[BubbaLeroy]

This is Bogie Carter, our rock eater, wearing his Italian basket muzzle. We call him our
little hockey goalie. He has had two surgeries for blocked intestines from eating rocks.
When ever we are in a rocky area, he wears the muzzle. Whenever we meet people I
immediately say, "He's not mean, he just eats rocks!" They then come over to pet him
and we get into some very interesting discussions.

I'm so glad Rufus is doing OK. The vet suggested rolling a towel to go around Bogie's neck
to prevent him from bothering his stitches. It worked great. We just duct taped it into the
roll, and then used string to tie it to his collar to keep it in place. He could still eat, drink, see,
etc. but not get to his stitches.

Bogie the day he came home from surgery.

 

[BubbaLeroy]

The muzzle will be a challenge at first. We started with just a few minutes, took it off got a treat, wait a little and put it on again and repeat with treat when it came off. We would pet and talk to him and scratch his favorite scratching spots , etc with lots of TLC as he got used to it being on. After we worked up to about 10 minutes inside.we let him outside with it on. I sat and cried as I watched him try to get it off. Raked his head in the bushes, drug his head on the ground, drug it along the fence, etc. and thankfully it didn't come off until we called him and took it off when we got him inside. It got easier each time and now it doesn't bother him at all. He happily trots around with it on. It goes with him to the kennel we leave him at since they have rock around the shrubs. We take it on trips and have bought an extra one we keep in or RV for traveling to use whenever we are around rocks. Just for walks in the neighborhood on leash, he doesn't have to wear it because there aren't any rocks. Good luck with Ruffie.

I forgot to tell you that I had to attach screen mesh around the muzzle. Bogie learned he could lay his head sideway and flat on the ground and scoot along and things would get inside the muzzle so he could get them in his mouth. Clever little guy. I sewed it on with dental floss which is much sturdier that yarn or string.