Can you "teach" or "imprint" sharpness in a dog?. And I mean "sharp dog" as defined by Mr. Frawley, article in one of his trainign articles:

 Quote:

A "SHARP DOG" is a dog that is very quick to bark at someone. An example of this is a dog that hits the fence and acts like he wants to kill you when you walk by his kennel. I don't mean that every dog that barks at you when you walk by a kennel is sharp

I have a 4 yr old male GSD, and he is trained in protection work, but I need him to be "sharper" under some circumstances (mainly when he is alone in his crate). On leash he do quite a good job, but it seems like when he his "not on service" he does not seem to react or sense any danger.

You can teach the dog that certain situations are dangerous. . .increasing his suspician. . .increasing the dog's alertness and aggressive reactions in those situations.

My question is why do you want your dog to aggress while in a crate?

Sharpness is a genetic trait.
See my web site at
http://www.k9services.com/CaninePsychology.htm

You cannot train it. You can create something that people think is sharpness by making the dog believe a certain condition calls for self-defense. Or you can work a dog so consistantly in self defense that the dog becomes convinced and eventually conditioned that people or circumstances are dangerous and scary and that the solution is defensive reactions (

Well, I wasn't finished and the computor posted a partially completed post. The remainder is........ this type of training was common in the old sentry dogs our military used to employ. It is still used by some guard dog trainers. I do not recommend it for virtually all applications.

Kevin,

Do you not think it borders on semantics as to whether or not a dog is genetically sharp, or trained to react sharply??

I guess my question is this:

Dog A is genetically sharp, he tends to view situations with a grain of threat. He could be considered by some to be fearful, but the dog is confident in his forward shows of aggression.

Dog B is a more confident and socially/environmentally stable dog, that rarely reacts to situations with defensive, or aggressive responses.

This dog (B), through more “intense” training could be taught that certain situations should be viewed through a more “guarded” mindset, would learn now to show “sharp” responses to these situations.

What is the final difference between these two dogs?

Thank You all, I believe (as mentioned by MattMoore), that my dog is so confident and socially/environmentally stable, that rarely reacts to situations with defensive, or aggressive responses. He only reacts when he see the helper on the suite/bite sleeve, or somebody threatening with the stick.

I can also quote (and agree with Kevin Sheldahl), on an interview made to Helmut Raiser ( http://www.schutzhund.fsnet.co.uk/articles/raiser1.htm)

 Quote:

I'm astonished when I look back and see what I wrote in this book. This was the time when we changed training, we saw the advantages of 'prey' and we changed all defence work to prey. We were prey 'freaks'! After some years, and bringing up some more dogs, we realised we must bring back some defence and aggression. Gradually, over the years, our knowledge increased and I decided to do an update.

So, maybe what I meant to say, is that I whant to make my dog more suspicious and alert, not only when I am handling him, but also when he is sitting or laying next to me, when driving in the car, or when he his on his crate, and not only show agreesiveness when I react to /or make him react to. Probably this was some bad training from the start, maybe much of the training was made "under prey" or like you mention, is genetics on the dog side.

Shea

If you want to train to make your dog more suspicious one way is to setup scenarios and you signal him to alert to these situations.

Like the hidden helper that lunges out and runs, (this is done after setting up a protection zone/line that you both (handler/helper) know about).

There a number of different scenarios you can setup that will make him start to perk up. You can start by alerting on to the suspect then as he catches on play good guy/bad guy (sometimes you perk up and run the guy off/get a bite and sometimes perk up, and don't get a chase/bite just you saying its "ok". The dog will pay close attention to anybody approaching and may even bark but you decided what level to take it to.

There are stages here that can get tricky (if you are not a very good trainer) the dog can start making the decision for you, if you don't control this stage of his training. You don't want him trying to bite or growling at everything that moves toward you, just the people that you signal.

Off leash I sometimes have a problem with them trying to alert and take over the situation. If they feel I'm threaten, mostly people that look sneaky or shady approaching me from behind.

If you miss a step, this can cause aggression problems. You are Oking that he/the dog can bark/grolw/bite things/people that you/he deem a threat.

Becareful for what you ask for. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Now its came in handy a couple of times, but most of the time around new assoicates its a hassle. You some guest in your house asking can they move. And the dog looking like "No" you can't. Its time for the dogs, to go outside and play.

By the way Vancamp asked a valid question, Why do you want him to be aggressive while inside of his crate? This isn't somekind of "show&tell" Macho thang is it?
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

This is just MO, I'm not a pro trainer.

Thank You Don.
Regarding the question:
By the way Vancamp asked a valid question, Why do you want him to be aggressive while inside of his crate? This isn't somekind of "show&tell" Macho thang is it? ?

No, not at all, this is because when we are at our training club, many of the other dogs (from other owners), seem very quick to bark at you when you are passing by, and my dog never do it, it look to me like something is not correct or something is missing.

Please forgive my english, as it is not my maternal language.

IMO, I would NOT want my dog to be civil while in his crate... When is he ever going to be attacked in the crate??

Further, there could be times that you need someone else to bring the dog out of the crate (for whatever reason).. having a civil dog in the crate could be problematic to say the least!..

Now, walking at night through a shady industrial park, that is a different story, or even in your vehicle at (while you are in it), but in the crate... I can't see the need.

JMO

matt said "Dog A is genetically sharp, he tends to view situations with a grain of threat. He could be considered by some to be fearful, but the dog is confident in his forward shows of aggression."

I had never seen the line between sharpness and weak nerves, am I correct in saying that it is confidence?