A while back I was playing around with the idea of doing some protection work with my little female Bull Terrier as i heard of a training course nearby me offering classes.

I decided she would not make a good canidate as she is a bit too suspicious for my own taste.

However, I would like to get a Bull Terrier specificaly to do Protection work with as well as some sports.

My females breeder has some nice athletic and driven dogs- However, should I purchase a pup for this purpose i would obviously want to make sure I was choosing the best most stable temperament dog for the purpose, however I am not totally familiar with what does and does not make a good protection dog.

I do know the dog cannot be shy, anxious, nervous or extremly suspicious.
I was once told that a dog that takes the game of tug too seriously is not a good canidate either as it makes teaching the dog to release very difficult if not impossible.

I have also attempted finding a working Bull Terrier kennel- however i have only seen a few that do protection work and have seen videos of there training practices and do not like them- nor the dogs obviously unstable temperaments.


What would be the criteria of seeking out a proper temperament for a potential protection work pup?

Is your breeder a show line breeder, back yard breeder, whatever?

Most BTs are either bred to run around in a ring or bred to be a house pet. The pets are often out of show litters that have a fault that would keep them from wining iin a show ring. That doesn't make it a bad dog just a dog that isn't going to boost the breeders reputation in the show ring.
I had a BT yrs ago in the Spuds Mckenzie era. He was a Bull in the proverbial china shop when he played but no protection instincts what so ever.

Unless I found a PPD trainer that had a great reputation and the dogs to prove it I wouldn't even think of training ANY dog for PP.

The breeder i am currently scoping out to buy a pup out of has had several buyers who bought dogs for working purposes, but he himself breeds pet/show dogs and does not participate in sports.

several dogs from him have done well in Weight pulling, Agility, and Hog catching

they are highly driven- extremely easy to motivate
high energy, strong prey drive.

IF I buy a pup for protection work, I would be extremely choosey about the puppy as well as the trainer. i have seen a few self proclaimed protection work trainers Via FB and seen how idiotic some of them can be (hitting dogs with chairs when they refuse to release)

Could Anyone give me any recomendations for a good trainer in MI or around WI?

Michigan or Wisconsin? I take it you're close to the UP? The only PP trainers I know of are in the central part of Wisconsin and Michigan. I just bought a bull terrier mixed pup from a breeder about an hour north of Chicago that has been training in bite sport/PP for a while.