Protection Training

In today’s world, everyone is seeking the most efficient yet safe way to protect their family and property from the threat of violence and theft. At Sierra Canine we strongly believe the safe solution is a properly trained protection dog. A properly trained protection dog serves many purposes. Firstly, they are your family’s companion and pet. Secondly, they can be the most effective way to protect the things that are most important to you.

Here are a few statistics that stress the possible threat that all of us face on a daily basis. These are FBI and United States Department of Justice national statistics.

• 88% of burglaries are residential in nature.

• One burglary occurs every 10 seconds.

• 86% of burglaries occur when people are home.

• 80% of break-ins occur through a locked door.

• 73% of burglars said that they would still rob a house if it had an alarm.

• 38% of assaults & 60% of rapes occur during home invasions.

Protection training can be as simple as training your dog to alert you when someone is at your door, window or behind your fenced yard or as complex as training your dog to defend you or someone you love against an individual who poses a real and present threat. I often tell people that a well trained protection dog can be called “back” or “off” if that threat diminishes or disperses, but a bullet can’t! You cannot be sent to prison if your dog attacks an uninvited intruder in your home, but you can in certain circumstances, if you shot an unarmed uninvited intruder in your home!

As stated above, there are many different levels of protection training. If you are interested in having your dog protection trained, we first would need to discuss your goals or what level of training that you hope your dog can achieve and then your dog’s temperament and drive would have to be evaluated. Not all dogs are capable of doing higher levels of protection work and realistically, very few pet quality dogs possess the necessary drive and nerve to do any at all. There is a definite difference between true protection dogs and sport protection dogs. I find it quite humorous what several dog training companies here in Northern California are passing off as protection trained dogs when these are merely Schutzhund or other sport protection dogs. Unfortunately, this is common practice in the dog training world. Below you will see sample videos of both, dogs in the early stages of protection training and dogs in the early stages of Schutzhund training. If you have any questions about the difference in the two, please contact us and we would be happy to educate you.

This is a 13 month old male German Shepherd. I started this dog’s training when he was 7 months old. He is being trained for personal protection and this is his second lesson on a bite suit. You’ll notice that I am quite vocal and that I show submission or avoidance each time the dog re-grips (counters) or bites harder.

Working Dog Sports

Working dog sports or protection dog sports have continued to grow in popularity with local clubs popping up just about everywhere. Schutzhund was the first working dog sport to make its way to the United States from Germany nearly four decades ago. It was the pinnacle of dog sports for many years and still remains very popular today. Since the arrival of Schutzhund, many other working dog sports have made their way from Europe and have grown immensely in popularity. These include French Ring, Belgian Ring and basically a combination of the two, Mondio Ring.

Regardless of what goal you have for your dog, personal protection or participating and maybe even competing in one of these sports, their foundation in grip work or bite development is all the same.

Sierra Canine can start your dog with building confidence and drive, and then make all the progressions through each prey item to help you reach your ultimate goal. As previously stated, all of our programs are customized to your goals and budget. We can help you with anything from certain obedience exercises for these dog sports to starting a puppy and finishing them until they are on a sleeve or bite suit.

These are video clips of a young German Shepherd male who is being trained for Schutzhund. I started this dog when he was a puppy and in these clips he just made the transition over to a hard sleeve. I’m using a clatter stick, yes I know they don’t use clatter sticks in Schutzhund, but I try to proof the dog on more.

These are video clips of an 8 month old male German Shepherd puppy that I have been training to heel in drive. We first worked on building his drive and then focus and now he is heeling about forty feet before he gets the reward. My apprentice is handling him and my voice is in the background.