guardian training pitbull help

we added a new member to the family moomoo if i had a pic you guys would understand

someone i know bought a german shepard a few weeks ago from australia or something about a year old, trained to be a guardian i guess you would call it the dog is pretty impressive very well tempered does a million things on comand you name it

ill get to the question though, i have 3 pitbulls buffy about 3 yrs, bruiser 3yrs and moo moo 13wks

im hardly home anymore my girlfriend spends alot of nights alone now adays i had a car stolen from my house last week and im thinking a guard dog wouldnt be a bad idea buffy and bruiser arent aggressive at all buffy will usually guard vickie but shes never really made me think she was willing to bite someone "not that she had a reason either"

bruiser just wants petted he dont care who you are, and i wouldnt wanna change him
im babbling ..my question is i would like to check into haveing moomoo
trained like this german shepard not to guard the cars but to guard vickie you never know what could happen does anyone know af a reputable place in america that will train a dog for things like this maryland would best id hate to have moo moo to far away

i know pits wouldnt be the best choice for a guardian but they are my favorite breed i dont want to get rid of any of my dogs im very attatched and to buy a german shepard wouldnt be fair finding time to play with 3 dogs is hard enough

thanks in advance max

 

Hi Max,
I understand your desire in wanting Moomoo trained to protect your girlfriend but I just thought Id 'throw a couple of thoughts/opinions out there'.

In my experience, working in California (and I dont know what this is like anywhere else), most reputable trainers would either be reluctant or outright refuse to train any Pit type breeds in this simply because of the bad publicity they get. I think the attitude is wrong but your getting into dodgy ground with massive lawsuits hanging over them (trainers not the owners). I know 'reputable' trainers that have been sued because a dog bit someone shortly after the training had finished and thats just with an oedience course....gotta love the lawyers !!!! You have a dog that is trained in protection work and you yourself are looking at retaining a large, expensive insurance policy 'just in case'.

I dont know of anyone in Maryland but from those I do know in California just to put a dog through this training you have one of two ways you can go:
1. either get involved with a training programme that does specialze in it (you want 'protection training'....make sure you word it like that, not guard dog or attack training), your probably going to be looking at at least a couple of months of basic obedience at first, then it will depend on the dogs personality, not all dogs are cut out for this 'full scale' although most can do enough to get by (I actually remember a little Yorkshire Terrier that was fully trained for this, should have seen him go on a bite sleeve :lol: )
2. You can pay a small fortune to have someone do it although he is still far too young right now.

Now heres an alternative, what Ive found, if you get in with a good reputable trainer, the younger the better (the dog not the trainer), go through a basic obedience with beginning off leash at the end of it....and then continueing on to an advanced class the dog will bond much better with the handler and will definately increase the chance of the dog protecting the owner at home.

I never used to think my Whippet would attack anyone that broke into my house, she was an absolute sweetheart, never showed any signs of aggression at all, when the other dogs were barking because someone was hanging around outside she would hide....but one night someone tried to break in while I was home and there was just something about it that was different, personally I think she recognized the difference between someone just being outside (hoping theyd go away) and someone actually trying to get in (posing a very real threat), she was the first one there even beating out my Rott who was trained in protection, barking and snarling, hair all standing up down her back (she was about 12 years old), shocked me I can tell you, I really didnt think she had it in her.

Ive heard many stories from clients whos dogs have been through just obedience training, something has happened at some point and the dog has done everything it should to protect the owner, most dogs will do that anyway, they are doing what comes naturally which is protecting their territory and their 'pack' but with some basic training it will build a better close bond so it will increase the chances of dog protecting the owner.

Dont know if any of that helps :?

 

i appreciate the advice i was worried that trainers would shy away from apbt
buffy stays in the house with vick but i dont trust her to do her job lol as pups any aggresive behavor was corrected asap shes only aggresive around other dogs besides bruiser id just like to know she could tell the difference between someone stopin by to pet her and someone not

buffy went through obiedence classes over the winter "a lil late"
and moomoo is going through ob trailing now,im not involved in the training at all vick takes her i think twice a week or someone comes here or something

i quess the best thing to do is try and find a good trainer while im home this weekend

assuming i find a trainer on my own can anyone think of questios i should ask like training method or something
id rather pay more than end up with my moomoo wacked out and unstable. i couldnt even potty train buffy so this aint my area

 

Sent you a PM

 

I don't think it is a good idea to gurdian train a dog at all. Unless you have first gone through the personality testing and all that stuff. I am sure you have a great dog, but dogs have to be really special to be trained for that stuff.
If she wants protection get a gun, ,they are way more stable than a dog.

***I am against training dogs to be aggressive and/or having guns for protection.

 

vickie my gf weighs 89 pds i really dont thhink a gun is a option at all
also i will definently talk to a trainer and make sure that my dog is metally stable for thins kind of thing and at very low risk of going crazy or something

if training moomoo isnt a good option i will probly just get a german shepard from austrailia or whatever reputable breader/trainer i can find
but i really would hate to do that cause it would be very unfair to the other dogs especially buffy because she just wont tollerate other dogs at all with the exception of bruiser and moomoo

 

Max, just my opinion and Im not saying anyone is telling you (or maybe the owner of the GSD)any 'porkies' here but the idea of a respectable company shipping fully trained guard dogs oversees at only a year old doesnt really add up.

They usually dont start this kind of training until theyre around 10 months and thats after months of basics have been done and for a well trained dog, the training then last for approximately 18 months - 2 years, thats for police standard. Reasons being, their age in general, at a year old the dog is still only a juvenile, there could still be natural changes in the dogs temperament and personality, other thing is it usually involves a lot of jumping over things (height wise), climbing fences etc....it would be detrimental to the dog to push it in some of these areas as the hips could be destroyed from it. Im not saying that a younger dog cant start this kind of training, they can but there are limits to what they can do and what they should be expected to do....I had an Akita mix who at 6 months old, no doubt in my mind that she would attack someone and once I taught her to 'leave' she would back off, she knew sit, stay, heel, down...and a couple of other commands however she was a long way off being considered a fully trained protection/guard dog.

I did talk to a couple of other trainers that do this work over the last few days, one here in Germany and a guy in US that used to have his own gaurd dog company but he isnt doing it any more....they all said the same thing.

Heres a website that you might get some good info from, this guy (Mic Martin) has trained police dogs, advised in military trained dogs and runs classes. Its in UK so obviously you wouldnt be able to attend his classes but his website has a lot of info about certain types of training including Belgian Ring, Schutzhund, Working Trials (all involve protection work and its done for sport....for points), he doesnt tell you how to do it but tells you what questions to ask potential trainers that you are thinking about going to etc.

http://www.micmartin.co.uk/