How often do you hear people rave and brag about their dog being "protective" of them? From the littlest Chihuahua, some Beagle or a huge Cane Corso, people absolutely LOVE when their dog barks or growls at people, mistaking it for protection in a way a Malinois or Dutch Shepherd is trained. As a pet dog trainer, this is one of the most frustrating things to hear about, witness even from dogs that aren't clients and while it's not too hard or complicated to deal with, that depends on the dog and is usually able to be sorted out rather quickly, it still sucks and it can be EASILY avoided.
So let's set the record straight- they have ZERO training which means...
THEY ARE NOT PROTECTIVE OF YOU!!!!
They are scared and nervous.
They don't trust you to handle the situation.
They are protective of THEMSELVES in a fearful, survival way.
They are not confident.
Most importantly...
THEY AREN'T TRAINED IN PERSONAL PROTECTION!
You're dogs protective?
Why do you need protection from the Fed ex guy? Is that lawn care worker secretly an assassin? Are those Jehovah's witnesses threatening with murderous intent? Maybe the electrician working on your house is trying to kill you...
QUICK SEND THE DOG, THE GIRL GUIDES ARE AT THE DOOR AND THEY HAVE COOKIES!
A protection dog can differentiate and discriminate, they are social and stable. At least, the good ones are. Plenty of foolish people raising and training out of control assholes.
Point being, a real protection dog has SOLID nerves and through extensive training, understands when it can and should bite.
Do you see how stupid it is to think that your dog is protecting you? Or that it has the nerve and mental stability and strength to actually fight a man?
Think about this:
Would you hire a security guard who is a paranoid schizophrenic?
Screaming "drop the gun" at the girl guides and drawing a gun on them?
Yikes...
A protection dog is a weapon
It's not supposed to be like an MMA fighter, beating it's chest, screaming "I'm so tough"
Protection dogs are secret service. You don't see it and won't know my dog is for protection until you try to attack me and by then it's too late for you.
These dogs come from GENERATIONS of selective breeding for the right genetics for the physical and MENTAL ability to bite, fight and win, with hours upon hours put into that dog to be trained to win and if it doesn't, the only way it can win is to fight harder and stay in the fight.
Your mutt from the shelter has literally ZERO of those qualities, sorry to break it to you.
It's a scared, weak nerved dog that doesn't trust you so it's trying to save itself out of fear.
"Oh he'll bite tho"
Sure, I have no doubt a fearful dog will bite. That bite is very different than a protection dog who has been trained to bite, target and stay on a bite.
Your dog fear biting is a "get away from me" bite (fight response)
It's in and out very quickly and wants to leave (flight response)
And if someone put up a fight, a real bad guy with intent or some crazy person who isn't afraid, your dog would FOLD faster than a bad hand in poker.
Even after reading this, people who have these "natural" protectors won't change or try and train their dog. They like this quality about their dogs. Until it bites a postal worker or pizza delivery driver or the girl guide. Then the dog gets put down and it's all the owners fault for not fixing a very fixable problem. The dog had to pay the ultimate price for human arrogance. That's what gets me so upset...
Take away points?
They aren't protective of you
They're fearful
You're likely reinforcing and rewarding fear with trying to soothe them or petting them, stop it...
That's not good, it means they don't trust and are probably weak nerved
Real protection dogs are trained and worlds apart from your fearful dog
Hope this helps
Comments