Stage2- Just to clarify, the idea of protection “light” was in reference to training or cultivation of protective or aggressive behavior in a dog --- the point being that there is no way to do this in a “light: manner, folks keep mentioning “I don’t need a police K9” well of that I am sure, more specifically you don’t need a dog trained in tracking, area searches, explosives or narcotic detection etc. however what you are still talking about is a dog trained to protect it’s handler, this by definition requires the cultivation of aggression in your dog, and as a consequence if one is going to cultivate aggression in a dog then the only responsible way to do it is in formalized training with a responsible mentor, there is no way around this, no “light” form of such training. I’m no suggesting that every protection trained dog be a super dog, in fact you would be surprised at how much police dog skills vary, what I am suggesting it that just as there are people who by virtue of their inherent psychological make up are not cut out for special forces, law enforcement or CCW, there are many dogs who are not cut out to be trained to be aggressive, and if we do bring out their aggressiveness and they go astray it’s our fault. Furthermore the process by which one does this is not simple, nor intuitive so it’s essential that anyone who wants to finds a good mentor to learn from.
Springmom --- I believe that the picture of a poodle team can be found in either the older edition of “ Good Dog, Bad Dog” or at:
http://home.gci.net/~poodlesleddog/
JD Little – you might want to try Loyds, yes of London, they were receptive to this thing in the past. The restrictions are stupid and lead to all sorts of BS about “mixes” and so forth in attempts to avoid such stupid discrimination.
Another important point to remember about breeds is to match a breed’s likes to your likes and lifestyle, one of our number one problems is unemployed working dogs, i.e. you may love the way a GSD looks and have all the money to buy one of the best ones out there, but if you work in an office and expect that dog, breed explicitly for work and energy to sit at home and twiddle it’s paws all day while you are at work you may be very unhappy to see what a GSD can do to a set of leather furniture. Another common problem is folks who think a breed is cute but don’t understand there nature --- people who expect Bulldogs to be able to jog with them and other such foolishness.
BTW the price of 15-18k for a trained GSD reflects primarily the cost of training, the best puppy out of some of the finest breeding stock and programs in the world will still only set one back about 3K (don’t ask how I know that but if any one wants to know who I would recommend I can post that info), so the cost of 10-15k ought to give a sense of the time and effort it takes for this sort of training. Of course on the subject of puppies buyer beware is always a important thing if one chooses to buy a dog as interestingly enough if one goes to some of the mall pet stores they can have the honor of paying 3k for a puppy from some of the worst puppy mills in the nation. Price and breed registration are meaningless in this country, you have to find a worth while person who is in dog sports for the right reason and who is just as interested and critical of you as you are of them
Of course rescue and shelters is almost always a better option for most people and you would be amazed at the quality, variety and love one can find out there waiting.
Drjeffrock ---- thanks for helping out all those lonely Akitas, they are great dogs, who had the misfortunate of having a spike in popularity a few years back so everyone jumped on the band wagon and got one on impulse and a short time latter there were quite a few out there in shelters when they had previously been a rarer breed. Your stories are the tip of the iceberg in the annals of human stupidity that could be related --- from people who have asked if I could pull down the testicle on a dog who had only one descended so he could breed it to the dog’s sister, to choke chains imbedded in the neck by 3 inches with the smell of rotting flesh, to people who believed that orange Shasta would worm their puppy (breeder told them it’s the combination of dye and bubbles that gets those nasty worms), to obvious dog fighters who themselves are bandaged up from gun fights, but then I digress….
