River is a 9 month old Belgian Malinois rescue.

I know that River is good at tracking. She uses her nose constantly and loves box games with the scent kit I got from Leerburg.

I know that she's smart enough to do obedience and she really likes working for a reward.

I recently ordered a puppy wedge sleeve (linen) and a kit of three jute tugs of various sizes. One of the is pocket and skinny with a harder core. The other two are fairly fat, probably about as fat as an average woman's arm, and much longer. One is as long as a bite rag would be.
She LOVES to tug them. I've found that she's completely turned off on harder surfaces like rubber and leather, but if she can sink her teeth into it she loves it. I've been teaching her how to shove it back in her mouth and we're developing her jaw strength. She's getting it!

She's developing territorial alerting and displaying learned aggression that isn't real aggression. I've encouraged her to bark at people and then I've taught her that when I say enough that's it. She needs to go lay back down or 'turn it off' and be herself again. She shows no desire to actually engage with these people. Her barking is purely a display.

So I've been rethinking my decision that she's not suitable for the protection aspect of IPO. I've been doing as much work with her as I can without a club (none around me) and I have plans on bringing her to a club that I'm interested in to have someone evaluate her.
My thought is if I can teach her that barking at people and displaying aggression on command is a good thing, and if I can develop her jaw muscles for later bite development on a sleeve, why couldn't I do protection with her if she enjoys it?

Thoughts?

With good training she should go far. M. Ellis's dvd's puppy bite work and protection skills w/out a helper are great. i wouldn't teach her to bark at people for no reason. remember she's still a puppy. have fun & good luck

JMO

Based solely on your description, a good IPO trainer and helper should be able to teach your dog to do protection. Considering what I've had to do to get my dog to bite and to bark, I think you're on your way. However, you do need guidance. There is a sequence to bite and prey development that makes it all come together in the end, and nothing can replace the value of a seasoned trainer in this aspect.

From what I've seen online and in magazines, there should be no shortage of sport clubs in your area.

http://germanshepherddog.com/clubs/mid_eastern.htm#MI

http://www.dvgamerica.com/kgmdwest.html#MI

http://www.awdf.net/memberclubs.html

I haven't taught her to bark at people for no reason. Barking at the door because someone's on the other side or barking at people from the truck are appropriate, in my opinion. She's definitely not interested in hitting the end of the leash and barking at people on our walks. A trainer would have to help us develop that.

There is a shortage of clubs in my area. I have to drive 2+ hours for any club. Since I don't have a vehicle of my own and the truck is 90% of the time in Indianapolis, I'd have to rent a car plus the cost of gas. There's a trainer about 20 minutes from me that does Schutzhund training, but he hasn't titled a dog in 10+ years and has concentrated on his training business. I don't like that option.

Thankfully, I will be getting a car by the end of summer AND I may be moving to Indianapolis where there's a nice club. That's the club I'm bringing her to for an evaluation. Clark drives up from Indy once a week so we can hang out together and do errands/shopping and I'm hoping that next time he comes up I'll be going down there for a week to apartment shop, tour colleges, and visit the club!

I'm going to check out the 'without a helper' DVD. All I've been doing is tug work and teaching her to stop pinching at it with her front teeth and get stronger in the neck and jaw. Simple stuff that she enjoys.

Nobody, or should I say NOBODY can tell you what your asking online Samantha. Only a good trainer/helper is going to be able to give you an evaluation worth anything.

Anyone online can give me their opinions on my dog based on what I've told them, Steve. I'm not looking for an online evaluation of her potential for titling.

Ok, everyone is always invited to give opinions. But in the context of "Want opinions on Rivers Abilities" and "rethinking my decision that she's not suitable for the protection aspect of IPO" NOBODY is going to be able to tell you anything worth reading.

Maybe after you have an experienced eye evaluate her, you'll get some ideas from folks based on what he or she says. Different things people have seen done or what worked with their dog.

You need someone experienced in bringing a pup along. Not EVERY helper is good at that. Some are better with pups then others.

You can mess up your pup if you don't really know what you are doing & haven't trained a dog from a pup before. Even then you can screw things up without proper experience. Training mistakes are 10 x harder to fix then to teach correctly the first time around.

You need to find good help.

I agree that teaching a pup to bark at the door, in the truck (be careful what you wish for) or lunging at the end of a leash barking at people (shaking my head) is silly. Also says you have no idea about protection work or what you are doing about training for protection work & really need guidance.

If the dog has what it takes to do protection work...it will be instinctive you won't be having 'teach' it to do those things.

Samantha, do you like the dog? if yes go have fun training her. thanks for rescuing her.

IME there's never a lack of people who want to say, " Your dog won't ever be able to do.....whatever". "he's missing--natural drive,instinct,wrong breeding-" people will tell you. Especially people who have paid an absolute fortune for their dog.


What is really fun IMO is to take one absolutely as far as it can go. You learn, and ther is the built in excuse or fallback that the dog was never expected to be perfect.

So I say "Go for it". No one can truly predict ---