Some of our Protection Dog Training Obstacles

Drago, a Belgian Malinois protection dog, leaps onto a roof during training.

Drago, a Belgian Malinois protection dog, leaps onto a roof during training.

Our clients demand the best possible training for their protection dogs so that they will be prepared for whatever situation they may find themselves in. Emergency situations are unpredictable and can change from second to second. That’s why our protection training system incorporates a broad range of challenges that equip our dogs to adapt to new situations and stand up to extreme pressure. Below are just some of the challenges our dogs take on.
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Turning On Against a “Passive Threat”
Dogs are keen at reading body language and recognizing threatening behavior, but what happens when a threat is standing perfectly still with a concealed weapon? If the threat tells you that they are going to harm or kill you without making any overt gestures, you need your protection dog to be able to come to your aid.

We take this preparation to the extreme; our dogs can be directed to bark at or bite a person even if they are sitting perfectly still. This is something they only do on command, and it is something that should only ever be done if you feel that the person genuinely intends to harm or kill you.

Building Searches
Building searches are one of the best ways to train protection dogs to overcome pressure and follow their noses to the bad guy. Believe it or not, most dogs don’t search with their noses by default. It takes careful training to give them the ability bite without relying on their eyes. A dog’s nose is 10,000 to 100,000 times more sensitive than a humans. That gives them a massive advantage against any home invader trying to avoid detection.

Going Over (and Through) Obstacles
We use many different pieces of training equipment to simulate realistic obstacles that our protection dogs might encounter. Our German Shepherds and Belgian Malinois practice jumping into and out of moving vehicles, diving through small windows with precision, jumping onto high platforms (such as roofs) and more.

Fighting Against Armed Attackers
The two things we value most is your safety and the safety of our dogs. We prepare our protection dogs to face off against armed attackers in a way that is as realistic as possible while still being safe. Training with simulated gunfire and other weapons is performed to ensure that dogs will not back down from any pressure in a critical situation. You can see examples of this in our protection dog training videos.

Muzzle Attacks
Asking a protection dog to go after an attacker without using his or her mouth is like asking a police officer to arrest someone with their hands tied. By placing a sturdy, padded leather muzzle on our dogs, we can then send them for a bite against a trainer wearing no equipment. This exercise encourages tenacity and boldness. By the time we offer any of our fully-trained protection dogs for sale, they have demonstrated not just their willingness to go forward without the benefit of their teeth, but to compensate by tackling and wrestling with the threat using their whole bodies.