Your "Protective" Dog Is NOT a Protection Dog...

Hard truth: protection dogs are built. Your dog being “protective” of you is unhealthy. It can be quite a sinkhole of explaining this concept during a phone consultation. Frequently, I’ll take a phone call or a virtual training session of someone explaining behaviors from their dog, that at first glance, look protective of their owner. They go on to explain how they like certain behaviors, saying things along the lines of “if someone breaks in he’ll protect us.” . But then continue to say that they want to get his growling, lunging and barking under control or eliminated on a walk. Unless your dog is a professionally trained protection dog, your dog should never be showing protective behaviors. Those behaviors are rooted in fear, insecurity and anxiety. The behavior is because of an upside down relationship where the dog is more concerned about their own wellbeing and possession over you than your own wellbeing. The dog is also showing you that they have no trust in your leadership and relationship for you to handle potential problems and threats. Is it possible for a dog to be accurately protective at certain times? Sure. But those dogs are RARE. So, please realize, if you don’t want a lunging, growling, snapping dog when you’re out on walks, sitting down at restaurants, or having people over...you also do not want a dog that displays “protective” behavior of you either. We are the caretakers, guardians, parents of our dogs. It is not their job, duty or obligation to protect us. We protect them.