50 lbs.
- Medium - Medium Malinois or Small Shepherd (length 4 1/2" x girth 11 1/2") Typically about 50 pounds to 65-70 pounds. Most average female Malinois and Dutch Shepherds fall into this category.
- Large - Large Malinois or Shepherd (length 5" x girth 12") Typically 65 pounds to 85-90 pounds. Most male Malinois and Dutch Shepherds fall into this category.
- X-Large - Large Shepherds (length 5 1/2" x girth 13") this is big 90+ pounds shepherd. It's a BIG dog. Big. Real Big. Most mutant Malinois and Dutch Shepherds and Average GSDs will resided here.
- NOTICE MOST THE DIFFERENCE IN SIZING IS THE GIRTH AROUND THE SNOUT! MEASURE TWICE, ORDER ONCE!