My pup is 10 months old. Is it too late to start protection training?

It is not too late to start a young dog in protection training at 10 months. There are many that feel that protection training should not begin until 12 to 14 months of age. I do not agree with that thinking. I feel it is best to imprint the basics of bite training on very young pups, (as young as 8 weeks). But 10 or 12 months isn’t too late. To start at 10 months is just fine. The key is to begin in prey drive, (see my article on the drives of protection training), and not work the young dog in defense until it is mature enough to deal with the stress of this training. Pups can learn the fundamentals or skills of bite work at a very young age. If the training is done properly they look at this learning phase as a game. As they mature, (18 to 30 months) the role of the trainer and helper is to change the dogs view of training from something that is a game to something that is serious business. Many many inexperienced trainers destroy the working ability of good dogs by trying to make training too serious way to soon.

A trainer has to give his dog a chance to mature before defensive training begins. If you want to learn how to do this work see my video titled The First Steps of Bite Training.