Pets

A cowardly German shepherd – A coward?

Question – A scared German Shepherd

My dog, an 18 month old German Shepherd, has been obedience trained. I really wanted to take this dog to a “personal protection” course which I enrolled him in to assess his suitability. The course was being taught by a dog trainer in San Diego, Ca who has a great reputation for training in this field. The objective of the course was to determine if my dog ​​was suitable to undergo this type of training.

I found the course interesting; tested my dog’s protection ability in various circumstances. The dog trainer asked me to walk a specific path with the dog; when we were halfway there, suddenly, a poorly dressed man jumped out of a tree; he was screaming in a high-pitched voice and fired using an imitation gun that looked real. This act of his even scared me.

Immediately after the man fired his gun, my dog ​​freaked out and started running with short steps. Seeing this, the trainer was of the opinion that my dog ​​will never be able to become fit for protection training; he added that this dog was a coward. Can you advise me on what could be done in these circumstances? The purpose for which I am raising my dog ​​is to protect the family.

Answer:

To begin with, you should not take into account such recommendations that drive the dog trainer. Many people are unable to distinguish between a good dog trainer and a bad dog trainer. They are confused on this issue. Coming back to the real issue, you need to look at the whole situation from the perspective of the dog who is confused and scared because the man suddenly used his gun.

Regardless of the breed and toughness of the animal, when the animal senses danger, it is equipped with a survival mechanism to escape danger and stay alive. There is no relevance to this “training procedure” for evaluating the dog’s protective abilities; he just triggered his survival instincts to escape an unknown attack that came as a complete surprise.

If the person is crazy enough to jump out of a tree and shoot a gun, anyone will run at breakneck speed to save themselves. This test is not indicative of the dog’s ability to become a protection dog. This obviously means that the trainer has to work hard to make the dog a protection dog.

A trainer can only be considered good if he takes an imperfect dog and brings it to the highest perfection. There is no good in the trainer if he only manages perfect dogs.

1) There is no doubt that your dog will become an excellent protector. In case you leave him in the yard and allow a stranger to cross the fence, you will be able to see how he loves and protects the family.

Note: I suggest you don’t try this; this is shown just to illustrate the point.

2) Find a trainer who is prepared to accept your dog’s behavior as a personal challenge.

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