Can you define fight drive for me?

I assume that anyone interested in this question has some understanding of the drive of protection work. If you need more information, go to the article on my website about it.

My definition of FIGHT DRIVE is this: “A dog has fight drive when his protection work carries the forwardness of prey with the intensity of defense. A dog with good fight drive is willing to engage a helper or suspect in every circumstance, under every condition regardless of training equipment being present or not being present. A dog with fight drive knows he can win every fight that he get into and is willing to carry the fight to the suspect.”

Fight drive is not something a dog can be trained to have. It is a genetic part of the dogs make up. He either has it or he doesn't have it. The American bloodline dogs have zero fight drive. The German Show bloodlines have very very little fight drive. If you would ever find a German Show Bloodline animal with a little fight drive, it is not enough so that dog can ever genetically reproduce it in his off spring. On the other hand fight drive is not something a young dog can have because it requires a dog to have considerable experience in training and maturity before he can develop fight drive. In other words, dogs don't just wake up one morning and have fight drive. It is a result of good genetic make up combined with good training to produce a confidence that the dog can win in every encounter every time.

By this I mean that when people say that their "one year old dog has a ton of fight drive" they are 100% wrong. It is almost impossible to have a one year old dog with a lot of fight drive. A dog is not mature enough at that age to have a fully developed defensive drive. Without defense being developed the dog can not have fight drive. What these people are seeing is a dog that is very intense in prey drive.

Fight drive is more than a dog that is intense on the training field. Its a dog that is willing to carry the fight to the helper or suspect at any time anywhere. This goes well beyond a schutzhund field or a dog that is willing to protect his home against intruders. I tell friends that you need to experience fight drive in a dog to understand what it is and once you see it you will never forget it.

Also it is not necessarily a dog that is vicious, sharp or dangerous to be around. That is a misconception with people new to protection training. My current police dog has extreme fight drive, yet he is very socialable. He is good with children and people. Anyone can walk in my office without any fear of being challenged or attacked. Yet when I work with him on the street he has an instincive feel for bad guys. This dog senses a fight and goes into high gear. He exudes "fight drive" and when suspects see this they know that they are not dealing with a normal dog. They quickly see that this dog is doing more than just barking at them. He exudes a power and intensity that they can feel. They know he is willing to bite them and bite them with intensity. The beauty of this is that 99% of the time this takes the fight drive right out of the suspect and makes him comply with what I want him to do.