This is how I've chosen to define "civil" agression, as applies to someone whos aim is to have a family companion...

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Civil aggression is the dog's inherent level of suspicion towards humans. This is what makes socialization the most important thing a family owner can do for their dog. If you raise a pup to be around people all the time they become more people friendly as long as their experience with those people are positive ones. This socialization process will alleviate most of your concerns about inappropriate aggression towards humans when the dog becomes a full adult. This helps the dog to understand the difference between real and perceived threats.

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OK I thing a police person would probably like my dog.. he is pretty dominant.. and terorizes anybody and everybody.. Well I can say he is not diferrent than my other 2 dogs... I think I will buy a muzzle

The police dogs I HAVE met don't terrorize anybody and everybody. Not sweet cuddly dogs that you want to run up and pet, but not nasty. Dogs that are controllable by a strong handler.

I think a dog that can't turn off its aggression is usually fearful with bad nerves. Perhaps your meaning of "terrorizes everyone" and needing a muzzle is not what I read into it.

Sorry Nancy.. I meant he pushes people who let him.. believe me if I say that he has pretty good nerves. He wil play tug on ice and he has no issues with any noises. He is very social and "friendly" but he can be puschy towards people he doesnt know and they just let him.. Little things like he runs the game and he is the one deciding when and where to bring the toy.. When it comes to me.. he is very responcive. I dont have to "convince" him. But other people.. he "bosses" around.
Hope this is better explained.

I think it is important to have a distinction between a puppy who is mouthy because is wants to bite and has a lot of prey drive and a dog who is truly civil. I don't think a 5 month old puppy is exhibiting true civil behaviour.

For instance, A dog that is civil might bite a sleeve, but when the helper slips the sleeve, he'll be right back in the helper's face looking to bite sleeve or not. In my view, there are dogs that are very naturally civil and other dogs who can be if trained, and others who simply will never be civil. I wouldn't assume a dog was civil unless I'd seen the dog work against a person with no equipment (no sleeve/no suit), and tested the dog with a hidden sleeve.

A dog that is not civil will look for a piece of equipment to bite or in the example I give will simply keep the sleeve as the prey he's won.

Now, I suspect that your dog has a lot of prey drive and is very mouthy. Both are great things to start with for a working dog and make training easy. However, that alone doesn't mean that the dog will be civil. If your dog has the right kind of genetics, and if you follow the type of program that Ed has laid out in his videos (prey development as a foundation then to defensive work, etc) it is possible (and maybe likely) that your dog will grow into a civil dog.

My dog didn't really act civil towards the helper until he was over 2 years old and had a long foundation of prey work. He took to it well, though, and now we regularly work him with a hidden sleeve and/or a muzzle.

Hope that helps,

Alan...

Thanks Al, I am learning a lot about the vocabulary here. People would talk about the drives and I worked in an environment that put dogs in two groups
1 nice pet
2: we can do something here with this little pup
You are right he has all the drives he needs.. the reason I asked about the civil drive is simple.. he is extremely focused on mouthing everybody.. one of my friends even asked me to stop him.. he was hanging on him like a leach.
That was the reason I asked.
Maybe he is just a very "bite wanting pup"..that is still playing, only a bit rough.