My 2 cents!!

Hi Katrina! Nice to see you 'back'!

Anyway, personally I think a big part of the orientation toward 'prey happy' dogs has occurred due in no small part to the fact that modern working dog handlers/trainers have gravitated toward sport for guidance. Now, for oh say a police handler, who wants a dog to mainly do scent work and / or apprehensions, I can understand the reliance on ultra high prey. The dog is expected to run down and hold, but not necessarily engage in a prolonged fight with, the subject. Kind of lines right up with prey drive!

However, for a dog expected to defend a family for instance, I think the reliance on sport 'wisdom' is misguided. I want my dog to do as much damage as he can to the subject, not just hold him in place. I want the subject nuetralized so that my family and I can get to safety. I need a dog who might have to engage and fight for several minutes or longer without assistance as I hurry my children across a parking lot to my truck. I really don't care if the bite is 'full' and I don't want my dog to just blindly hang on to the initial bite regardless of circumstance. I'd rather have my dog bite, release, shift location, and rebite if he is at a disadvantage in his original position. I want my dog to use his limbs, as well as his mouth, and not just hang there like a dishrag.

I think a lot of people are initially indoctrinated to protection dogs through sport or sport trainers. The see the flashy flee bites, see the dog arc through the air, and think 'gee whiz now thats a dog!" Well, flee bites on the street are simply not what protection dogs do. So this is misguided.

I think a lot of sports even, focus on certain bite locations for the sake of safety and predictability on the field. I think this is easier to achieve with high prey. I think a high defense dog is a lot less predictable as far as the fight, which is an advantage in a real engagement. But of course, soo many folks have forgotten the real reasons why certain bite targets are prefffered in sport over others, and so they rationalize it by saying 'its a more effective place to bite'. Sorry, but I think a dog that hit the wrist <crunch> then the groin, then the belly, then the butt... is a heck of a lot more apt to get the job done than one that grabs a forearm and stands there, or the leg and stand there....

I think people erringly take sport as Gospel, and apply it broad spectrum across the entire gamut of the working dog world, and I think that is a huge mistake. Sport has it's place. It can showcase a talented trainer or a good dog. But most people do not seem to understand it is not the end all be all.

As far as training goes, I know a lot of people 'think' high prey dogs are easier to train. Maybe for them... But someone who understands high defense dogs can get just as much done, only the results may not be suitable for sport, being that most sports are oriented toward prey behaviors. I know an excellent sport trainer for instance, that would have trouble training a high defense dog as well as my know-nothing butt can do. Yes the man has trained multiple SCH III dogs. Heck I've never done that! Training a dog that is prey heavy isn't necessarily easier than training one that is defense heavy, it's just different. But when you go out to learn how to train, it's mostly sport trainers who are to be found to guide you. If your initial exposure is through sport, it can skew your perception of what a good dog is made of for a long, long time.