Pulled out of the Archives, always The Great Debate~

The Great Debate!

Greetings Dog Lovers!

The reason for writing this article is that personal protection trainers are ready to draw a line in the sand!
To bring into focus and to recognize that personal protection dog training is as much a science as the Kohler method, Schutzhund, police or military training. This is not to say that police or military trainers don't know anything about personal protection training, but those trainers are expert in their own field. The dog public needs to know that for personal protection training they need to enlist the help of a professional personal protection dog trainer.

I'd like to begin with that defining line in the sand!
According to the Webster dictionary,
~Defend-to guard against attack or injury
~Defense-Resistance against attack , some thing that defends
~Defensive-Serving or done for the purpose of defense. A position or attitude of defense
~Predatory-Preying upon other organisms for food.
*The natural drive that dogs have for the hunt and the kill have been substituted with drive for the pursuit and for the bite at the sleeve.

Where do you start?

At the desire to have a professional dog and when we think professional, we think of the police dog demonstrations we saw as children. As we grow up we all think, Oh I want to have one of those dogs to protect my family. And that’s where the debate begins because Police trained, Schutzhund trained, or a conventionally trained dog is not a personal protection dog. He might pose as a personal protection dog, but I would not want to bet my life on it! You must be trained by a professional personal protection dog trainer. So lets start at the beginning.

Picking out your new puppy.

* Schutzhund and police trainers pick alpha's and their alpha is the one who chases the ball and wants to tug the rag, ( prey drive)
* When I go to get a pup, I want bone, density of muscle and powerful jaw. I also look for the puppy who is not so trusting and friendly. Certainly the one who barks and displays defensive behavior, and doesn't want to be handled. I don't care about chasing balls or tugging rags. Remember , the personal protection dog is going to grow up and be a personal body guard for me and my family and a 24 X 7 day a week patroller of my property, that’s what we picked him for. ( Keep in mind we're talking about a pet protector, not a guard dog) In contrast to Schutzhund, I don't want to over socialize my dog while he's growing up.

Let's focus in on fundamental differences. The best way to illustrate those differences would be to tell you a story. A few years back, Lori and I went to a so called "personal protection training seminar". The reason we went was because the man giving the seminar was a champion trainer. ( He's trained a few Americans and a world champion) He's owned a couple Schutzhund 2's himself. We figured it may be a valuable opportunity to be enriched. What we didn't know was this seminar billed as a personal protection dog seminar was really Schultzhund, and what they didn't realize was the real personal protection dog trainers showed up. Lets move on.

My boy was the 4th dog to be worked. We had all noticed the absence of the short lead, which is essential in personal protection dog training. I told the trainer to be careful, figuring he never caught a dog like mine before. You see my dog is interested in the man, not the equipment. Which the trainer quickly found out. He started off inside the range of the 6ft. lead. When I turned my dog on, he had to get out of there! Then the trainer leaned back in with the sleeve and my boy hit it and shook it violently. The trainer took a baton from behind his back (we had witnessed him using this baton earlier with a Schutzhund dog, he would rub it across the head of the dog or put it near his mouth or under his throat)When he brought it out from behind his back he planned to do the same thing with my boy but when he raised his arm to present it, my boy came out of the sleeve and went for the weapon, much to the trainer's surprise. When the trainer was trying to get his arm out of the way, my boy went for his chest. This really shook up the Schutzhund world champion trainer.
I didn't make it any better when I told my boy to stand up and he stood up on his hind legs, straining at the end of the 6 ft. lead, eye to eye with that bad man. When this happened, the trainer decided to make an example out of me. He told me to put my dog away and that he didn't want to work him anymore.
He began to lecture me in front of the assembly, criticizing my dogs work. He said this is a perfect example of a dog who needs to learn how to stay on the sleeve. He called it sleeve drive. I call it sleeve happy. He said my dog had to learn to bite the sleeve and stay in it no matter what. I said, even if the bad guy's stabbing or shooting me, or should he hold on until the bad guy cuts his head off? Or should he engage the weapon

Well he didn't have the answer and told me my dog is a dirty biter. That my dog was no gentleman! After refusing to work my dog off lead ( even in a suit) I was able to talk him into tying my dog and walking in to give my boy a bite. Until that day my boy had never faced a man in a suit. He walked in slowly and deliberately, kicking out his legs trying to entice my boy to bite his legs. When he got in range, my boy hit him right in the middle of the chest and proceeded to rip that suit right off his body! I could see in his eyes this man had enough, so I told my boy , NO! and he dropped off immediately. I don't know about you but I want my personal protection dog to intimidate and demoralize the bad man.
Schutzhund is a sport and the dogs are taught to be happy when they have the sleeve. In training the bad guy always gives up. ( oh excuse me, the decoy always gives up)and the main focus seems to be the bite, whether it be a bag or sleeve, or suit, or toy, the dog is always encouraged to be its happiest when it has equipment in its mouth. A police trained dog is trained to accompany an individual who has had formal police training. This individual is usually equipped with a gun, extra bullets, a nite stick, some sort of restraint, possibly mace and a radio, they can call hundreds more just like themselves.
A personal protection dog is with your wife, mother, your children or yourself. That dog is your first and last line of defense. So logic would dictate that it would have to be trained differently than the Schutzhund or police trained dog.
I'll give you a basic example , when I ask most so called professional trainers, what are the three basic bites to teach a dog, most will answer me something to do with the classic stance of catching a dog. And it has nothing to do with catching a dog on a sleeve or suit. The three basic bites are: bite to the right, bite to the left, and bite over the head. This is where all weapons will come from. I have yet to see a bad guy holding a knife or gun, stick or bottle with his knees or legs.
A personal protection dog must learn to meet and repel the attack of the bad man. That must be his mind set. To do that effectively he needs to learn more than just running down the field and biting a sleeve or suit.

Gypsy/Master Dog Trainer/ Rock of Ages Kennel/Personal Protection Dog Association

Truer words have never been spoken.

Thank you for your comments, I would however like to point out, that this is an article out of the archives. I have alot of respect for Schutzhund, its history and tradition, I respect & appreciate the work, the training, and the dogs.
At the time this article was written Schutzhund was the top of the established dog training community. Since that time there has been a plague of sport training and sport competitions, that come no where near the responsible level of Schutzhund. It pains me to admit that this plague of competition has infected personal protection training. You pick the name, maybe ring sport could start out the list. Sport training because of promoters & ringmasters most of which never trained or titled a dog are in control of the known dog world, there bottom line and major concern is the crowd, the mob,the spectators. To satisfy the thirst for violence and the excitment of the bite. Dog training has eroded to the state of pure attack dog entertainment. I would hope there could be a reasonable intelligent conversation about the state of the canine nation for all our sakes.
Gypsy/MDT/ROAK/PPDA

I couldn't agree more. So, where do we start?