Will My Protection Trained Puppy Be Safe With My Family? By 1996 I often hear the question "If I buy a working bloodline puppy and train it in schutzhund or protection work, do I have to worry about it biting my children and family?" My answer to this question is pretty simple." You need to buy a good working bloodline puppy, from a breeder that understands bloodlines, temperament and your needs." In addition you need to do a good job raising your pup. If you do that you will not have a problem. The issue of a dog being aggressive towards its owners or family member is dog illnesses canada school for dog trainers not a protection training issue. It's a temperament issue. To break this topic down even further, it is a dominance issue. This article will deal with dominance problems in dogs. The issue of "dominance" and being "protective" are two unrelated parts of a dog's temperament. Dominance will show itself even if a dog is never protection trained. Dominance is also not breed specific. It is not a German shepherd problem or a Rottwieler problem; it is an individual problem with a specific animal. My mother had a toy poodle that was the most dominant dog I had ever seen. The worst dog bite I ever had come from canada school for dog trainers canada school for dog trainers that poodle. It happened just before I bounced it off the living room wall. Photo of Yago vom , (call name Ronan), owned by Charlie Tucker Photo by Meri Barrioz (MGB Photography) Dominance will show in the puppy's temperament at a young age. You will see growling around the food bowl and growling when you try and take his toys away. These are signs of dominance. When a working bloodline puppy bites your pant legs or bites your hands when you are roughhousing with it, this is not a sign of dominance. These are signs of prey drive. Prey drive and dominance are also two different things. If you need newfoundland dog breeders canada school for dog trainers to learn more about prey drive see my article "Understanding the Drives of Protection Training," or get my video titled "The First Steps of Bite Work." This 2-hour tape was released in Aug. 1996 and is the best bite development video on the market. To learn to control a dominance problem in a dog we need to understand it's pack instinct. Dogs are pack animals by nature. They accept and live by pack rules. In nature a pack has a designated pecking order from the pack leader to the lowest member of the pack. When we train protection dogs the handler is ALWAYS the Pack Leader. This is bird dog training canada school for dog trainers very important.
