When I sent Lola back home this fall, Lola loved her muzzle so much that when I held it up in the air, wherever she was she'd come running. It had become my reliable recall for her.

 But Lola's owner wasn't so keen on the muzzle. She was always remembering childhood movies, for example,  picture Cruella muzzling the innocent dalmation.  Or how about when the dogcatcher muzzles the dog in Lady and the Tramp? And maybe in some ways she radiated a distaste for the muzzle, because Lola is back again for another several months and she's not as keen on her muzzle as she used to be. She sort of leans away, tries to evade it. It's easy enough to just hold her collar and put it on, but I want Lola to love her muzzle, so today we went back to kindergarten with it.

"Going back to kindergarten" is a phrase trainers use that means, go back to reinforcing and strengthening earlier criteria [0].  So,  the muzzle was Lola's food dish  today. I just fed her through it, and then put it away. My criteria was merely, "get this piece of food out of there and eat it."  Later I played that game again,  with cheese. Soon Lola was leaning into it,  pushing her face deeply into the muzzle and holding it there voluntarily, waiting for more cheese. Then I loosely looped the leathers over her ears, went on click and feeding her. All she needed to do was sneeze to toss the muzzle right off, but she was having fun. She kept it on. 

So I took the muzzle off, and left her to daydream of that for a few minutes. Later, we played the game again, this time tightening the strap to take her for a walk down the road.

 My street is the perfect training ground for a dog like Lola. We have a daycare next to a senior center, and many screaming children. For some reason they were all out screaming, and riding trikes and bikes and making other weird noises tonight.

Lola notices children. My mission is to get her so she thinks of screaming children as boring old news. Tonight, she was in a cheerful mood, and  trotted gracefully, without pulling at all, on beautiful loose leash. She noticed the kids, but if there was any adrenaline being produced, it wasn't much. She ate cheese and was elegant to watch as we enjoyed the crisp spring air.

 Back in the training yard, I removed her muzzle and put her on the porch to be bored for a while. When positive muzzle training is combined with the high adventure of the day, this increases the dog's appreciation of the muzzle.  Whenever she sees the muzzle, I want Lola to show  an attitude that says, "oh hooray! Let's go!" If she isn't eager for her muzzle, that's not good enough.  A lack of enthusiasm means it's time to make wearing the muzzle more fun.