Why Do You Need a PPD At Home?

These specially-trained dogs should be a part of your family as they are highly trained on providing protection to your entire family from oncoming threats, and from preventing physical injury caused by such threats. At home, they will ensure that your house is protected from threats of home invasion or intruders. When you are outdoors, they can keep you from potential abduction or threats. Whether you are in a personal vehicle or public transport, these trained dogs will escort you safely to your destination. No matter what the situation is, PPDs are fully-trained to ensure your safekeeping in the face of danger.

It is important to remember that a personal protection dog is nothing like a regular family pet. They receive intense and highly-challenging training before being categorized as PPDs. However, there are advantages of owning such specialized dogs, which include:

• Loyalty towards the owner in all situations
• Protecting the owner at all costs
• Faithfully guarding the owner to make them feel safe
• Ceaseless companionship

Breed Selection:

If you decide to undertake the process of training a dog for your personal protection, then the first thing you must do is choose the right breed. Not all dog breeds can be trained for personal protection. Rottweiler, Husky, German shepherd, or Doberman are some of the breeds you can choose from. These dog breeds can undergo the rigorous training required for safeguarding owners from potential threats and dangers.

Dog Obedience 101: Guidelines to Train a Dog for Personal Protection:

While it is better to buy a personal protection dog for your family if you choose to train your dog, here are a few tips that will help you with the training process.

Obedience Commands – You should start with teaching your dog how to obey. It should be able to respond to each and every obedience command. Whether you want it to lie down, sit, or come towards you, your dog should perform the task correctly every time you on your command. Additionally, your dog must learn to heel when not on a leash and must learn to respond to your commands of ‘leave it’ and ‘bark’. In case your dog is unable to follow your basic commands, you must not continue further with the training.

Socializing – The socialization period for dogs lasts for up to approximately 16 weeks. You have to use this time to help your dog learn to socialize so that it doesn’t fear unusual or new situations. Walking your dog outdoors is the best time for socialization. Making your dog investigate strange objects will help it overcome its nervousness. Your dog must also be able to identify a regular pedestrian and other people you come across without feeling threatened. Remember, that not all dogs can find the difference between who is not safe and who is safe, which is why all dogs cannot be trained as PPDs.

Defense – The next part of the training is a difficult one because this involves teaching your dog how to protect and defend you. For this, you have to look for someone who is a stranger to the dog. Next, make the ‘stranger’ approach and challenge your dog during a walk. The person can be made to wear a thick blanket, oven mitts, or even a dog attack suit for protection. You can then command your dog to bark, and the person can either run off or act afraid. This will give confidence to your dog.

Backing Off – Another important part of the dog obedience 101 training is teaching backing off to your dog. It should not only protect you all the time but must also be trained to leave the individual alone. If you opt for training your pet to attack (which is not recommended), then it should also be trained to back off on your command. This is highly risky training, and if your dog does not respond to your command after it attacks an individual, then it can turn vicious later on. This can lead to your dog not being under control, which can result in undesirable results.

Due to the nature of personal protection training, you are highly recommended to reach out to professionals who can train efficiently instead of trying to train your dog on your own.

Reach Out to Professionally Trained Personal Protection Dogs:

As mentioned earlier, it is not always possible to train a dog to provide you with personal protection. It requires a lot of time and commitment on your part to provide such specialized training, and that too may not end up giving you the desired output. That is why you should get help from professionals who can expertly handle and train your dog to become your personal protector. We recommend to check out https://www.totalk9.co.uk/.

Final Words:

There are many misconceptions regarding personal protection dogs, none of which are true. However, the one thing that stands true about these specially-trained dogs is that your family will remain safe 24/7 under their guardianship. Personal safety holds utmost priority in any family, and having these friendly companions by your side will ensure that no matter where you are. And while you may toggle with the idea of choosing to buy and train a dog for personal protection, it is always a good idea to get professional help when dealing with animals.

The post Everything You Should Know Before Owning a Personal Protection Dog appeared first on Along the Boards.

Nutritionally balanced and cost-friendly dog treats are the best to keep your dog healthy even through training, read more about the right here.

Food Treats are Easy to Use

When your dog does something good, it is easy to reach for the treats quickly give them what they love. This means that you can repeat the process as many times as you will need to reward your pooch. For example, giving your pup a treat anytime they come when called will take a shorter time and more convenient compared to rewarding them with a game of tug. It is also useful when introducing a cue and suitable as you can reward your dog more than ten times without getting tired.

Training treats will also work well as a lure when introducing your dog to new behavior. This works with you placing a treat in your hand, cover it with your fingers, then entice your dog to follow your hand by passing it in front of the dog’s nose. A lure is a force-free way to move your pup into a particular position. When luring your dog, the smellier the treat, the better.

If using a lure for training your dog, switch to prompt as soon as you can. The difference between a prompt and lure is that you do not use food in hand in the first case. Dogs get accustomed to following the lure and may follow a hand motion prompt easily over time.

Food Treats are Powerful Incentives

Contrary to many dog owners’ beliefs, a chicken piece is more rewarding to a dog than approval and praise. No one goes to work to make their boss feel good, but for money to enable you to pay your bills and meet other financial obligations that will make your life better. Food works as a paycheck for dogs.

When training your dog, food is a reinforcer. A reinforcer is something that encourages the frequency of an action. For example, anytime you use it to reinforce a dog in a sitting position, you increase your dog’s chances to sit more often. The majority of dogs will take food as a choice of reward.

Since food is a high motivator in dogs, it increases the pets’ willingness to work. Dogs have an innate love for food hence treats act as primary reinforcers. Your pet is genetically programmed to know the behaviors that get them food.

Food Treats are Available and Affordable

When training dogs, consistency is key. Food treats are easily accessible and affordable. All you may need to do is change a few things on your list since you will still buy dog food. You can conveniently get treats from Tail Bangers for an everyday meal and themed ones for this festive season or other special occasions like birthdays or holidays.

When a Treat is a Bribe

Food treats are incredibly useful for training dogs but can be misconstrued as bribes. When introducing new behavior to dogs, use food as a lure to make the action happen. You will then need to switch as soon as possible to inform the dog that you do not need to bribe into behaving well. Fade out the luring hand as quickly as possible to avoid bribing and keep the treat out of vicinity until the pet performs the requested behavior, then reward.

When a dog refuses to respond to behavior already taught until you show them the food treat, that act becomes a bribe.

How to Pick the Right Training Food

There are plenty of treats to choose from in the market, and if you got a new pet, you might find it hard to know which one will excite your pooch the most. The treats come in dry, freeze-dried, semi-moist or raw form.

Soft treats are the best for training as they do not need to take much for the dogs to chew on and are less distracting. You may need to offer your dog a few options to identify the most exciting one.

Note your dog’s calorie intake when starting the program to avoid overweight issues common in dogs. A thumb rule when training dogs is to ensure that you keep the treats to a maximum of 10 percent as dogs can pack on pounds pretty fast. When shopping for food items, check the calorie content and use a treat calculator to determine the amount your dog should consume each day. Make sure to also provide your pet with the best care he or she can have, by securing dog insurance in case anything happens. Check out Bivvy.com if you’re interested in knowing more about it.

Reducing Treats

Once your dog gets the drill, reduce the treats to special occasions as you do not want to keep reaching on for treats anytime your dog does something good. Also, consider different grades of foods based on your pets’ behavioral performance and keep changing your reinforcement schedule.

Conclusion

You do not need to reward everything or always use food rewards. While food is an easy and fast way to reward your dog when training, it is not the only way. Once your dog gets a grip on the new behavior, use the other aspects of their routines to reinforce their behavior. Also, balancing food and play rewards ensures that your pet remains in good health. Consider throwing a ball at your dog, taking the leash off a dog in the park, cuddling and petting the pooch for a job well done. In some cases, you can use a walk to reward your dog. Your pet can still learn to listen and respond positively to training when it leads to many exciting things.

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