Dog Sports Q&As

If I take my pup to protection training will I be able to have people come over without putting my dog away? I want him to protect us but not have to worry if my neighbor or friends come over. I was told that you can train them to look at you to see what to do when someone comes over. My neighbors and good friends will knock and I will say come in and I would not want that to stop. Is there a difference from guard dog and protection dog?

How do I determine if my puppy is 'sharp'?

Hi, I am interested in purchasing your training videos but I would like to ask a few questions that I haven't seen in your Q&A section before I purchase. I have a Rotty that is 12 weeks old that we bought when he was 8 weeks. He is the sweetest dog and just loves everyone. We purchased him for a family pet as well as for personal protection for our family. Now my two questions;1. I have been told by a local training school that I may consider to attend with my Rotty that he should be trained ...

Mr. Frawley, I have a five-month-old Rottweiler, and I called last week to get your videos on basic dog training, and bite training. I am looking forward to advancing his training with these videos. However, I was wondering what affect neutering him will have on his protection skills. My vet said I should get it done at about eight months. Thank you, Matt

Could you recommend a competent and reputable trainer for personal protection in Wisconsin and/or Michigan?? I ask you because I assume your contact and experience are some of the best in the business. Thanks for your help. Ron

I am interested in determining if my 11 month old male GS dog can be instructed in personal/property protection. I have been reading about bite work, etc, and I feel that I may be too late. I play with him on a daily basis with a "pull toy" he has gone through several rope pull toys, and I am currently using some sort of synthetic pull toy. I am a police officer, and I spoke with a friend from another local agency that does K-9. He suggested that he would get me some burlap to play with the p...

We have a female Rottweiler, 12 months old and spayed, who is very very bossy with our 2 year old neutered Australian Shepherd. We have done some protection work with the Aussie and he is terrific at anything we try. The Rottie is still too young for most training, so we are working on some obedience and some bite imprinting. She is not aggressive, but will carry her tug to him and bump him until he walks away or growls, will try to stand off with him when he is approaching us from a fetch, a...

Can you give me a list of German commands for my dog?

I have a 9-month GSD that I bought for personal protection. She doesn't seem to have a mean bone in her body. Did I waste my money?

My pup is 10 months old. Is it to late too begin protection work?

We just bought an 8-week pup for family protection. We also have an older dog, (10 years), will it be OK to leave them together?

Ed, I am raising my puppy to be a protection dog. I heard that you should keep people from petting your dog when you go out in public. My puppy is 10 weeks old and whenever I go out in public everyone wants to come up and pet him and say awh, he's so cute. Should I keep people from petting him? What should I say to these people? What should I do with the pup? Charles

I have a 9-week old puppy. A local trainer said he would start to do protection work at 3 1/2 months. Should I do this?

I have a 6 month old dobe puppy that is a very good dog ,but he is lacking courage. As he gets older will he become more alert and want to defend the family? At this point he barks but if someone keeps moving towards him he wines and runs away. Is there any way to make him develop his courage. Please E-mail me with some advice. p.s. He has good lines. One of his grandparents was a police dog and another was a schutzhund champion.

Hi Ed,You were right about trying to work prey drive after a dog has had defense work at too young an age is truly hard. (an editors note here : see the article I wrote titled Training Defense Before Prey is STUPID!!!).I also found a local training place that has your philosophy in mind while training dogs. But since I have made so many mistakes with my 4 year old Root I feel that I need to start over with a puppy. This fact was sadly made evident to me today. They invited me to their fac...

I have a 7 month old GS puppy who, when he was younger, was harshly corrected several times by shaking the scruff of the neck. At about 12 weeks old the dog bit me while being corrected, I don't know if it was out of anger of fear. That situation was quickly settled with even more aggressive shaking. Now when the dog is doing something that he perceives as wrong and is called to me he kind of cowers and even urinates a little until he realizes he is not going to be corrected and even if he is...

Is it normal during teething for a pup's drive for sack or puppy tug to diminish to a level where they are almost nonexistent? My 5 month old GSD who normally acts like a little alligator, now because he is teething, is only content to retrieve a tennis ball and track. He has mo interest at all at training with the helper or at home with me in sack work. Doesn't even get worked up watching the other dogs work in Protection like he did before he started teething. He used to bark like a mad...

I have an 8 month old shepherd, his mothers side is german and east german. His dads side is some german and some american. I got him when he was 4 months, we have been doing basic obedience like heel , down , stay, ect. He took this really well and is ready to start the off leash side of the training. The problem is that during this time I didn't play with him as I should, and he doesn't like to play much or doesn't show much prey drive. He really doesn't care for a ball too much, he pla...

I have watched some of your videos and am a regular visitor to your web site. I want to train my Rott into a personal protection dog. I am wondering if his temperament is good enough or am I just wasting my time. I realize it is impossible for you to be accurate without seeing him but I was wondering if you could give me some sense of his potential based on the following information.Thor is 10 months old. He has (what seems to me) a good prey drive. He is enthusiastic about playing with o...

How do you know that a particular pup will make a patrol dog, taking into consideration the dog will have proper training?