Quote: reggie bruster

Hi Tiffany,
I actually train dogs here locally and I didn't believe what I was told and it didn't sound reasonable to me but I want to get advice from others with more experience than me. He's given a good amount of money to this trainer already and he trying to make the best of it because he can not get his money back. The dog is at the trainers now and she's saying the dog is doing well and is hitting the sleeve well which is odd considering the dog would rarely even chase a ball.

I understand he wants to make the best of it but in this case the "protection" training may have been rushed (IMO) on a somewhat fearful dog. Basically giving the dog the "fight" then "flight option automatically. I feel the owner may have wanted to work on building a stronger relationship based on trust and removing of the fear before teaching the dog any bite work.

 Quote: reggie bruster

Steve I agree with you completely. This is a green dog with no drive. The owner got the dog to the point where he would chase his favorite toy but the dog is very nervey with me around. The dog is nice and very social but the dog will bite only under pressure which concerns me. The dog literally hides behind the owner when approached, however that has gotten better.

This is what would concern me more before I started training for protection. I think you said earlier that this isnt for Shutz right?

Based on the length of training and a couple of other things I think the training is actually more of an alert type thing.

Kind of hard to teach a dog to protect you if you are not in the equation.

If that is true, I think the client has been done a disservice if it was not explained and hammered home the difference in alert and protection training.

Alert and protection training is night and day. My White shepherd will give an impressive display until you stamp your foot or yell boo. Then he will run like hell. (he is a pet, my soothing dog, he has never been protection trained at all, and he will play tug)

In this scenario with the op lets hope it is only alert training and that the trainer knows what the heck they are doing.

Honest question Betty.
Would you expect the sleeve to even be in play for 'alert' training?
Much less any talk about the dog taking the sleeve.

Personally, I think the owner could save him/herself money and grief if he/she got their dog outta there (if as described) like now. If it isn't already too late.

 Quote: randy allen

Honest question Betty.
Would you expect the sleeve to even be in play for 'alert' training?
Much less any talk about the dog taking the sleeve.

Sure. A sleeve would be handy if you are teaching the dog to come to the end of a line and bark for an alert. It can be taught all in prey. A dog a few inches behind me barking, not so scary.

I could teach it to my sweet boy kingster and he would not be damaged and would have fun doing it. Like I have said before, he would look very impressive until the bad guy yelled "Boo". Then he will run and find my husband for me.

Someone else teaching it to him and it not being done properly could damage him. Badly.

Randy, I have a little bit different approach then a lot of people on the internet. I've been involved in too many threads where as more information was given my opinion totally changed.

In this situation the person's name has not been given but lets say it was and then it turned out all the dog was being taught was a very basic alert. The information, that could hurt a person's business would be there forever. Once the page is cached by the search engines you can still find it, even if the thread is deleted.

The OP did not talk to the trainer directly. He is getting information second hand through someone that seems to have only a very basic knowledge of dogs. There is a wide margin there for error.

Just my humble opinion of course.

 Quote:

In this scenario with the op lets hope it is only alert training and that the trainer knows what the heck they are doing

I wanted to quote myself and make it clear that I am not advocating bad training or training with a dog that is not unsuitable.

I have gotten a couple of pms, not just on this thread but on others, where people seem to think I'm advocating something because my post is not forceful enough or something.

Tiffany,
This dog is not for any sport, this dog was suppose to be trained for protection work, off leash obedience, and barking at a threat.

I began training with the dog and after noticing a few less desirable traits like lack of drive, I spoke with the owner and told him the I did believe the dog was suitable for protection training and I would not do it. I explained the drive level was not appropriate for this dog to do protection work. The pressure I was talking about was very little, eye contact and walking towards the dog, and the dog avoided both as much as possilbe.

Good for you Reggie. I know a lot of trainers that would of taken the money and hoped for the best.

Betty,
I was afraid you'd take my questions the wrong way.

They were honest questions.

I took it as an honest question and tried to answer it honestly. I did not think there was an agenda or any of that nonsense.

You've always been upfront with me.