Re: looking for site to buy good training equipmen
Quote:From just my experience, Just good bonding & a good bark will do. My GSD was never trained for protection (I didn't want a dog bite law suit), but she nows on her own how to keep strangers & aggressers away without the bite.
For the most part, when you own a German Shepherd, you really don't need to 'train them to protect you'. If you have bonded with your dog, they do it naturally, sometimes unfortunately when you don't expect it.
I rescued Thor from a vile environment at age 11 months. Purchased by a young Marine gal at age 2 mos., he was left with a caretaker at 3 mos when his mommy was deployed to Iraq. My daughter was attending a Marine gathering when the caretaker said, "I have to get rid of that d*mn dog." When Kat asked which dog, the caretaker pointed out to the north 40 where this pup was tied to a tree. And when Kat asked why, caretaker said her owner was killed in Iraq and not coming back for the dog. Kat (bless her evil heart) said, "My mom loves German shepherds...she'll take him."
Thus I ended up with a pup on my doorstep who had been isolated most of his life, was thin as rail and whose hair had been chewed off his back from anxiety. He was not housebroken, had no clue about commands, and had no social skills. After a visit to the vet, who assured me he would survive with TLC, but it would take a year to untrain him of his bad habits and another to teach him new ones, I wondered what I had gotten myself into. Nevertheless, he was a beautiful boy with a shy, loving personality who seemed to want to please. I turned on whatever 'alpha' techniques I knew and slowly he became 'my dog'.
He is now almost 4 years old. He is well mannered (most of the time..*chuckles*), playful and certainly warns me with his deep bass barks when anyone is wandering around the house that he doesn't know. At least it's only that now...there was a time when he barked at anything and everything, including leaves blowing past the windows. But he has never been aggressive.....at least not until recently.
I was talking to a neighbor with Thor at my side...a neighbor we have met up with on our daily walks many times. Thor usually sits at my side, yawning with boredom. But on this particular day, the neighbor had an handful of long branches and sticks and as he gestures with his hands when he talks, was swinging that handful too close to me to please Thor. My mild mannered, sweet boy's ears came up, and without any warning, lunged at the neighbor and bit his knee. As I watched the blood dripping down the neighbor's leg, I was in shock.
Interestingly, the neighbor (who I rushed to our local doctor's office) told the doctor and the animal control folks (automatically phoned in a situation like this) that it was his fault...he should not have been swinging sticks in my face. Thor thought his 'mom' was threatened and protected her. Even more interestingly, the animal control said the same thing. Thor has met the same neighbor since with no sign of aggression, in fact, back to the yawning boredom. But the neighbor is now being more careful in his presence, not a stick in sight. *grins*
I guess the point of this diatribe is that Thor was never 'trained' to protect me, but when he thought I was being threatened, he automatically went into protect mode. I recall my sister-in-law being asked by strangers, "Does your dog bite?" Her response has always been, "He never has but he is a dog. That's what dogs do when they feel a threat. So stand back please and don't approach him..or me.. too quickly."
Wise words, I've always thought. I think I'm going to try to use that when I'm out and about with Thor.
