Training a Dog to Protect

Many people want to think their dog will protect them, their home, and family should the need arise. Some people just assume their dog will be protective, while others just wonder and leave it at that. But some people want the assurance of knowing that their family pet will spring into action and attack any intruder or attacker.
So, how do you go about that, training your dog to attack on command? Is it safe? How much does it cost? Is it reliable?
I looked into the matter a bit and I found a lot of different tips. I had to dig a lot to find out which to believe. There are books that claim to teach you how to do this protection training yourself and there are businesses which will take your dog and train it for you. Then there are other businesses that will raise and train a dog for protection and sell it to you, fully trained. How trustworthy are such businesses? And can you really train your own dog, by yourself, to attack intruders?
What I found in doing research is that a trained attack dog is a HUGE responsibility, and liability. Before you get too far into the process, be sure to check with the authorities in your area and learn about the laws, insurances, etc.

Another thing I found is that to train a dog to be aggressive you MUST have a helper. This person is sometimes called "the aggressor" or the "agitator". It's the person who will "attack", "harass", and otherwise provoke your dog to attack. Unfortunately, this person MUST be absolutely knowledgeable, and experienced, and unkown to your dog -- as well as being someone you never want your dog to know or like. If this is not done right, with perfect timing on both the trainer's and the agitator's part, your dog could end up like a gun with a faulty trigger. Needless to say, no, your friend cannot be the agitator. Your dog could never be trusted around this person again. Plus, how many of us have friends who are experienced in agitating a dog to attack?
Yes, it turns out there is a ton of experience and knowledge involved in this kind of training. So, one thing is absolutely certain: you cannot learn this from a book or video!

The other thing I learned is that there is no licensing requirement, no testing, no education required for someone to be a dog trainer. This means you or I can read a single book and hang out our shingle, offering to train dogs for a living. So, trusting a dog training business to this kind of delicate training seems somewhat risky, too. How can you know for sure if the company really knows what they are doing? You really can't. There are dog training schools all over the country, and many of them do train people to do protection training. But these schools are no more regulated or licensed than individual dog trainers! In fact, some of them offer graduates of their courses a certificate, such as Master Dog Trainer, or Certified Obedience Trainer, etc. The reality is there is no such certification, except such as the school wants to invent and offer. And if the school is "certifying" their own graduates, well, how much can that mean?
So, you could interview the trainer, maybe watch some training sessions, and if you're looking for an obedience trainer that might work out fine. You can even interview people who have had their dogs trained by the same company. Again, for obedience training that might work out. But how can you check out the dogs who have been attack trained, without being able to look into the future to see when (if) that moment occurs that demonstrates a problem with the training?
For example, I read about a dog that was trained by his owners. He seemed perfect. He was very well behaved and obedient, and after the protection training, he was still very friendly and loving. But one day, the wife was home alone with him, and doing the dishes. She turned suddenly to put a dish away, and the dog leaped and mauled her. It turned out the wife had played the role of agitator but in disguise, and tho for quite a while their training seemed good, the truth was that their cues were off, and they had inadvertently trained the dog on a cue they didn't realize they had taught. So all was well -- until the day the wife, unknowingly made the movement or sound that they had unwittingly trained the dog to attack on. And that was that. One trainer told me that people constantly teach their dog to do common, easy things, like "sit" incorrectly. The dog will not sit when it hears the command "sit", as the person hoped would happen. Instead, because of their faulty timing, the dog sits when the person has their hand in a certain position. It is a very common training error -- even among those who are training their dogs with the help of a professional trainer. They'll pay attention during the lesson, and then go home and spend the week working on the lesson, only to return for the next lesson with the dog sitting on the wrong command, because their cues and timing were all off. Dogs are much more precise by nature than we are. They don't miss the cue, but we do. So how can you be sure your trainer has the experience level to avoid such mistakes? Even if your dog seems perfectly trained when he returns home to you, how will you know before it's too late, if he also was trained to an inadvertent cue?
So, from all I learned in my digging about protection training for dogs, you really have to be so careful if you pursue this kind of training.
One interesting and amusing article I found, written by a trainer with 30 years of experience, summed up the gist of all that I learned: How to Train a Dog to Be Aggressive.

I did find out that there is one decent way to train a dog to attack and protect its owner: Schutzhund Training. But even there, not all training is equal. Nevertheless, if you check out the trainer carefully and it is clear that protection training is NOT the main goal in the person's Schutzhund method, then you can end up with a well trained, protective family dog that is still safe. It's a lot of work. You have to do the training yourself, and you and your dog have to finish a couple of other levels before being allowed to start protection work. Schutzhund, done right, is a very intense training and bonding method that will result in a stable, reliable dog -- and owner.