Personal Protection Dogs, How Are They Selected & Trained?
One of the most asked questions that we get are about protection dogs and how they're trained. It would be impossible to go on to detail step by step to describe how a trainer would train a dog for personal protection. But in this article, we will go over the basics of how the process progresses.
Every dog was once a puppy, so let's start from the beginning. Before one can begin training a dog for protection, they must first select a puppy. First things first, the most important thing is health. A puppy who grows up and has genetic hip dysplasia can't do the training or the work required of a personal protection dog. Therefore, whatever breeder it is that you decide to get a puppy from should be a reputable breeder who is able to show you passing hip scores for both parents and the grandparents as well.
For personal protection work, your safest bet is to go with a working line German shepherd dog, but there are European show line dogs who can do the work. Ordinarily, when discussing doing Protection work of any kind, it is recommended to stick with working line dogs. But, in this instance, a very well-bred European show line German Shepherd may do the trick if that's what someone would prefer.
That's because personal protection doesn't require the level of drive and hardness that a dog who works on patrol as a police K9 does. They are not going to work 12-hour shifts or be deployed dozens of times throughout their career. Statistically speaking, you'll likely never need to use them. But if you did need to, they just need to be able to get the job done. They don't have to be so driven they stay in the zone half the day for their entire adult life.
That said, again, to be safe, going with a working line puppy or dog is the better choice. When selecting a puppy, a trainer will pick a puppy that is naturally confident, not easily scared, recovers quickly from stress, and has on the upper end of medium to high levels of prey drive. Those traits are the basic foundations that are necessary to build upon when it comes to training and shaping a puppy into a personal protection dog.
Next in the process is puppy imprinting. At this stage, a trainer will begin to teach a puppy basic obedience using rewards-based training. They will also introduce the puppy to games of tug oftentimes using bite Rags made of leather or jute, puppy tugs, puppy bite pillows, and puppy bites leaves.
Over the course of the next few months, with consistent, competent training, the puppy will begin to understand the basic concepts and obedience training and games of tug. This foundation of training is the most important part when training any working dog to perform tasks.
In the next phase of training, all training, including bite work, starts to become more serious. It is at this time that an older puppy or young adult dog will be taught that obeying commands isn’t a suggestion. It's during this step of the process that corrections are introduced. By the end of this phase, the dog’s obedience will be almost bomb proof.
With a younger puppy, playing tug with their trainer and with the decoy (the lucky person who gets to wear the bite sleeve or suit) is all fun. It is literally just a game. But at this stage, the decoy becomes a person that the older puppy or young adult dog learns is mischievous and not to be trusted. His behavior becomes suspicious, and he becomes more confrontational. By the end of this phase of training, the decoy will have gone from a person who plays fun games with them to a person the dog genuinely dislikes.
At last, we come to the final stage of a protection dog's journey from puppy, to fully trained adult protection dog that can be relied upon who is safe to the general public. Again, at this stage, the dog’s obedience will be nearly bulletproof. They will know all commands, and they will know that they must obey those commands. Though there will be one weak spot, we'll have to get to that later.
At this stage, it is time to proof the dog's training. The dog knows what to do and how to do it. It knows when it can and cannot do something. But at this phase, the end stage, the dog is taught how to deal with pressure from the decoy (aka the pretend bad guy, who will do their best to mimic the stress of a real-life scenario). That means that the decoy goes from a mischievous trickster to an enemy. One who is dangerous and must be stopped hurting the dog or their Handler. Obviously, a trainer and a decoy are not going to hurt the dog or hurt the Handler to simulate a real-life situation. They will do their best to do it without anyone getting hurt.
It is at this time that the dog will be pushed and stressed to the point that they get defensive. When a dog feels like they are defending themselves and their Handler, a lot of the time, the training that they know so well and fully understand goes out of the window. That's why this phase is called the proofing phase. The dog knows everything already.
It now just needs to be taught that even under stress, and even at their most excitable level of drive, they still must listen to their Handler. Oftentimes, you will hear people say that their puppy or dog listens to them perfectly inside or in their yard. But when they're somewhere new out in public, their dog doesn't listen to a word they say. That's because the level of stimuli is higher outside of the home. The same thing happens in personal protection training.
As the protection work intensifies, the level of stimuli is so high that it may feel like the dog has taken a step back in their obedience training. But it's no cause for concern. With a few weeks of training, you'll have your finished product. A dog who is 100% reliable in obedience, who can be trusted to defend themselves and their handler, knows how to win a fight with a bad guy, has the confidence to do so, but is still socialized and safe in public.
It is a long process that, at the very least, takes nearly two years. It is also an expensive process, that requires a professional trainer's guidance, or boarding with a professional trainer, paying a decoy, buying specialized equipment that can cost hundreds of dollars, and the expense of buying a puppy from a reputable breeder that will never cost any less than $2,000. Now, if you want to shorten this process, you can import an adult dog of suitable drive and temperament from Europe, or perhaps even find one state side.
An adult dog with the proper temperament and drives can be trained to do personal protection work in as little as two months with the competent trainer and a solid background in obedience. But that dog will likely cost $6,500 to over $10,000 depending on the dog, it’s bloodline, the quality of basic training, and other factors ... and that's before considering the cost of having a professional trainer to do the work.
After this basic overview, I think it's clear to see why dogs who are trained for this type of work are so expensive. It is a big investment at every step of the way in both time and money, but this is the only way to have a dog that is safe and can be counted upon to do the job of protecting its Handler and home if the need should arise. You will hear people say that it's a dog's instinct, if it loves you and is treated well, to protect you. This is simply unfair to the dog.
It is unfair to expect even a very well-bred working line dog who has no training to wake up in the middle of the night and say to himself "I'm going to fight a bad person tonight, even though I have no training, and therefore no confidence in my abilities to win a fight nor do I even know what to do in a fight, but I'm going to jump head first into one." Police officers receive training, soldiers receive training, boxers and martial artists receive training … if you expect a dog to protect you, it needs training just like a human who has the job to serve, protect, and defend other people and themselves need.
Thank you, and we hope you enjoyed this article. Please leave a like and share. It really helps with our reach. More importantly, we hope that it was educational for people who are unfamiliar with this type of training but were interested. We get so many questions surrounding personal protection on a regular basis. We've also had numerous people ask why we don't have bite sleeves on our online store. Well, now we do!
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