Let's keep to the topic.

Van Camp for your information only one breed of dog is banned or controlled and that is the American Pit Bull.
You are as usual taking this out of the context in which it was meant,I agree education of the public is important but when something like this happens sadly the public form an opinion and it takes no amount of effort to convince them that this is an isolated case of untrained dogs.
The Pit was banned in the UK because a similar thing happened and the public then considered all pits as devil dogs,I have no experience of pits but the few I met were good dogs,it is usually the owner that wants banning and not the dog.
Paul

Ed will decide what are appropriate topics for his board. I have not heard from him that due to the recent court case protection threads are banned. I doubt I will. Once again please stick to the question on if training two dogs in protection simultaneously is feasable.

I do not own a protection breed of dog but thumbs up to those on the board who do and have them trained. I will put in my 2cents anyways.

Face it, it is not people like you that people are afraid of. You are responsible dog owners with trained dogs. You know the characteristics of your chosen breed, both good and bad. But for every 1 of you, there are at least 25 (conservative estimate) who own a rotti, dobe, GSD, or pitt bull who shouldn't. These people are irresponsible. They do not neuter their male dogs, don't train them, etc. Where I work (unfortunately my building is located in a rather disreputable part of the city) I see people walking pitt bulls and rottis all the time and I can just tell that they have never been formally trained. These are some of the people who will agitate their dogs to make sure they will bite. These are the idiots who might think half-training their dog as a bite dog is fun.

Then there are those who have no intention of bite training their dogs, but get a protection breed of dog as a first dog. They do not have the correct knowledge or experience to handle such a dog. I personally know of 2 Akitas that had to be put down (1 went through a screen door to get at someone), 1 unstable schizophrenic GSD, 1 overly dominant rotti that was given away, 1 nutty rotti that bit me.....the list goes on.

I always wanted a GSD but the hips as well as my inexperience changed my mind.

All protection dogs should come with an increased licence fee, maybe mandatory obedience training, tests for the prospective owner, etc. Unfortunately, again the people who usually cause most of the problems will slip through the cracks anyways. And I can't really see local SPCA's having the manpower to police dog ownership regarding certain breeds, aside from banning them altogether.

The greatest publicity stunt people on this board could ever pull is to visit schools, fall fairs, etc. with your well trained dogs and put on a demonstration. I work for a school board and it's a known fact that if you impress children with a certain point, they will remember. Education is the key. You must prove to the public that these dogs can be handled well. I know it's unfair, but that's life.

I closed this topic and moved the discussion over to Protection Training Adult Dogs.