In a nut shell, a good personal protection dog is a dog that has been taught to obey, fight and to defend himself and his pack on command. It is not a crazy or mad dog who hates the world, on the contrary, it is a well balanced and confident dog that sees everyone as a friend but has simply learned to stop a threat when commanded to do so.
A basic analogy can be a human who is taught martial arts or self defense classes. Just like you would not want to teach martial arts or give a gun to a crazy unbalanced human, you dont want to teach protection work to a crazy unbalanced, shy or fearful dog . Most dogs will not be good candidates for protection training. So starting with the right dog of the right temperament, nerves and balanced drives with a natural desire to defend and protect is key.
Dont be fooled by million dollar dogs with titles on the sport of Shutzhund or French Ring. A sport dog does not mean they are good protection dogs for the real life. As a matter of fact most will fail when put under pressure outside of the training field. Most sports dogs are bred and trained for the sport and work on high prey drive meaning that it is just a game for the dog, there is no defense involved. The dog just wants the sleeve or equipment the decoy is wearing-this dog will not protect you in a real life scenario where he may get hit or kicked by a real aggressor. It wont know how because its had a different type of training. They look impressive but in real life there is no guarantee that they will respond accordingly. Usually you do not need “royal gizillion dollar bloodlines” for personal protection training. The most important thing we look for when choosing a dog for personal protection or defense is the ability and instinct of the animal to defend, its defense drive, not so much the high prey drive sport dogs posses. Solid nerves and high tolerance for children is also a must for us.
Our training program emphasizes control. Again comparing to self defense or martial art classes for humans a big part of the program is discipline. All protection trained dogs must be trained in advanced off-leash obedience to assure that you can turn them off easily after the threat is gone.
