Clara Hewson, founder of The Muzzle Movement, was crowned the first winner of the PetQuip Rising Star Award. Here she explains how she has endeavoured to change people’s misconceptions surrounding muzzled dogs.

What prompted you to launch The Muzzle Movement?

I worked as a senior training and behaviour advisor in the UK’s largest dog rescue, alongside some of their most challenging cases. I felt frustrated at the lack of appropriate muzzles for the dogs in our care. I also had adopted a Pointer called Tolly who needed to be muzzled due to worries around strangers. It was difficult to experience first-hand the looks and comments from members of the public. I started an Instagram page called ‘The Muzzle Movement’ where I shared informative posts and generally advocated for safe muzzle usage. I shared my ideas of what would make the perfect muzzle and realised I wasn’t the only person looking for a solution. I decided to run a Kickstarter campaign with just an idea – and raised £46,000 in just 30 days! Sadly, Tolly was diagnosed with an inoperable spinal tumour, so he was never able to try one of the muzzles I designed for him. 

How did you set about changing the public’s misconceptions surrounding muzzled dogs?

We have always prioritised growing and nurturing a muzzle-positive community on social media – this has been amazing for changing the public perception of muzzles and helping to spread the message far and wide. We have also attended 10 events, from Crufts and DogFest, to several professional events and conferences, in an attempt to spread awareness. We have a member of staff whose job is education and engagement, and she has written blogs and magazine articles, and is currently working on a comprehensive muzzle training course. We also created a Muzzle Support Pack which contains lots of useful information about all different kinds of muzzles, the importance of good fit, tips for measuring your dog, as well as links to further information online. This is available free of charge for dog professionals to download.

Was it easy to create a new design for muzzles?
In some ways, yes. We have a pretty unique perspective in terms of designing and manufacturing a product, as we have so much experience working with dogs. Most of the team are trainers and behaviourists and we have 70+ years combined experience in rescue so we know what we want from a muzzle. We have learned something from designing and making every size, so we truly believe we get better every time we release a new muzzle.

What’s been the reaction to your range of muzzles?
Overwhelmingly positive! We have such wonderful feedback from our amazing customers, and it keeps us driving forwards. I recently spoke at BVA Live, a veterinary conference, and we had an overwhelmingly positive and excited response from vets and nurses. We also have a lot of customers who are dog professionals, from trainers and behaviourists, to groomers, physiotherapists and rescues, who love our product as well as our message and stance as a force-free company. It's fantastic to go to in-person events and have people come to the stall to chat, feel the muzzles, ask questions and shop. We have also worked hard over the last year to keep improving.

Do you sell your products mainly through your website?

Our business is predominantly online, with over 90% of our sales generated via our website, and 10% of sales coming from in-person events and fitting days we host at our unit twice monthly. Our website helps us to access people from all around the globe, with only 50% of sales generated from within the UK, so without our website we would lose access to supporting dogs worldwide. We are currently gearing up to offer wholesale/trade options which is exciting, and also challenging to navigate because we need to ensure our stockists uphold the same ethics and core values.

Are you satisfied with the rate of growth of your business?

We never expected to grow at the rate we have. We knew we were on to a good thing and we all genuinely believe whole-heartedly in our products and company so we have always been confident that would grow into an established business. Did we expect to become as big as we have, in just two years? Absolutely not! Sales and followers were steadily increasing month on month, and then the XL Bully ban came into place in the UK and it exploded. We have invested every penny back into the business and have released two further sizes, moved to a unit which better accommodates us and grown to a team of 12. This year has been wild and we have genuinely seen a shift in public attitude towards muzzles.

How did you feel when you won two PetQuip Awards?

I was completely overwhelmed. We have never won an award before, and it was so affirming to know there are people recognising what we are doing. The ability to showcase our brand to a room full of professionals was an amazing feeling, and the feedback we received was lovely. I think when you are running on a treadmill of the daily grind it’s easy to forget about the wider impact we are having. It was nice to step outside of our crazy bubble for an evening and just revel in everything we have been able to achieve so far.

For more information visit https://www.themuzzlemovement.com