Question – A Scared German shepherd
My dog, an 18 month-old German shepherd, has been obedience trained. I was quite keen to take this dog through a “personal protection” course for which I enrolled him for evaluation for suitability. The course was being conducted by a dog trainer in San Diego, Ca who has a high reputation for training in this field. The objective of the course was to determine whether my dog was suitable for undergoing this type of training.
I found that the course was interesting; it tested my dog’s capability to protect under various circumstances. I was asked by the dog trainer to walk along a specific pathway with the dog; when we were halfway along the track suddenly a shabbily-dressed man jumped down from a tree; he was shouting in a high pitched voice and fired using a real looking mock-gun. This act of his even scared me.
Immediately after the man shooting his gun off, my dog got scared and started running with short steps. Seeing this, the trainer opined that my dog can never become suited for protection training; he added that this dog was a coward. Can you advise me on what could be done under these circumstances? The purpose for which I am breeding my dog is to protect the family.
Answer:
To start with, you should not take cognizance of such recommendations boosting up the dog trainer. Many people are unable to distinguish between good dog trainer and bad dog trainer. They are confused on this issue. Coming back to the real issue – you should consider the whole situation from the perspective of the dog which is confused and scared because the man suddenly used his gun.
Irrespective of the breed and toughness of the animal, when the animal senses danger it is equipped with a survival mechanism in order to get away from danger and stay alive. There is no relevance in this “training procedure” to evaluate the dog’s protective abilities; it only has triggered his survival instincts to escape from an unknown attack which came as a total surprise.
If the person is mad enough to jump from a tree and shot off a gun anybody for that matter will be running at a breakneck speed to save his self. This test is not indicative of the dog’s capability to become a protection dog. This obviously means that the trainer has to work hard to make the dog a protection dog.
You can consider a trainer as good only if he takes charge of an imperfect dog and bring him to the maximum perfection. There is nothing great about the trainer if he handles only perfect dogs.
1) There is no doubt that your dog will become an excellent protector. In case you leave him in the yard and allow a stranger to cross over the fence you can see how he loves and protects the family.
Note: I suggest that you do not attempt this; this is shown only to illustrate the point.
2) Scout around for a trainer who is prepared to accept your dog’s behavior as a personal challenge.