I designed a nose guard for my dog and gave it away. Now 500 dogs wear one
SnoutCover mode On
Billie's nose is covered in every photo, stitches and all. Tap any photo to peek, or switch off to see them uncovered.
A year ago, I didn't know this would become a business. Here's how we got here.
It starts with Billie, my pitbull, a dog who lives for lying in the sun. When she was diagnosed with DLE, discoid lupus erythematosus, an autoimmune condition where the immune system attacks the skin on the nose and sunlight makes it worse, the vet laid it out plainly: there's no quick fix, only management. Ointment on her nose twice a day, keep her out of the UV, and expect flare-ups for the rest of her life.
That sounded manageable until the first evening I tried it. You put the ointment on, and she licks it straight off. You can't hold a dog's tongue away from her own nose for ten minutes, twice a day, forever. And you certainly can't explain to a sun-loving dog why the yard is suddenly off limits.
So I did what I always do when something bothers me. I sat down and designed something. I called it Doguard. It took thirteen prototypes, a lot of evenings and a very patient dog, but eventually it worked. Billie could wear it, the ointment stayed where it belonged, and she got her sunbathing back.
The truth is, I never planned to sell it. I made it for Billie. Once it worked, I uploaded the file to MakerWorld and wrote the whole process up on Reddit, free for anyone to print. I remembered how lost I felt in those first weeks after the diagnosis, and I figured if even one other dog owner found it and had a solution, that was worth it.
Then the messages started. Could I sell them one? At first I tried to help people make their own. I'd help them find someone who could print it locally, explain how to scale it for their dog, walk them through putting the webbing straps together. Some did it beautifully. But slowly something sank in that seems obvious now: not everyone is a creator. Most people just love their dog and want to get a solution, fast. And if I was the one who could make that happen, it felt wrong not to.
So on October 1st last year, I built a small website. Sixteen days later, my first customer placed an order.
I wish I could tell you I celebrated. I panicked. I had no inventory. I ran to print everything I could. Then I ran out to find webbing, suddenly worried about the next two or three orders that hadn't even happened yet. Then it dawned on me that a package has to be packed! That the moment someone opens it counts too. Then that packages go to a post office, and post offices have queues. Remember, I never set out to sell these, so I hadn't given a single thought to any part of that cycle. Two days later a second order came in. On the 24th, two more. A few weeks in, I decided to give it a new name: SnoutCover.
That was the beginning.
A year at the bench
Not much about how it's made has changed. I still print every SnoutCover myself, on one printer in my studio shed. I still cut and assemble every strap, pack every envelope, and hand each week's batch to the Sunday pickup. What's changed is how far those envelopes travel. As of today, SnoutCover has helped more than 500 dogs. Most of them wear a cover I made myself - 395 orders, to 16 countries - and the rest wear covers their owners printed and assembled themselves. I still find that hard to believe.
It wasn't all smooth. Getting parcels across the world turned out to be the hardest part of the whole thing, and when some got stuck along the way, I sent them again at my own cost. I know how stressful it is to watch a tracking page that won't move while your dog's nose needs help, so sometimes I just sent a second one while the first was still on its way.
Getting it right
The first year was also one long round of fixes. Every email, every photo of a dog in a cover that didn't sit quite right, went straight back to the bench.
The straps changed the most. A cover that slid up on every lick looked like a sizing problem, but it almost never was. The real fix was where the collar fasteners sat, so I kept reworking the strap design and the way I assemble it, until the cover stayed put without being pulled tight against a sensitive nose.
The model changed too. When enough dogs got a paw under the Shield and pulled until it tore, I stopped treating it as a training issue and reinforced it where it flexes and where the straps pull.
And some dogs simply don't fit a standard size. A Bull Terrier's long, curved nose needs coverage much further along the bridge than any stock cover gives, so I designed one from scratch, shaped from photos of that one dog. Custom models like that have become part of the work: when the standard sizes don't fit a dog's needs, I build one that does.
And some of it wasn't about the product at all. Plenty of dogs freeze the first time they wear one - head down, waiting it out. That's normal, and it passes with a lick mat and a week of short, easy sessions. So I wrote it all down: tutorials for fitting, for training, for those first few days.
None of it is finished, and I don't think it ever will be. The goal hasn't changed since the first prototype: every cover a little better, and a little more reliable, than the last.
The Care, and the two weeks that made it
In late May, a shipping issue put everything on hold for about two weeks.
It felt like terrible timing. It turned out to be the best thing that happened to the product, because for the first time since launch, I had nothing to pack. Just a bench, a printer, and a problem that had been quietly piling up in my inbox.
Some dogs needed something for the other twenty-two hours of the day. Not sun protection, just a gentle barrier during ointment time, or for noses so sensitive they couldn't be licked at all and had to stay protected while fully ventilated. The clearest case came from Stephanie and her husky, Iris. Iris's nostrils sat low compared to the openings on her cover, so every lick knocked it out of place. Her nose was raw enough that any movement hurt, and in the videos Stephanie sent I could hear that a fully covered nose was stressing her out. We tried every strap position and size. Two other owners were writing to me about the same thing.
Eventually I understood that Iris didn't need a better rigid cover. She needed less cover.
Getting there was a slog. The first versions simply wouldn't come out the way I pictured them. Then came the balance: too much material and it may as well be solid, too little and it stopped being a barrier at all. Then shapes that looked perfect on the bench and gave up the moment they met a warm nose. Breathing room came last, and it's the whole reason the model exists.
And then, after a long stretch of nothing, the idea just arrived - a completely different way of thinking about how the whole thing comes together. It solved most of those problems at once, and turned out far more durable than the original, too.
Billie tested it first, on a walk home from the vet. She wore it the whole way without a fuss. Not a formal test, but after a year of watching her reject things, I know what yes looks like on her.
In the first week of June, I sent Stephanie an early unit for Iris. In July, she wrote back: it lined up better on Iris's snoot, it was easier to clean, and Iris seemed happier in it. The Care went on sale at the end of June.
One thing I tell everyone who asks, and I'll tell you too: the Care filters UV in proportion to how much of its surface the mesh covers. It isn't a full block. For real sun, that's the Shield. The Care is for indoors, for ointment time, for the sensitive stretches. Most people who have both use both, and that's exactly the idea.
Keeping up
The Shield I make today isn't quite the one I started with, and I want to be clear about why. The original was never the problem. It's the design Billie has worn for almost two years - the same unit, with no problems - and the one hundreds of dogs are wearing right now.
What changed was everything around it. One printer making a few covers a week is a hobby. One printer making covers for dogs in 16 countries needs every single unit to come off the plate the same way, every time. So this year's work on the Shield was about reliability - a design that prints consistently at volume, fits the same from the first unit to the hundredth, and holds up where paws pull.
Two birthday gifts
Which brings me to the birthday.
Gift one: a better free Shield
The first gift is for the makers, and it goes back to where all this started. The free Shield on MakerWorld has been up since before there was a shop, and it was showing its age: a single size, not even labelled as one, scaled from Billie's nose and nobody else's, and thin in exactly the places a determined paw finds. So I've rebuilt it. It's reinforced where it flexes and where the straps pull, it now comes in S, L and XL, properly labelled, and it's still free, under the same MakerWorld licence. If you've already downloaded or followed it, it's waiting for you as an update.
A free option will always exist. I make these for people who can't or don't want to make one themselves. That's the business. But nobody should be stuck watching their dog's nose get worse because of what it costs to ship a package.
A leash UV indicator, free with every order
The second gift is for everyone who orders this month. Until the end of October, every order comes with a small UV indicator that clips onto your leash. It stays clear in the shade and turns blue in the sun. It's a reminder, a quick glance on a walk that tells you the UV is out and it's time for the Shield. After a year of people asking me "how do I know when she needs it?", it felt like the right little thing to send.
If this is your story too
If your dog needs one now, the Shield and the Care are both on the site, in standard and custom fit. Not sure about size? Try the paper test model, test the sizing calculator, or just write to me. I answer every email myself as fast as I can. And please keep your vet in charge of the medical side - SnoutCover supports what your vet has put in place, it doesn't replace it.
If you're a vet, this part is for you. Over the past year, more and more vets have started recommending SnoutCover to their patients. Some now present it in their lectures as the best solution they've found, and some keep samples in their clinics so they can try sizes on patients right there. Every one of those conversations has made the product better. If you see DLE dogs in your clinic, I'd love to work with you too - together we can help more dogs manage DLE and keep it under control.
If you run a rescue or shelter and have a DLE dog in your care, there's a program for you. See the rescue program.
And if you're a maker: print it, scale it, show me. If you've adapted it for a snout shape I've never seen, that's my favourite kind of email.
Write to me: omri@snoutcover.com
Year two
I'm working to reach as many dogs in need as I can, and on new products for the most sensitive noses, like a cushioning inner liner.
Thank you for a first year I never planned and couldn't have imagined. Here's to the second - and to every nose still waiting for its shade.
Omri (and Billie)
