German Shepherd dog

I have few questions. How can I test my dog whether there is a balance in him for Defense and prey drives.

My understanding is that in prey the dog bites in pleaseure and fun whereas in defense the dog feels threatened.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. Also  How can one test their dog for a balance of the two drives. If the dog has stronger prey drives will the dog react appropriately in a real life thretening situation to the master?

cheers

How does one know if the dog has a balance of the two drive?. My questions is during training how does one "Shift Gear" from Prey too defense. Lets say my dog has stronger prey drive how do I make him react to a threat if my dog is more prey oriented he may not react to a threat. This also links to my question on personal protection dogs. Can a highly prey oriented dog become a personal protection dog?

thanks for all help

cheers

for a slow maturing Belgian ( Not the breed but the country) Lines what approximately is the age to know a balance of the drives?

Wait until maturity....est 16-24 months FOR a Belgian. Longer for a Shep.

You can easily Ruin a dog with too much pressure & defense training in this fashion if done too early.  Not recommended. 

Been there, done that.  

A solid  trainer might slowly & incrementally,  begin to introduce a little pressure & defense training,  after the other is clearly built as a foundation..Leave it to a trainer that really knows what he is doing. And has trained & titled many, many dogs.  my .02

All dogs mature at different rates...and German Shepherds for sure mature at different rates...Some sooner and some later...You don't really want a dog that has super defense drive very early...It can be the sign of an unstable dog...But the usual way to bring along a young GSD...is to develop their prey drive first...and then later on the defense drive will come along...German Shepherds will mature anywhere from 6 months to 3 years...or so...The only thing that you can do at this point is to socialize your dog and give them a very balanced foundation to fall back on...This is most important in developing a young dog...

~Bob~

I have one of those slow Belgian boys. He just starting to see things in defensive manner at 18 months. The dog will tell you when he is ready if you just listen. I don't think we really pushed my boy. As I see it, he dropped off some in prey(dog was bored) and  the TD stepped up the defense. The more the decoy brings it, the more my dog enjoys his bite. Training has become allot more fun for both the dog and I. We tried to keep him in prey as long as possible as a pup. The breeder said the defense will come around 14-20 months and it did. Try asking your breeder about his lines and what to expect. If anyone should know, he should.

I hardly think this discusion will rip apart the industry. Running of dogs can happen in any sport or venue. Not all dogs are created equally and yes hanging on by a tooth is what you look for and don't wanna see in bitework. Check out the dog in many situations not just the same field, same comfortable helper every time. You tube is a good place to view allot of dogs in allot of different training situations.  When you see a dog backing off the bite you have to look, is it the dog who is weak or is the traning the problem, could also be geneticly that dog never bites full? The biggest question in my mind when I see a video of a dog that is not into the fight or just hanging in is, who put this up? Is the trainer or handler too inexperienced to see the weakness in the dog or his training, flaunting this as good stuff?  I am reminded of the thread about the "Biggest GSD Kennel." 8 times out of 10 it is probably a human error and not the dogs issues. Trainers shouldn't put too much on a dog. A good trainer or even decoy can see the dogs comfort level has being incroached on and step it back down. My feelings are that for sport not much pressure is really needed and allot of  dogs can get past any hang ups with good training.

When you step into Military, LEO and other real world venues, then yeah the dogs do have to be for real. Training to cover up weakness isn't going to cut it for the guy on the other end of that leash. A mistake in training might not be as forgivable, taking a dog past his comfort zone to his breaking point should end that dogs career then and there. He's not going to come back as strong or stronger than he was before he was broken/shown he can lose. I have always been told the dog should be set up to win at everything, to feel like he is on top of the world and he will have no fear of losing. The dog should always win. Would you go to war with a dog who has been run at training?