I train protection dogs for a living, here's what most people get wrong
Head trainer Mike on the difference between sport dogs, sleeve dogs, and the dog you actually want in your house.
"A great protection dog is 90% obedience. The bite is the easy part."
Obedience first, always
The mistake I see new owners make is shopping for the bite. They want to see the dog hit a sleeve at full speed. Fine, every one of our dogs does that. But the bite is 10% of the job. The other 90% is the dog sleeping at your feet at the dinner table, ignoring the Uber Eats driver, and walking past your kid's friends without a glance.
If the obedience foundation isn't perfect, the dog becomes a liability. That's why DK 0 and DK 1 obedience are non negotiable prerequisites before any bite work in our program.
Read the dog, not the rumor
Owners ask me about breeds constantly. The honest answer: the bloodline matters more than the breed name. A poorly bred Malinois will fail in a family home. A correctly bred working line Shepherd from a tested pairing will thrive. Buy the breeder and the trainer, not the breed sticker.
See the program covered in this story.
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