Guard Dog versus Protection K9

Many property owners are interested in guard dogs. However, there is a big difference between a guard dog and a trained protection dog. A typical guard dog is not trained to guard property. It works based on natural territorial instincts, barking and possibly biting an intruder out of fear. Guard dogs do not undergo extensive obedience and bite training. They may be effective in guarding a smaller territory but are unlikely to engage an intruder further away from the house or their kennel.

How do we train and select personal protection dogs?

We select mature dogs that are between 1.5 and 2.0 years old.  These dogs had already some basic dog training typically in one of the working dog sports (KNPV, Schutzhund/IGP, or Mondioring).  At this point, we can best assess dog’s quality in terms of working dog character, training, health, and suitability to your specific needs and preferences.

We then focus on training the selected dog to best fit each of our customers’ needs and requirements.  These dogs must have a very high obedience level and at the same time be ready to attack on command a potential threat.

In many cases, we train dogs to guard the threatening person — we call it hold and bark.  When the owner just wants to warn the threat and activate the dog, the owner will give the dog a guard command.  The dog then will bark at the person.  Only in cases when the person attacks the dog or moves towards the owner, will the dog bite the person.

How long does it take to train a PPD?

It depends on the training a dog has already received.  If we get a dog that has already trained well, we only need to fine-tune its training to fit our customers’ needs.  It may typically only take three months for such a process.  If we get a green dog, then training may take longer than six months.

PPD training is complex because we ask the dog many contradicting performance traits.  We ask the dog to be very well-behaved and neutral to its surroundings such as people, animals, etc.  At the same time, we want the dog to be able to have a high prey drive and use it to attack a potentially dangerous threat.

As we already explained above, a personal protection dog must be able to answer several demanding requirements.  Only puppies with the best pedigrees can be trained to be a PPD.  These puppies are typically bought and imported from Europe.  But even the cost of such a puppy in the US is high (over $2500).

The basic training of a PPD may take over a year and a half.  Then final training to meet the demanding customer requirements may take an additional six months.  K9 Technology uses the best training experts in various fields.  Their time is expensive.  Also, many resources such as multiple decoys must be used during training.  So, the training can cost over $25,000 USD to us, and this does not include housing and taking care of these precious dogs.

We spend considerable effort to train our customers in handling their dog.  We also train them in how to best take care of this precious animal.

K9 Technology guarantees all our dogs.  We are confident that our dogs are very well trained and always will meet and exceed customer specifications.  However, there are unforeseen circumstances such as when a customer just cannot build a good relationship with his or her dog.  These dogs have become your family, and we want our customers to have the best chemistry and relationship with your K9 dog.  Although this may happen rarely, we must pride ourselves in the possibility that we will need to replace the dog.

How protection K9 dogs are housed

Typically, our personal protection dogs live in the house.  They are highly trained dogs and are safer around the family and children.  However, in some situations such as owner has allergies or prefers not to have dogs in the house, our protection dogs can be also kept in special climate-controlled kennels outside the main house.

Other uses of protection dogs

K9 Tech Security also uses protection K9 dogs in our property security.  We leverage dogs as an effective complement to our advanced AI surveillance technology.  This solution can be also used for commercial properties such as construction sites.