Fun Poll--What would your dog do? - Page 11

Cute stories? Ugh, that's insulting.

Preston is a well respected member of this board, has more knowledge than most of us combined and should not be belittled by calling his life experiences with GSD's "cute stories".

this is why this sport protection sport association k9's or http://www.psak9.org/ is so useful. you'll know your dog... (aside from some other personal protection training) In this scenario described above, the well trained dog should have stopped the incident before it happened, by the way.

Hi Preston, I enjoy your insightful stories about dogs and temperaments. Keep them coming. Best regards.

I have tons of courage stories I can tell about dogs and 9 out of 10 aren't even GSD's. Some dogs have pronounced courage and an innate ability to protect self and handler without training. Prime example.. My aunt got a pitbull/lab mix out of the pound when she was in college. When she moved away this dog stayed at my grandparents home, as it was his home since he was brought into the family. "Alex" was kind of the family dog, we all went over to see him, just as much as the actual family. I was very younge when this dog came to us. I don't even remember him being a puppy. I learned to walk and crawl with this dog in the house. Anybody who wasn't family, was affraid of him. He hit the fence at full speed with teeth flying at anyone walking by. My granfather would play rough with him and always had bandaids on his hands and arms from "playing" with Alex. However never once was the dog not playing with my granpa. Al was a dog that didn't tolerate rough play between people. If you balled up your fist, it would soon find it's way into Alex's mouth. Raise your arm as if to strike, he would growl and make the worst grimace of a face you have ever seen. This was like a game and just a warning to us from him. Never did he harm a soul family or non family. One day my aunt came back home from College. She was scared and had a man stalking her. She stayed at home while the police tried to catch him. Well stalker guy showed up in the backyard one night, on the back deck trying to get in the sliding glass door in my aunts bedroom. Alex quietly waited for him to open the door and then sprung at him once the door was open. The dog made lots of noise, leaped on the guy, chased him off , jumped the back gate which he had never done before or after and chased this guy down the street. The dog never bit the guy. He prevented a possible attack on my aunt and grandparents in the end. How do you rate this dog? He did what allot of dogs will do, scare the guy off but not actually bite and hold on! I'm sure if the dog had bitten him, we would have had a lawsuit on our hands, thanks to the way the laws are written. So which is the better kind of dog? The bluffer, or the one who will knock a man to the ground and fight him until subdued? My point is that I think allot of people mistake a protective dog, for one who knows how to really handle a situation like a police k-9 should. I personally think many many people think they have what they don't. If you are a police officer or security guard and work with a k-9 partner, how would you feel if your partner wasn't properly trained to back you up? Your life sometimes will be in his paws. That dog needs to be able to put himslef in harms way because as stated by others before, if the bad guy doesn't run, he is going to fight, hit, kick, stab or shoot at the dog. It's the dogs job to try to disarm and take the man down so the officer has time to act, get up off the ground, arm himself, call for backup, etc.

How many people think their dog is really going to do all of this without training? Not saying it couldn't happen, but realisticly how many??? Does your dog know how to identify a weapon. Will he hold the assailant until you tell him to let go? Do you trust your dog with your life? I have had plenty of dogs that act tough, will bark, show teeth and foam at the mouth. I have only had one that would bite even a non-threatening person on command. Protect and bite without command when she saw a threat to my safety. Do a call off wether I sent her or she self sent. She was my once in a lifetime dog. She was a mutt of collie/sheltie/? decsent. Lady was the first dog I owned, trained myself. I got lucky with my first dog becasue I know it wasn't my skills as a trainer that made who the way she was.

My male is trained to bite. But I found out if I am not home he will chase them out. As close as I can figure, the intruder thought he had made friends with my dogs (he was doing work on my house in the past), and came in thru the side where the dogs have access. My female would have panicked and tried to go thru the garage to get to the kennel, thus blocking the intruder from retreating. The front door, which I locked when I left, is just around the wall, and my male raised hell and he left thru the front door with the male on his heels. Both dogs were in my front yard when I came home and the front door wide open 2 hours later. The neighbors told me they saw the guy running and my male stopped at the curb. They were so gald I came home, no one would leave thier house while they were out.

But, 4pack/real dog (not sure who has made this last post) the thread topic clearly states this is "for fun" so "everyone can participate" LOL. I didn't know I had to be a police officer or protection master trainer to have an opinion on whether or not my dog would protect me. Had I known that, I'd have kept my big piehole shut LOL.

Your right Blitz. I did this for fun and set up the scenario for everyone to offer an opinion. But like most threads,for some reason people are taking this waaaaay to personal and it seems to be going downhill. Let's stop and take a deep breath. My sole purpose for this topic is to help educate people that this can happen at the worst possible moment. If one trainer, K9 handler, friend of a K9 handler, or average citizen who relies on their dog for protection, reads this and takes somehting from it, hopefully they will be safer in their job or everyday life. If people out there try these scenarios and get a different result, great. If you get the same result, then maybe you learned something. If you have absolute faith in your dog, good for you, there must be a reason you feel that way. I'm just encouraging people to explore why they feel that way and if it is as absolute as they think. That's all. I have accomplished my goal with this thread. This is the first time I have done this and not been held out as the Anti-Christ. I thank you all for that. I think this has been a great thread and I appreciate everyone's participation. If it continues I hope it stays as pleasant and interesting as it started.

Blitz says to tell you that he will bite your butt if he ever meets you, realdog, and that he that he will not be letting go either. ROFL............. Blitzen vom Pethaus, 100% highlines and damned proud of it!!!!