Choice of protection sport - Newbie question.

[RushGSD]

Hi there,
In order to combine fun and working, I will likely enroll in a protection sport with our future GSD. And if I am to do that, it may as well be useful should a real life situation happen.
I do not know much about dog protection sports but I noticed that interestingly, dogs doing Shutzhund are usually trained to bite the arm that does not carry the weapon. This seems counter-intuitive as the aggressor could stil use the weapon to hurt the dog or its owner. Every time I see a Schutzhund video, I can't help but to think that if that stick and aggressor were real, the dog would sustain considerable damage.
Is there a protection sport that would be more adapted/useful in real-life situations?
Also, what is the recommended age to start training (and should it be preceded by some sort of basic obedience training)?

[Packen]

It is not so much about which sport but more about the individual dog. You can have 2 dogs with different temperaments trained to the same high level in the same sport, if given the same real life scenario, one would run and the other would take the threat down and look for more!

It is all about the individual dog, not what he trains in. It is a bit hard to understand at first though as it takes years and years to get the knowledge to read a dog and access it's capabilities under high stress.

[Liesje]

Look into SDA, though in SDA I train my dogs to bite whatever is presented and if nothing is presented they bite the armpit since they can target that from the front or the back. I do not train dogs to discriminate between which hand is carrying the weapon (sometimes they both have guns). The armpit is soft and fleshy and hurts like hooha, someone cannot fire a weapon from either arm with a GSD full grip on their armpit!

[Klamari]

Unfortunately, some people are limited in what sports they can do because they can't find a club, or experienced decoy, that offers all sports. So I would first suggest finding out what options you have in your area before getting your heart set on a sport.

Just in case you were considering it, PSA does not dictate where the dog can bite, so you could theoretically teach your dog to bite the arm with the "stick" in it.
But most teach the dog to pick either the right or left upper arm, regardless of where the weapon is (in PSA the decoy could have a weapon/ distractino in both hands).

[carmspack]

hi - is it sport and titles , or the protection when out jogging -

[doggiedad]

if someone has a bat, pipe, gun, brick, knife, etc, i think the dog
is in trouble.

[doggiedad]

what if they switch hands with the gun?

Originally Posted by Liesje

Look into SDA, though in SDA I train my dogs to bite whatever is presented and if nothing is presented they bite the armpit since they can target that from the front or the back. I do not train dogs to discriminate between which hand is carrying the weapon (sometimes they both have guns). The armpit is soft and fleshy and hurts like hooha, someone cannot fire a weapon from either arm with a GSD full grip on their armpit!

[Liesje]

I don't understand the question? What I said explains how I train and as I said it doesn't matter where the gun is (or guns are).

[doggiedad]

if the dog is on the right arm pit and the gun is in the right
hand why can't the person put the gun in his left hand
and fire it? i'm not questioning your training but your
training doesn't prevent a person from switching hands
with the gun.

Originally Posted by Liesje

I don't understand the question? What I said explains how I train and as I said it doesn't matter where the gun is (or guns are).

[Yoschi's_Pet_Human]

Originally Posted by doggiedad

if the dog is on the right arm pit and the gun is in the right
hand why can't the person put the gun in his left hand
and fire it? i'm not questioning your training but your
training doesn't prevent a person from switching hands
with the gun.

I think that what was being eluded to was that if a GSD has a full bite on an armpit then the pain would/may prevent the perpetrator from doing anything to hurt the dog.