my idea of a protection dog
The meaning of a "protection dog" has been blurred and stretched to include far too many dogs that would not effectively do the job in the real world.
My style of protection dog training fosters a peaceable symbiosis through gradient conflict management. I firmly disagree with commanding a dog to perform a complex task that he does not thoroughly understand. I create the environment and set of circumstances to deepen the level of comprehension of the desired behavior so that the solution appears to be the clearest and best action to be taken at the moment. A decision must be made on what to do.
I am a retired SWAT team operator which informs my desire to train a partner and not a robot that either does everything or maybe worse nothing at all. My wish is to equip my canine partner with the skillset to decide which tool or tactic to employ and when. Therefore my training is more about the idea of danger and the best practices to mitigate the risk of harm to all involved. I do not want a wild animal that barks and tries to attack everyone he sees, nor do I want a completely passive dog that allows harm to come to me or my family. I cultivate scenarios that challenge the dog to process the information and find a suitable solution.
The first steps include more guidance on my part and proper roll play by agitators and
non aggressive participants in training. All the moving parts in the very pointed training sessions are designed to yield a very predictable positive outcome. My training always has a targeted result with room for exceeding said target. If for any reason, I or the dog are not “feeling it” that day then we won’t work on complex tasks. We can always just play fetch or go for a long walk. I want to train at full focus with the greatest attention to detail which allows for very small gains that eventually lead to complete trust and understanding.