Daryl, you don't have to disagree as that was my point the amount of sharpness, or reaction time, would not have relationship with the dogs hardness a measure of fight .

Hank

o i did not mean to say say high defense threshold silly me lol

i meant to say high defense + high threshold +  good nerves =  quiet tough k9

oppps  and yeah all are unrelated is what i was thinking before

I will add this before I get in bed. I was at a seminar last month where Jiri Novotny,Prager and about

20 people there. Dogs were being evaluated. There was a dog there that started in almost all defence

when Mr. Novotny came on the field the dog instantly fired off on him. When he approached the dog the dog would just look the bite sleeve off. Finally he took the sleeve off and tosed the sleeve to the dog and the dog just ignored it and just kept trying to get to the decoy. all defence. when Jiri put the sleeve back on dog fought hard. He gave the dog the sleeve, dog spit it out and kept going for the human bite. After 2 or 3 bites  the dog got weaker. Mr Novotnys evaluation was dog had no confidence. He had hardly no prey drive, working only in defence, So in that case nerves influenced his response to immediatly go on defence. So like I say sometimes dogs will make you scratch you're head

Hank

Could a dog have a low threshold for defense with regard to people in his space...And would that be considered a high suspicion level or a poor discriminatory suspicion sense..?

 What is a reason a dog would have a poor discriminatory suspicion sense?...Immaturity, socialization, soundness?...

    Thanks....

to get my girl in defense u will have to talk loud to her and stare into her eyes so i guess she has a high threshold

she wont get defensive with any tom dick or harry unless they act threatening

then u have dogs that are all prey drive and have NO defense these dogs wont get aggressive with an eye stare or a loud voice i am not sure how common these dogs are some people say they are sport points dogs?

Last u have dogs that will simply just tuck tail and run away i guess that is counted as defense as well

so a dog that runs right away low threshold a dog that runs after five mins high threshold? not sure how that works lol

All experience, imprinting and conditioning, the amount and types of socialization, are going to have some level of affect on the dog's more inherent level of suspicion.  Clear headedness will have some affect on how the sensory information is processed, just as courage and confidence will affect it's disposition toward a given situation.  All these aspects can be so interdependent, and very little is ever completely independant in and of itself.  Behavior is both genetic and learned, grounded and dynamic.  Kind of makes Don's head spin a little. 

Yes I agree it's both. The dog should always be under handler control , unless dog has been conditioned  specifically for pp. And dog should be conditioned for that scenario often. That's why selection of that type dog is critical.

Hank