Question about potential protection dog? - Page 1

 For those of you who have a protection GSD or do the training I have a question. If you had a puppy that you wanted to become a protection dog would you train it/want it to be submissive to another dog in the home who is a pet? The other dog is a working breed, but not being worked in anything, just being enjoyed as a pet. This question is not something I am attempting but something I heard earlier today and I thought was interesting just because most trainers I know what their protection dogs to be dominate. Anyways, look forward to insight on this!

No. Dogs in the house are not allowed to establish pecking order because I am the alpha. We have females in the house and if left to establish on their own, well lets just say females fight for the right to breath. I do not let the adults dominate puppies either, correct yes if they should be corrected.


Melissa

You would not want it to be submissive.  You would want to keep the two dogs seperated until your futre protection dog was more mature.  If the pup learns to be submissive it is unlikely that when later faced with a threat it will be dominate.  Dogs tend to revert bck to early expereinces under stress.

If your dogs dont have the rite temperment to start it wont work and if it does have the rite temperment it wont have any problems being a house dog and a ppd.

Melba- Thats kind of what I thought, but since I don't have any first hand experience with training protection dogs I thought I would ask. Someone I met is wanting to get a GSD puppy to train to be a protection dog and drug dog but they said they already have a female pitbull in the home that has a dominate personality. They said they were looking for a male GSD who wouldn't challenge the pit because of its dominate personality. I just thought this was an odd pairing of characteristics to look for in a dog. I guess one could look at it as there is a difference between being submissive and not challenging the other dog, but my thought was since the pit already seems to believe it has a right to dominate other dogs, won't it try to dominate the GSD puppy whether the puppy really challenges it or not? That was my thought when they explained it to me but since I'm not an expert I didn't really point that out to them.

The dogs in my home, even the females are not allowed to have a pecking order either. They can play together for short periods of time (under my supervision only, they are never allowed to be alone together.)
As for the female pit bull, it's very hard to say whether she will completely try to dominate the puppy or she will kind of ignore it, and as Melissa said maybe correct the pup.
But if she is just plain dog aggressive, it may not be a good idea to have them around each other at all, ever.
Your friend just really needs to establish that he is the pack leader and needs to read as much as he can about bringing a new puppy into the home with another dog, introducing them properly, and also find a breeder who is knowledgeable enough to offer his advice.
I believe there are a few good threads on here about bringing a new puppy home if you do a search.
Good luck to your friend
Stacy

Instead of looking at your question in regards to dominant or submissiveness- look at it from a different angle

behavior is controlled through obedience 100% of the time. use obedience to manage- play, space, resources, attention, activity level, etc......   being that you want to develope your puppy for protection- redirect inappropriate behavior and reward appropriate, with your older pet control everything with its obedience. When you are unable to appropriately manage the pair the dogs or less reliable dog should be confined so that inappropriate behavior does not occur in your absence.

a relationship or respect will most likely form with time and correct management with a multiple dog home.

dominance in the sense you are using the term does not equate or hold meaning in protection. I personally own 2 dog soft dogs whom are extremely decoy hard! Just because a dog thinks he is the "cock of the walk" does not mean he will be a great protection dog.

Lots of great input. One thing mentioned was if the pit is just dog aggressive and thats a good question. I have never met this dog, only had its behavior briefly described but I think I will ask more about it because if it is then I feel like that is a whole different issue. Also as far as training goes, they did mention they are not doing the training themselves, but are having a family friend do it who lives a few states away. They said he is a professional trainer of some sort (don't remember off the top of my head) but maybe I should suggest they talk more with their friend about how to train  the dogs to act together. They seemed mostly concerned with finding a GSD that won't disturb the pits sense of dominance. From what I have gathered I don't know if its possible to do that without seeking training for both dogs, this means the owners might have to do some of it themselves in the home. I will bring that up to them too. Thank you for all the input so far! :)

I absolutely agree with your statement about training both dogs.
How old is the pit bull? Just curious more than anything, with the right trainer, she can still be trained. And no matter what they will have to do training at home, too.
The only thing that made me feel leary was that the owners "don't want to disturb the pit's sense of dominance."
Do you know if she has any obedience training at all? If not, that could end up being a problem, but by looking for a reputable breeder and trainer before getting the new puppy is definitely the key to making it work out ;-)
Stacy