Why do so many people think they need personal protection dogs? - Page 20

Damned Hans, that is the single best post I have ever seen on a dog forum.  

Amen!

Hans you along with Jim should be a teacher.    You have a gifted way of explaining things.  Of course, experience doesn`t hurt either!  Great post!

 wow, 20 pages of post.   nothing real to add, just amazed. 

my penny thought is simple.   if you feel the need  for a "personal protection dog" to feel safe,,,,, take a gun class and learn how to use one.   hopefully your instincts will help you more than a dogs.  

john

John, not playing Devil's advocate, but some people are scared of guns, some people aren't allowed to carry, some people just like a fuzzy warm dog over cold metal, some people enjoy training their dog, some people suck at shooting, some people feel safer with protection that can watch over them, some people like to eat pizza and give their crust to their protection, some people like to take a dog full of drive to train, build confidence and put control on, some people know that their wife might $#!+ herself before she ran to where the gun is and the kids are screwed, some people like to have their protection visible in the yard as opposed to sitting in a chair at the end of the drive with a 40 and a .40, some people feel safer with a dog around the kids than a gun. ME, I HAVE BOTH.

 Good to see (your post) again Don,  i've been away for a while.   i understand what you are saying,,,,
of course my response was my own feelings.   i can see  where some would feel more comforatable with a dog vs. a gun,,,, i just cant see putting that much faith into another living being of any species if my life where truly in danger.  train a dog as much as you want, you  will never know how they will react in a life or death situation till put to the  test.  speaking of test,   how would you "truly" test a dog for personal protection?  i always wondered how people could sell 20,000 dogs as personal protection dogs,,, when the majority of their training is done in pre fashioned  training sessions.   
  

i guess i have strayed from the original question..... why do so many people think they need a ppd?   fear, real or make believe.  only thing i can come up with now.

john 

As a woman who had a water hose break on her truck on the interstate in between cell areas and had to pull over so not to blow up the engine I could have used my dog to help keep the idiot that tried to get into my truck even after I told him to go away. I have carry permit and shoot regularly but that day I had to go on base to visit my terminally ill father in the military hospital and could not even though permitted have taken it with me. No one called for help or stopped to find out why he was trying to break the window to get in... who knows perhaps they thought it was domestic or something. I fired up the truck and overheated the engine ruining it to get away to saftly. A dog is allowed on base a gun is not.

   This said, I believe too many people are marketing them for wrong reasons and poorly trained dogs. I feel a good stable loving gsd will protect you and will discourage a cowardly attacker like the one that thought I was easy pickings. I do not believe most need to dog trained for protection nor do I believe most buying them will keep up the proper training and working partnership a dog with this type of training requires. I also believe just because someone trains a dog and you buy it will not make the dog respect or work for you or that most of these customers will know what to do with a dog of good caliber. Most protection dogs being sold are done to so non dog people and they go ooohhh ahhhhh when these protection trainers put the dog in a simple basic obedience routine and have them take a bite at a sleeve.

Our house had been broken into twice after a lady that my husband had an affair with threatened my life when he would not leave me and our kids for her.  I was working for a veterinary dentist at that time and we did all the dental work for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol dogs and the K-9 handler told me to get a dog who was going to take care of business right then and there because ADT type home security systems are low priority in our town because of the frequent false alarms.

Vickie

I do not own a GSD for personal protection, nor have I trained him for it.  But, now that I live alone, it sure does help me sleep well, knowing he's here, just his presence is comforting

GSDnewbie,  sadly , I agree with you.

I made it to the tenth page and said I'll skip the rest.

Couple points/answers;
It's wiser to be pro-active instead of reactive! Any LEO or victim can tell you about cases or behind the scenes situations. Society/civilians only know half the things that happen. Sign up for a ride-a-long and see what really happens in your community or the surrounding communities. You will be amazed!

Remember back in elementary, junior high and even high school: the special ed kids? Remember what happened when the knuckle heads were teasing or tormenting them? Has anyone ever seen this happen? The special ed individual would either put someone in the hospital or just about kill that tormentor! Now out on the streets you have a 220 lb subject on PCP who it takes 6 officers, 6 specially trained seasoned officers to fight this one individual in order to put him down and cuff him. It's reality, no ifs, ands or butts about it. I remember a few years back I was in two fights within a three day period. One, I put the subject in the hospital, he was literally trying to kill me and go for my weapon. The 2nd one I was a little nervous, thinking he could put me in the hospital. Thank god for County back up. Usually there was no backup and you just had to make sure that you made it home safely each night. For those of you that have never seen or have been affected by crime, criminal acts or acts of violence...... be thankful but don't be naive.