And this is why we have them.

Well its 1AM and im wide awake. Why? Because we just had to call the police because we had some young theifs and vandals on our property. Luckily we had Falak, Sebastiaan, and Hiro to prevent them from hurting our animals or property.

We live on a fairly secluded private peice of land. We did it on purpose so our animals wouldn't disturb the public. But that doesent stop some people from causing trouble.

So about three hours ago we are all settled in our beds when I hear the dogs going crazy outside. The only dogs who are allowed to roam the facility at night are our three dogs trained in personal protection. And when they bark especially together you know there is a problem. So hubby and I got right out of bed while I had the kids call the police.

We found one boy on top of our car with Hiro circling and putting on a grand old show. The second was found in a tree with Falak and Sebastiaan nipping at his heeles. The third got away or atleast he thought he did but the cops found him walking not far from our property and picked him up. Once again our facility is really secluded.

They found chains and spray paint on the boys. They were all three under 18 and when seperated gave in to questioning. They planned to come here to steal the wolf cubs that have been the talk of the town. They wanted to steal them and breed them to dogs. The spray paint was for well to leave some wonderful words for us on our barn and buildings. These boys are in BIG trouble. Since each already have records and are known as trouble makers.

Funny thing is they would have never found the cubs. They still spend their nights in the house with us!

But right here is why we have the dogs trained in protection. If we didn't have these dogs those boys would have gotten away with whatever else they had planned to do. But our fantastic three were there and they did their jobs wonderfully.

Well I better go. Gotta be up at 5am .

 

GREAT post! I'm glad to hear your trained dogs did their jobs well!!!

People sometimes thing that the deterrance of a dog that looks scary is enough and sometimes that's just not the case. That's why I'm heading for Personal Protection training with my Great Dane (so far the only dog I've got that tested good enough to take on the job). I feel even better about training Ozzy for the work after hearing about your incident. Datvi will be trained on our property for property guarding and possibly Hermionee, if she can handle it. She wasn't up for Personal Protection though so we shall see.

Sara

 

that is unfortunate that this happened to you but lucky that you had the dogs to protect your facility and all that is within it!!!! I would say so that they are in big trouble!!!!
I have Buster a big Boxer/lab mix and have never had to have him trained he Protects his house like no other dog I've ever seen!!!! He protects whatever he is or I am in at the time car included. On walks he is always on look out. Once I was walking on a trail and we were passing a guy that had what looked like a walking stick on closer inspection it was a bat..... Buster never let him out of sight!!! as we came up to him his hackles went up and he was letting out a low growl and the guy gave us space on the walkway..... and as we passed him Buster kept looking back and growling at him I turned to see what the guy was doing and he was looking at me!!! I am sure that if he had made any moves towards me that would have been the end of the story Buster would have been all over him!!! That is indeed why we have them and I am thankful that I have Buster!!!

Good Dogs!!!!!

 

Interesting HR...

Hermionee is one of those dogs like you mentioned your dog being. Always on the lookout hackles up etc... But when push came to shove she truly wasn't up for the challenge. She ran away first chance she got. If a dog were to attack us she'd be on it in a second, she has been...but a man, weilding a wepon...she may hackle at them, even growl but now, having had a scenario really looked at and acted out on without bite sleeves to confuse the issue she didn't deliver. 95% of the time the hackles, growling and staring and even barking get the job done but there's that 5% chance that it won't and for my own peace of mind the training is the only way to get that 5% chance narrowed down closer to 1% or .3%. Having a dog like yours though definately gives ya the confidence to believe they'll follow through and the confidence to know they're workin' on the "bad guy" LONG before you are. Dogs are SUCH great deterrances even when not trained.

YES, that is why we have them isn't it.

 

Yes he was on duty long before I was in on the situation..... they have fantastic instincts..... Good boy!! I have never worried about him not performing he is soo protective of me..... Even when my BF and I play rough house he gets antsy and we have to stop and bring him in on the play.

 

Wow...

I've tested all of my dogs. ALot of times its just their level of confidence and building up that trust. Kabuki has always been a dominant dog, and will lick a person to death, but given a senario, hackles are up, she's rolled up on her shoulders, head up alert. She will bark but i have yet to hear her growl. She barks a warning and then will bite.

Precious is the same, She'll growl, but will not flick an ear to run off. Now if your playing she will. She'll run around and grab ya from the other side. But its a totally diffrent playful body language.

The only dog I have that i don't think would cut out for biting is Byeboer... he's just too easy going. Now he has growled and once lounged at the bite sleeve.. but that was that... he was done. He's not an over enforcer, and being the size he is.. he doesnt' need to be. He leaves all the hard work up to the girls.

Now I will tell you this from my experiances in real life situations, unfortunately, my dogs all work much much better as a pack. When the guy tried to steal our mustang, Vader and Precious were the perfect team. They alerted, and had the guy left, he'd have been fine.. but he swung thinking it would scare them off... NOPE! Now he just had two mad momma's...

When the hogs came thru, it was Faith and Mickey, And when a guy tried to break in my house it was Kabuki and Precious.

The coyote situation we had, with them trying to get the puppies... it was Vader, Precious and Kabuki...

The only training my dogs need, and most dogs, is obediance. As long as you can control their actions, let the instincts take over.

Building confidence and general socialization is the key in my experiance.

 

Hey Sam,

Confidence building and socialization are all fine and good when or if you're working towards a sport protection dog and most dogs will protect their own property etc... regardless of training but that you can't really count on it unless you've had the dog tested in a more real life type scenario that you want the dog to be able to protect you or your property in.

Having said that, the issue with Hermionee isn't confidenc OR socialization the issue is that I am pack leader ESPECIALLY when we are NOT on my own property, this has always been the case so instead of taking the lead in this very stressful situation she looked to ME to take the lead. Now I could easily take her and work with her to get her to where she would bite on command in a training scenario (this is all off property as well) and whatnot but it still wouldn't be the same as having a dog that I KNOW I never had to coax a bite out of...does that make sense? In Hermionee's and Datvi's case the two of them will be GREAT property guardians as they are both VERY territorial (Datvi more than Hermionee) so we'll train them in that scenario when the time comes.

Ozzy however...well aside from what I always beleived (too laid back to even be interested in biting someone, let alone in order to protect me) he'll be my PP dog in training. He's already commited to a bite first time out of the gate when tested very seriously off property. He's more than HAPPY to take a bite out of an attacker, now we'll just be honing that skill or whatever so that he does it correctly and is under control in a situation.

Sam, You seem to have completely missed my point. I'm not sure if you read other message boards that I post on that involve Personal Protection or sport training so I'll give ya this link to this very type of discussion:

http://members.boardhost.com/bandog/msg/1214844000.html

If you read on below there are a lot of comments about the reasons behind the fact that you can't KNOW what your dog is going to do in any given situation unless you've tested the dog out in that situation. You may have an idea but there's no KNOWING period and when you're talking about PP rather than sport it's a whole different ball game. The decoys on the field in a sport trial aren't nuts like some rapist may be all hopped up on meth...not the same at all...I want a dog who will not be taken aback by some freak who's NOT wearing a bite suit.

Who was it that tested all your dogs BTW? I'm curious what trainer you used for them and whatnot?

Sara

 

I get your point exactly. There is a huge diffrence in property protection and protection sport. I'm not looking to compete with my guys..

My dogs stepped up to the plate in real life situations unfortunately. So it was someething very much unprepared for. As for training and what not, I used Odehause back when i first got them, and now, mostly with just hubby and friends that breed and train as well. Kerri and her hubby (they have OEM's and Danes and Rotties), and Rayna, who's excellent at temp testing. Gerald Swint is a good guy and has given alot of excellent advice.

For the pups, I take them all up to Triple Crown. I evaulated here at the house, the vet and her staff evaluated and then Triple crown and Rayna. With all of our heads together, we all come up with what pups are best in what situaions... and that good stuff.

Most everything is done by what happens in life. No, there is no way of knowing EXACTLY how they will react, but unfortunately we did have to find out and I'm utterly pleased and proud of the way they did take control of the situaions, and after the ordeals, they went on about their business as if nothing happened.


I'll be getting my new boy this Friday and after he settles in a couple weeks or so Brent is coming down to test him. I've done it all here at the house, mock break in's and vehicle break ins as well as at the park and unfamiliar places around town....

Just gotta be careful and make sure whom ever people are training with know exactly what they are doing so neither dogs nor people get hurt.

I definatley don't do it for the sport of it... more for just knowing and conditioning the dogs for situations that could possibly arise...

 

Nice info Sam,

For clarification though I am not training my dogs for sport, there's just no outlet for it here I'd have to travel great distances for a chance to compete with them and earn titles in sport. The only dogs I've got that would excell in sport are the pits anyway, which I may just do some training of for fun...sport type training PSA or that type thing.

As far as my own trainer, he's currently the head trainer and K9 handler in this tri-state region and is looking to retire from the police work. We're going to start out working with Ozzy in Personal Protection basically for all who may not know, it's protection work on the basis of the defense of the handler. Sport is often more based on prey, or rather it's an activity that can take a dog that isn't working out of defense and make him or her look great on the trial feild but since the dog is often not working on actual defense it's more a game to them basically. That all of course depends on the dog.

Anyway we'll probably move up the ladder into some home envasion scenarios and whatnot once we've got Ozzy going in probably a level 2 of personal protection. It's definately advised to NOT work on protection training without a competent and qualified TRAINER in the field as Sam said, because nobody wants to see a dog or person get hurt.

Oh yeah and BTW Sam, it's GREAT to hear that Kabuki did so well for you and has done well in the field of protection work and whatnot. Makes me feel a little proud considering she's the one I sent home with you on the basis of the pick of the litter as far as working dogs go.

 

I'm glad to hear everything worked out and that they did their jobs. Its a shame that even living away from everyone else people still want to cause trouble (been there myself before). Having them trained is great although this isn't a requirement for dogs to protect, especially the guardian breeds with the right drive and temperament naturally for it. Having them trained though does let you know what they WILL do for sure and not what they will maybe do and you are in control with a dog who will listen to your commands and not be confused. I'm so happy everyone is safe!