How to Train a Guard Dog?
Guard Dogs in City Surrounding
Ask yourself: what kind of features are inherent to a guard dog?
Many beginning dog owners will answer that these are aggression,
suspicious to strangers, physical strength, grip. That's true, all
these features are important for a good guard dog.
Experienced dog owners will point out importance of dog endurance,
skills of attack with a human, and ability to work in any
circumstances: in day and night, in park and bus or lively street.
They are right as well. Efficient work of a guard dog is impossible
without these skills.
But only those, who happened to use a dog for guard in real and who
really got help from a dog in a difficult situation, really know
what feature of a bodyguard is of the first importance.
This feature is CONTROLLABILITY.
Aggression seems to be the feature that is the most important for a
guard dog. But it is a huge mistake to start training of a guard dog
from development of aggression. What is the first point for training
a sportsmen-boxer? This is physical strength: power, speed,
endurance. Then training to a basic technique. Imagine the
situation: a boxer is trained to be aggressive at the first class.
Of course this idea seems wild even to people who are far from
sports. So why should we start to train a guard dog from this point?
Training of technical skills is much more important for puppy
training than development of aggression. Exercises in bite grip,
struggle with a helper, training of attack skills may be held as a
game, on the basis of fetching reaction. In this case you may start
puppy training earlier, since 5-6 months old. In this case till 1
y.o. your dog will have a perfect grip, trained tactical skills
(where it should be, when and to which moment to keep the hold, when
to start and stop attack). And aggression will appear later, when
the helper will raise the level of irritants at a definite stage of
training.
Click here to view our collection of dog biting training tugs
We should wait until the nervous system of your dog gets stronger
and stable before start training dog aggression. Otherwise nervous
breakdown is unavoidable. Also controllability is out of the
question in this case.
Suspicion to strangers is easy trained by definite exercises.
Even a dog without aggression is able to protect you, as sometimes
dog growling and barking is enough. But lack of control may lead to
a situation when a dog will not be by your side when it is required.
First of all ask yourself a couple of questions. What is the daily
routine of your guard dog? In what situations do you need help of
your four-legged friend?
You are walking a dog in the morning. May be, it is following you in
morning jogging. Daily a dog is at home usually. In the evening your
dog should accompany you while shopping, meeting your child from
school, or just walking before going to bed. When you go out of
town, your dog should be by your side. Your dog should accompany you
in all of your activities: fishing, jogging, biking etc.
Click to choose the best quality leather dog leads and designer collars to walk and train your dog
In all these situations your dog is to be able to protect you and
your family when it is needed. But think about, whether your dog
will be with you if it is out of control? Would you take it in the
park if it will surely attack strange people? If a dog is controlled
with a muzzle on and on a leash only, would you take it to accompany
you� in shopping? Because you will not leave an aggressive dog
outside the store!
Imagine a situation: a stranger is knocking your door. One way, you
may close your uncontrolled beast in a room, another one - to give
it a command "Place" to your well-trained dog, and then open the
door. In which case you are safe? Your dog will not help you closed
in another room.
Attack power of a dog is an interesting skill. But without control
it is out of use.
So, what are the skills required for a guard dog in the city?
Move by your side. A dog is to follow you by your side. When you
stop or give a command, it should stop and sit quickly.
Coming by a command. A dog is to come to you at once by a command
and sit in front of you.
Sit with a hold. Your dog is to come and sit in front of you without
move from its place until you come back and get it with you. Hold
should be reliable even if you leave the dog.
Socializing. A guard dog should react calm to any irritants of the
city surrounding, huge number of cars, people, dogs and others that
it may meet in the city or out of town.
Choose our professional dog training equipment - shop now
Attack skills with a human. Here are the skills of a bite grip,
struggle with an assaulter, who is armed with improvised means. It
is quite important to train a dog to stop in time. I.e. as soon as
an assaulter stops struggling, a dog is to release him. Further
attack is possible only if a stranger attacks again or tries to run
away.
Stop of attack by a call. Training of this skill is so important,
that it is to be pointed out by a separate class. When a dog attacks
a stranger, it is to stop by your command, turn back and come up to
you. This skill is to be realized irrelevant from actions of a
stranger: he may run away, cry, take a stick and prepare to attack a
dog - all these reactions are quite natural.
On condition, that all these skills are trained, a dog is really
able to guard you. As you can see, the most of rules are based on
dog's controllability and obedience.
Recommended reading:
