Personal Protection Dogs – What are they?

Firstly let us be clear on exactly what a correctly trained personal protection dog is. Properly trained personal or family protection dogs should be a social, self assured and confident dog that is happy to accompany its owner into any environment. The dog should be steady and affable around people and not show any aggression unless a threat is perceived towards its owner, family or itself.

Dependent upon the level of training that the personal protection dog has received it should be prepared to defend its handler from attack in a variety of situations; around the house, whilst out walking or even whilst sitting with its owners while they drink a coffee outside a café bar.

A dog that is only taught to defend the handler within the training environment from an attacker wearing a large Schutzhund sleeve is going to be no use to its future owner when confronted by three or four hooded youths demanding money in the high street on a Saturday night. This is why our personal protection dogs are trained using real life scenarios and without the equipment that will normally trigger a response in lesser trained dogs.

Many of the trained family protection dogs that we supply are sold to families with children and we therefore rigorously assess the suitability of all dogs we train for the environment in which they are likely to live.

Our Training, Evaluation and Handover Process

Correctly training a dog for personal protection work requires a lot of skill, patience and understanding to firstly ensure that the obedience and control work is solid in the dog; this part of the training is like putting strong foundations in when building a house.

Once this control work and obedience training has been taught to a high standard then the arduous process of teaching the dog to positively react to changes in people’s body language, people acting suspiciously and a whole host of other criteria begins.

During this process the dog is taught to show aggression towards individuals who are hostile or threatening towards their handler whilst remaining passive and friendly around those who are not.
As time and training progresses, the dog is expected to defend the handler from a hostile individual who then calms down and becomes passive, at which point the dog will be directed to stand down and allow the person to approach whilst remaining watchful and vigilant.

This ability to switch the dog in and out of protection mode, like turning on and turning off a light switch is not something that can be taught quickly or easily and this type of control is one of our company's hallmarks.

Dogs like people all have their own individual strengths and weaknesses and it is part of the job of the trainer to categorically determine the ability of each dog and to assess what type of environment each dog will fit into best, as a very important part of the service that we provide is matching up dogs and owners.

Even before you visit our training facilities it is normal for us to have in depth discussions with you to ascertain exactly what your personal requirements will be from your new trained canine.

Some of the questions we ask you will be things like: Do you have children? How old and how many? Do you have other animals? What are they? Have you owned a dog before? What type of area to live in city or rural?

From asking these and other questions we will be able to build up an idea as to the type of protection dog that will fit in harmoniously with your family and your lifestyle in general.

At the end of the day, remember this dog is primarily a pet but with the added advantage that it has received intensive training, giving it the ability to very efficiently protect those in its care.

Should you be invited to visit our facilities, we will at that point have a clear understanding as to the type of dog that is likely to be best suited to you and as we always have a large selection of trained dogs available we will normally be able to offer you a choice.

We will be happy to demonstrate dogs at varying levels of training, which should help you in making an informed decision as to which of our available personal protection dogs you feel most comfortable with.

Having decided upon your new canine companion, we insist that potential owners train with us over a two or three day period where we teach basic handler skills. We also use this time to give advice on integrating your new personal protection dog into your family and lifestyle and how to maintain the dogs’ level of obedience training as well as providing tips on basic animal husbandry and dog care.

By the end of the two or three day handover, it would be normal for a new owner to demonstrate a reasonable ability to handle their new dog in terms of its basic obedience and during basic protection work scenarios. There is little point in buying a personal protection dog if you the owner, receive no training to enable you to get the best out of your new protection dog. The handover process also provides an invaluable foundation to the start of the bonding process between you and your newly aquired family protection dog; it is important to involve the whole family in this process.

Please note that the price of all of our dogs includes this handler training and it is not optional as to whether you decide to do it or not. A trained personal protection dog in the charge of someone who has had no training can be rather like a weapon in the wrong hands and is potentially dangerous.

It is and has always been our business culture to provide not just the best in canine training but also to ensure that our customers are equipped with sufficient knowledge to keep their protection dogs fit and healthy; whilst maintaining their obedience training and contol.Ttheir dogs in turn act as our k9 ambassadors, thus promoting our business and bringing more customers through our doors.

Buyer Beware - Not all vendors share our business principles

There are many individuals and companies that purport to sell trained dogs, many of whom have had limited experience in training dogs within the dog sport environment and little or no practical experience in training dogs for personal protection work.
Many of the dogs that they supply are at best not fit for purpose and will not work in a real life situation and at the worst are potentially dangerous as they have had inappropriate training and often lack basic control.
Furthermore, many of these so called trainers will deliver you a “personal protection dog” and spend no more than an hour or so telling you what the dog can do but not demonstrating it and offering little or no handler instruction.

Please allow common sense to prevail and do not let yourself be duped by these individuals as they are little more than dog dealers, preying on the inexperience of the people that they manage to con.

Below is an extract from an email that I received recently from a lady that bought a dog to use for security work from a man in the north of the country and it illustrates this point well:
“Hi again got my dog assessed by a chap in Southampton, apparently, she has no drive plus hip dysplasia and so basically was a waste of money. I wish I’d got one from you".

A Final Note

Always insist upon visiting any trainer’s facilities and view the dogs within that environment where they should be at their best, look at the facilities, the overall demeanour of the dogs and most importantly the training.

Like most things in life, if you want quality and service you have to be prepared to pay for it – if you want exceptional quality and service then normally you have to pay a little more but that extra investment often makes all the difference as quality always prevails.

Our business has been built on quality dogs, consistently good sales and after sales service and exceptional training which is why our company has been around, providing the best in personal protection dogs to clients and their familys for approaching 20 years.

If you would like further information on any of the dogs and service we provide please do not hesitate to contact us directly and we assure you we will deal with your enquiry in a courteous, timely and professional manner.

Please CLICK HERE to view a selection of Personal Protection Dogs and Family Protection Dogs for Sale available from both imported and UK origin.

If you would like to discuss purchasing one of our trained protection dogs please do not hesitate to contact us on

+44 (0) 1792 883395 or +44 (0) 7444 234500

Or

info@personalprotectiondog.co.uk

CLICK HERE to go to the A1 K9 Web Site