Hinder said:
Lies - I totally want to get into that kind of protection training, because I think it's the coolest. The dog doesn't go after people it shouldn't, so no real danger to small kids and other pets. That's the kind of training I can really get into. It's hard to tell people the difference between 'attack' dogs and protection dogs, though. They don't get the point that a real protection dog doesn't attack everything it sees, /only/ on command or after a break in.
Exactly. Most people who are not into dogs (specifically German and Belgian breeds) don't realize how these dogs are trained. It is NOT aggression. Aggressive dogs are culled (put to sleep to prevent that trait from carrying on). They start by picking a "drivey" dog, a puppy that REALLY likes to tug and will hang on even when suspended off the ground. I went to a SchH demo once where they took an 8 week old Dutch Shepherd puppy, gave her one of those toys like a cat toy with a sock on a string, got her going for it, and then the trainer had her dangling in the air from the sock and pretended to hit her while yelling and the pup didn't flinch. THAT is how they select their dogs, the ones that are obsessed with tugging. From that they are taught to tug at the bite sleeve. When they are first training, the reward for a good hit IS the sleeve (they get to pull it off the decoy and run around with it, just like how we play tug-of-war with our pet dogs and let them chew on their tug rope). The dogs aren't driving b/c they want to BITE, they drive b/c they want that SLEEVE!!
True protection dogs are different than SchH dogs (SchH is a far more common dog sport that, IMO does not constitute actual protection work or police training, but is a great foundation for drivey dogs). Protection dogs must be trained to discriminate between which arms hold/carry weapons (SchH dogs simply go for the sleeve). Protection dogs must also be able to knock over and hold a suspect with the force of their body, not just the bite. In both SchH and protection work, the decoy (the decoy is the person being charged) MUST be able to greet the handler and pet the dog after the attack. You can see the dogs are happily panting and like being petted, they are not aggressive at all, even after having charged and "bitten" the decoy's sleeve.
Estate dogs are several levels above SchH and protection dogs. I don't know much their training other than it takes years and just based on the drive and smarts required, plus all the man-hours that go into training, the dogs are tens of thousands of dollars and can be worth every penny. So far, I've only found one website that advertises what I would consider legitimate personal protection and estate dogs (I'll have to look for the link). Last night I googled Estate Dogs and all of the sites I checked were just well-bred German Shepherds with SchH titles - NOT personal protection or estate dogs, sorry.
Anyway, since we share this common interest, here are some of my favorite YouTube videos....
Near-perfect SchH heeling pattern (shows that the "heel/Fuss" position in SchH is slightly forward than that in all-breed competitive obedience and rally-o):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkO_VZPHLDk
Young GSD/Mal mix practicing protection. He has some work to do (there are obvious mistakes), but I like this vid b/c they are using positive training methods and the dog is being taught to hit the arm carrying the weapon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRaCv4Njcnk
GSD using his body, not his mouth/bite to subdue and hold a decoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmaNTn_lkz8
And what most people don't realize, most of the work is "bark and hold" (the dog does NOT bite, just holds the subject). This is a young dog that needs a lot of refinement in his training, but you can see how he gets the sleeve for doing a good job:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gNq3NG58ck
I'm going to the local SchH club hopefully soon (I met someone else that also wants to join). My current dog does not have the right temperament for this sport, but we are going to go check it out and if I enjoy it, I will keep it in mind if/when I buy a puppy.
Sorry for getting off-topic! These dogs deserve their own thread I suppose....