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by yena on 09 April 2009 - 16:04
My wife and I want to retain Ivan Balabanov to train a German Shepherd or Belgian Malinois protection dog, but have some concerns we would like other trainers' opinions upon. We are sending these same questions to Ivan of course, but seek independent corroboration. We want a protection dog because I travel extensively 4-6 times a year for my business, and we are about to start having children, so we want to add another layer of security and companionship for our new family. We do not have the time to participate in shows; a practical working dog is our main objective.
- What kind of training should we the dog owners go through? We currently have a 14-year old cat, and while she is sweet, adoring and not obnoxious (for example, if she begs for food, we have trained her to sit by the side of the table, and wait without making any noise), I believe that doesn't at all prepare us properly to maintain the training of a protection dog. I don't know anything about animal behavior or conditioning. We've read the Monks of New Skete books, but have not had a dog. Should we go somewhere to learn what we need to know to properly maintain the training and avoid picking up bad conditioning habits on a daily basis? These dogs aren't machines, so what do I need to know about how they think and feel to best communicate with them?
- How does a dog recognize an attacker? Looking at the bottom two "Real life protection training scenarios" videos in Balabanov's media web page, we are concerned that in these scenarios it seems the dog was protecting the handler upon its own initiative with no command from the handler. Wouldn't that be a problem for friends who rough house with our children, for example? Or what if a friend of ours gave one of us a really vigorous bear hug?
- What do we need to know about protection dogs around children? Our policy is until they are school age (first grade), children must be around at least one parent at all times. However, we still have concerns even during the first through third grades. Not about our children as much as our children's friends. We'll carefully screen their friends of course, and weed out any that we think might not be stable enough to be trusted around a pet alone or with our children, but this is a concern we have regarding any pet around children. What have you done on this issue? Our current thought is until our children demonstrate they can quick march with the pet straight back to us if any unacceptable behavior is displayed by a playmate, pets stay with one of us at all times when their friends are visiting.
- Can these kinds of active dogs live aboard a boat? We plan on having our own 60-foot catamaran in 7-8 years, and will occasionally make runs of 1-3 weeks on open ocean. How feasible is it to train a dog of this size to use a treadmill to "run" with one of us on another treadmill? They have high energy levels so I don't want to discourage that, but would they find such a regime intolerable?
- How difficult is it to train a dog to "clear" a house (or boat)? One of my concerns is my wife and children stumbling upon burglars while I'm out of town. My wife can handle her own, but it becomes much dicier with two toddlers in tow. So is the kind of clearing I saw in the videos feasible, or is that more a rare skill? Within the next 4 years we anticipate living in a non-US location where firearms are not permitted, and while we currently live a low-profile lifestyle, simply being an expatriate abroad in this location is sometimes enough to attract unwanted attention. We will rely upon an alarm system as our primary security but a having the dog trained to do this (if feasible) would be a great comfort.
- How do these dogs react to people who are afraid of
by Vikram on 09 April 2009 - 17:04
Just do a bit of learning before you go in for a protection dog. Also with children. It may turn out that what you are envisaging right now in your mind may not turn out be the sitauion you eventually want to be in.
regards
regards
by Two Moons on 09 April 2009 - 17:04
Wow,
I'm actually speechless.
Not really.
How can someone become so fearful?
I'd look into a personal body guard, sounds like in the near future you'll be able to afford one.
Wow.
I'm actually speechless.
Not really.
How can someone become so fearful?
I'd look into a personal body guard, sounds like in the near future you'll be able to afford one.
Wow.
by Okie Amazon on 09 April 2009 - 18:04
How can someone become so fearful?
Ummmmm... reading the evening news?
It sounds like you have a looooong way to go. You're right; teaching your cat not to jump on the dinner table is a real far cry from maintaining the training on a PPD. Maybe just a good alarm/bark deterrent factor family pet coupled with firearms training for your wife might fit the bill better and more safely.
Edit: just saw the part about no firearms in the country to which you are going.
There is just so much to address here, it's book writing time!
by snajper69 on 09 April 2009 - 19:04
Protection dogs and children are fine, I don't know who told you people that it dose not work, the trick is to get the dog used to kids. It's not like protection dog will snap kids hands off for running around and moving to fast and too suspicious lol. If it would than it’s a shitter dog and not a PPD, good protection dogs are 100% stable quite capable of distinguishing treating situation from play. Well I would be worry about the person that is afraid of dogs, they sense fear, and sometimes this is enough to prompt them to little bit more aggression ;). It's easier to train the human (afraid part) the only thing that the person has to do is ignore the dog. Works every time.
by JLB82 on 09 April 2009 - 19:04
Dogs are pretty protective on there own usally, i believe. Protection Dogs that are trained to protect can be a real libility, especially if you have children. You have to remember that these k-9's are not robots they are animals and they can be very unpridictable. ON top of that, not any dog can be "trained" for a protection dog. They have to be aggressive, real aggressive. People breed them based on how agressive they are to ensure the dog will do what they need them to do. Just google up all the retired police k-9 dogs, who retire and go to homes to be a family dog, you'll find numrous stories of children and elderly, who were chewed up by these same dogs. I've owned Germand shepherds for years and they were always protective for us, and my children and home. They were nothing special like your what your talking about, but you could get them to sick, heck even my maltese wil sickem. My german shepherds, will protect us from other animals too! No body messes with us with our dogs around. But they are not mean or trained . They just love us. They usally jump on the trampoline with the kids, or go on a walk with the family, or fetch a ball for my one year old, or sleeping below one of the kids beds, I have four kids age ranging 1-8 and i have four dogs ages 1-4 ,each one of my children have a german shepherd laying right next to their beds at night, we sleep very well.
by JLB82 on 09 April 2009 - 19:04
Hey get you a dog to raise with you kids, and you wont be able to buy a dog to protect you beter
by Rubad on 09 April 2009 - 20:04
Our first "real" GSD was a German show lines dog. He had a nice small amount of defense drive and a moderate amount of prey drive. He was a decent SchH club dog. This dog was no threat to normal, friendly strangers, but he was very protective of the house and car when people didn't have an invite.
What I would do if I were you is to find a good dog broker and get a medium drive dog like this one as a puppy. He was plenty enough deterrent, but he wouldn't bite the little old lady with blue hair or a kid. You don't need to do any training, the dog's natural drive to protect should be enough.
Just my two cents...
What I would do if I were you is to find a good dog broker and get a medium drive dog like this one as a puppy. He was plenty enough deterrent, but he wouldn't bite the little old lady with blue hair or a kid. You don't need to do any training, the dog's natural drive to protect should be enough.
Just my two cents...
by animules on 09 April 2009 - 20:04
Go talk to Ivan.
by Bob McKown on 09 April 2009 - 20:04
Go talk to more then Ivan, Talk to several PPD dog trainers and compare what they have to say if they have customers who you can talk to talk to them also there are far more people out there who train PPD dogs then Ivan.
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