How do you train your dog to protect you? This is an excellent question. Actually, I rephrased it from the question that I usually get. Do you know what question that I get? How do you train your dog to attack?
You know, I’m not too fond of the question, but I guess I could go over it for a second. I don’t particularly like answering the question of how you train your dog to attack because it’s just not so simple.
Do It On Equipment
Now, I train my dogs to protect me, which is debatable because we do sports protection work, which is very similar to real protection work. But we do it on equipment all the time. We’re constantly on equipment, not allowing the dogs to have live bites. So here are some things to consider if you want your dog to protect you.
One, have you selected a dog breed that’s capable of that? Two, does the dog you chose have a pedigree that says that their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents have been capable of doing that kind of work?
Then, the next thing you can do is get someone to help you train the dog that has experience training those types of dogs. They can show you video graphic proof of them doing that, or they can show you in person being able to do that.
Verbally Control
I want to add a little bit of value to this third one. When you’re looking into somebody who can protection train your dog, it’s not about the bites and the grips and launches; it’s really about whether the person can verbally control that dog with just their voice commands and get the dog to do all the things. Can they get the dog to move together with the owner? Can they get their dog to bark at the other person? Can they send their dog at the bad guy to bite with a full grip? And can they get the dog to let go when they say the command once?
If you’re considering a dog trainer to help you protection train your dog, and they can’t show you that their dogs can do those four things, then you shouldn’t do protection training with them. And you shouldn’t do protection training with a dog that isn’t suited for the work. You could get a dog, and some guy could tell you that they can protection train your dog. They could say that they don’t have a lot of experience but can they prove it to you? Be very careful because you can psychologically put your dog in a pretty bad position.
I hope this was helpful! Remember, you can find more videos like this on my YouTube Channel or them right here on my website www.longoriahausdogtraining.com.
Happy Training!
