first let me say,i spent most of the morning reading ed's veiw of wolf hybrids,and fatal dog attacks. i totally agree with everything printed there.my delema here,is how many "sorta trained" protection dogs are in our midst? how can a person like myself,for instance ,watch a few tapes read a couple of books,and then procede to attempt something that takes years of hard work and tenacity to accomplish? even if you make it to the proofing stage, a person is far more lineint with his own dog,than a professional trainer would be. i would let some things slide,and a trainer would not.are these semi -protection dogs more ,or less likely to become dangerous "people biters"?

John.
It's probably hard to answere some of your questions but from my experience of buying a personal protection dog, lots does come into play. The dogs that are already protection trained still train with their new owner & will continue that training so it's important to have a good trainer. Your lineincy is your life...you cut it short, than you cut your life's threat short. It's somewhat logical to keep the training as "real" as possible. Scenerios, such as in your car, home & going for walks, etc. Also having "the bad guy" wear a hidden sleeve to test the dog in a "real scenerio". I learned to get several trainers opinions and work w/ different trainers as each one has different ideas and methods. As far as the "people biters", well, it all depends on the dog, it's up bringing, training, how the dog is/was treated, the nerves the dog has, and it's lineage. When I bought my dog, as I was not a Police Officer yet, he was my Personal Protection Dog. I pretty much worked him w/ a trainer at the same field all the time, doing the same training all the time. But when my dog had issues, we'd work to correct them. He worked the blind and did the courage test to insure that he would work away from me. We also did scenerios at my home and in my car. Now that I know more about what P.P.D are along w/ K9 training I look back on the training I did and it could have been A LOT better, though I never felt my dog was at risk of biting someone for no reason. He had proven that to me many times anyway. His tempermant was and is superb with all people unless he knows he has to act in the scope of his duties. But alot of this was just his natural instinct to protect and came with time and that time was called. bonding.
Hope this helped a little. Brandi

John, I consider myself an experienced, and serious dog OWNER. Having trained my own dogs for almost 50 yrs, and having taught obedience classes with a top obedience club, and being active in SAR, and now Schutzhund, I still am not qualified to teach home protection. There are no shortcuts to do this correctly. The safty and legal implications are far to great for someone to be "lienient" in this type of training. If a dog owner is more lienient than a professional trainer, than I hope that owner has the smarts to stay away from that type of training. I don't think any dog training should overlook anything, or be lienient to be done well.

I don't know that a poorly trained PPD becomes more or less likely to bite in the wrong.

I certainly think that someone who takes the time to do some level of protection work with a dog will also be the type of person who understands the liability and keeps the dog safely contained, no matter how good or bad the training is/was. I think that is the majority.


I'm sure there are a handful of scumbags out there who are screwing up dogs and don't have a full brain between the lot of them who are increasing the likelyhood of their dog nailing someone. Usually by allowing the dog the opportunities to hurt people in the wrong. That seems to be a rare occurance, fortunately.


More often IMO it is the scumbags and gross amatures who are training dogs who wouldn't hurt a fly and still won't, trained or not. (The scumbags easily identify themselves. . .they're the ones with said fly lovers for sale on their websites. LOL)

bob ,robert,both of you guy's hit the nail on the head.the tpye of people and dogs i was refering to,are the thousands of $100.00 back yard bred dogs,that absoultely can't do the work.they are owned by average,or lower than average people that can't or won't invest money into a real trainer.they watch "animal planet",and decide to train their own "guard dog". here is where the problems start. very poor or iffy obedience training,never ever,results in a dog that can be trusted around other people.so back to the original question,"if these dogs are about half_a--ed taught how to bite,are they more prone to be people biters.

Yes, a dog that has learned that an aggressive response will get him somewhere is more apt to bite when put into a situation where there is a percieved threat.


Does that answer your question?

yes, thank you all very much.

In my business it's not uncommon to come across just plain old, junk yard dogs that are quite serious about biting someone. Pits seem to be the preferred animal. The ones we come across are both for "early warning" and protection. By george I'll be the first to admit it, it's scary.

DFrost