Hello all,
I was wondering about the pro's and cons of protection training.
Obviously with training you can trust your dog will respond appropriatly and be controllable in a threatening or dangerous situation but are there any downside to having a PP trained dog?
Aside from the time money and effort involved? Some breeds i've read protection training is not recommended.

So, just curious, your thoughts on the pro's and cons (if any) to protection training (not sport training)

Cheers
elle

What breeds are not reccomended?

The Pro's and Con's as I see it:

Pro's:
It's fun working with your dog like this.
Your dog builds confidence, how do YOU feel when you gain confidence? Confidence is good.
Being able to fire up your dog once in a while on command comes in very handy when you want to get the point accross to certain troublemaking individuals in the neighborhood that you have an "aggressive german shepherd" in your house.
Safety - protection training is teaching the dog when NOT to bite!
Gives you a little more peace of mind when you go out somewhere and know your dog's got your back, or know that if someone is stupid enough to break into your house, they're gonna be hurting pretty soon while you dial 911.
There's been plenty of discussions on wether a protection dog is a useful security tool, and I think most people agree that security comes in layers. Dog, Alarm System, Gun, etc. But you're not gonna walk around aiming your gun at everyone that you think "might" do something to you - but your dog is a visible deterrent that won't get you arrested for displaying <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Con's:
Maintainence training (which is fun, but who knows what your life will be like in 5 years, will you have the time and desire in 5 years to continue training your dogs in protection work?)
Need to be extra vigilant, especially when your dog is off leash, that someone doesnt do something stupid around him, you need absolute control.
Friends may not feel comfortable around your dog if they know the type of thing the dog is capable of.
Friends may not like your dog being around their children if they don't understand protection training.

Personally, my reason for doing PPD work is because I ENJOY DOING IT, I don't do sport work because I don't really care about winning championships or bragging rights, maybe my next dog will be titled in something just for personal achievement reasons, but I would rather have a protection trained dog that's gonna bite for real, than a sport trained dog that's a SchH3 dog that wonders why the bad guy isn't wearing a sleeve. It's not because I think someones gonna break into my house and try to rape me and cut my fingers off then steal my TV. I doubt I will ever get into a situation where my dogs personal protection training will be useful other than deterring people from petit theft and vandalism. I had an incident the other week where apparently I did something to annoy someone when I pulled out of McDonalds and turned into the left turn lane, I can't imagine what the heck I did in the space of 10 seconds to annoy someone, but a guy in a white Lexus SUV pulls up next to me, rolls down his window, puts up his middle fingers n screams "A--HOLE!!" at me. Well, my dog was useless at that point because he was at home in a crate, but 9/10 times my dog's sitting behind me in the truck, so if someone were so inclined as to get out of their car and try to pick a fight with me in such a situation, maybe they'll think twice when they see my dog firing up on them. Without training, my dog wouldn't have understood that this guy approaching the truck is a bad guy n he'd just sit there n watch.

Thanks alot Mike, that was very informative. I hadn't thought about friends and family opinions before. The peace of mind would be brilliant even if you never have a serious situation.
Glad the SUV jerk didn't get outta his car btw!
I vaguely recollect reading about some of the Livestock guards like the Caucasian and Central Asian Ovtcharka, Kangal, Sarplaaninac etc that training was unnecessary but i've also read its stupid to own one without it so...
How did you find a good place to train at? Is there somewhere on the board with info on choosing a quality establishment? Not that i think there's a huge number here in Australia.
Thanks again for your response
elle

I train with a local handler that has a 6 year old PPD, neither of us are professional trainers or decoys but it's the best we have for now, we are slowly expanding our group so hopefully we'll get some more experienced people to join us in our training sessions. We all have a pretty good idea of what we're supposed to be doing, but if you have no clue where to start then you're probably better off to find someone who does know. I wouldn't know where to find a good trainer, hard enough here, let alone Australia.

I plan on training my future dog in PP as well. But for a young, small woman who will be living alone, a big strong GSD is an extremely secure thing on ones mind.
And as one who loves to do all her exercising at night, a big strong GSD is another wonderful security device. Men don't have as much dependence on security as women.. It could save her life on many occasions. Not to mention the training is a blast and really creates a unique bond.

my perspective, as someone who lived as a single woman alone in hell's kitchen during the days when the name was apt.

i owned an english mastiff. they are one of the breeds that are not recommended for pp training. they don't have the right temperament for it, they do not like to bite.

however, they are very effective crime deterrents. most criminals will pick someone else to victimize if they see you are with any large dog. they aren't interested in taking the chance that the dog may or may not bite.

in my neighborhood there were street gangs, thugs, petty criminals, hookers on the street corners. i could walk anywhere, any time of day, without fear. i could leave my apartment door and windows wide open on hot nights. not only would no one bother me, tough guys would cross the street when they saw us coming.

in the case of my dog, he would and did protect me if someone got aggressive with me. i never had to train him to do it. he just did it.

because of the liability involved in having a dog that will attack, and the risks involved if the dog is not correctly trained, or the temperament turns out to be unstable for pp work, i would think long and hard about going that route with my dog.

i personally think that having a gsd at one's side, even untrained, is plenty of protection! like i said, the bad guys are going to choose someone else to pick on. the dog is a big deterrent just by being there.

Alice, from what I've read of your posts, you have never done ppd training with a dog, is that correct?
And you don't own a suitable breed for ppd training, is that also correct?

Then why in God's name are you posting in a forum that you have *no* experience in?

As Ed has said.."Opinion's need experience to bck them up".

Sorry, I just see people commenting in threads that they have no personal experience in but somehow see the need to post their opinions on a subject that can cause harm to someone - and when that happens, I'm gonna comment on it! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />


To the orginal poster, there is a weatlh of discussion in the old Protection threads, it'd be worth you time to look through them, they'll answer a lot of questions that you might have.
Good luck!