Questions For People With Protection Dogs - Page 1

I have known only very nice sch dogs in the past, but just out of curiosity.....

What if your house was on fire and a firefighter had to rescue your dog? Would your dog allow this, or would your dog protect your burning home? What if you had a siezure and an ambulance came? Would your dog allow a paramedic to enter your house and try to recusitate you? What if you left your dog in the car and someone had to remove the dog?

I've never had a schutzhund dog, but I want to have one someday and these are things I wonder about. What about taking your dog to the vet? Does your dog allow itself to be poked and prodded and muzzled and clipped? Does your dog watch visitors with suspision?

A lady I used to work with told me that a friend of hers purchased a schutzhund trained Doberman. This dog would not even accept food from her at first because it had been trained not to do so. Eventually the dog settled in, then one day she had a friend over, and when he reached across the table to ash his cigarette the dog interpreted this as a threatening gesture and siezed his arm. The dog was euthanized afterward.

I always tend to think of schutzhund dogs in idealistic terms-- A dog that is just made for the work and inherently knows the difference between a person who is up to no good and just your average person. Like the dog will recognize the difference between a kid who has climbed your fence to retrieve his baseball, and the guy who climbed your fence because he watched you leave your house and now he wants your stuff....

Anyone have experiences to share?

You are mixing apples with oranges.  Schutzhund dogs are not Protection dogs.  Schutzhund is a sport.  A protection dog  (like you are kind of referring to) is trained to do what you have trained it to do, such as guard your person, guard your property (yard, house, car, business).  The short answer to your questions, assuming that you are talking about protection trained dogs and not sport dogs, is that the dog will (should) do what it has been trained to do.  So......, if your house is on fire, a well trained dog will protect it from the firefighters, paramedics, grandma, or whoever.  Of course, fire is a great thing for a dog to overcome and actually do its trained for job.  Removing it from a car, or letting paramedics into your home that is not on fire, would be a problem, and animal control personnel would have to be called to help with the dog.

Trained protection dogs should have a second or third person that can give it commands, such as to "out" or behave or whatever the command is, just in case the first handler/owner is incapacitated.

Keep in mind that protection trained dogs, as with any dog trained for anything, are not robots.  Mistakes can and do occur.  By both the dog and the owners/handlers.  If a person has a very well trained personal protection dog and that person needs medical help and is incapacitated, unfortunately, the dog will have to be delt with in the quickest means available.  If the owner is having a heart attack and a cop is nearby, the cop would be right in shooting the dog, to allow paramedics to assist and treat the dogs owner.  The options are to let the owner die from a heart attack, or let the owners house burn down, etc.  A fire extinguisher works wonders in scaring them away, but realistically, only the firemen are likely to have one handy.  A cop or paramedic probably will not have one handy.  I have towed a couple of cars, while working as a cop, that had "tough" dogs inside them, and we would just take our time and let animal control come and deal with the dog/s, but we would be standing by with a shotgun, to protect animal control, just in case.  Some drug dealers had trained protection dogs in their houses that we raided and a fire extinguisher was used to scare the dog into a room of our choosing, but if we did not have prior knowledge of the dog being there, we would not have an extinguisher on hand, and the dog would get shot at.  I personall would just shoot to miss, hoping that the gun shot sound would scare it away, but I know many cops that would just shoot the dog, without hesitation.  Sad fact of life.  In most cases, it sucks to be a dog.  But come to think of it.  It sucks to be just about anything.  Can't wait for heaven

This is why protection trained dogs are not for most, and also why I quit training them for people.  They are wonderful for peace of mind and for scaring away bad guys, but they have their bad sides.  If they didn't, you would see them everywhere, following around joggers, etc.

What Do Right said.  I would add also that most dogs do know the difference between a threat and someone welcomed into your home.  My dog lets children climb all over her or come sit in my lap but if an adult comes too near in my home or to my van she lets them know they are not to do that.

When I was a kid, probably around 8 or 9 years old I had a wonderful black lab.  Not trained in anything except being a pet.  One day one of my friends was over and we were sitting on the floor playing with our Barbie dolls and my friend and I were kind of play slapping each other. Well my dog interpreted this as a threat and bit my friend.  This was before lawsuits, when we took responsibility for our own actions.  The friend of course was crying, parents came running, the situation was explained and resolved.  My point is, any dog can become a "personal protection dog" if they see a situation where their owner becomes threatened.  As far as the vet question goes, no my dog behaves perfectly out in public with everyone.