Table Of Content
K9 PERSONAL PROTECTION
Other titles in the K 9 Professional Training s eries
K9 Behavior Basics, 2nd ed.
K9 Search and Rescue, 2nd ed.
K9 Schutzhund Training, 2nd ed.
K9 Scent Training (forthcoming 2015)
K9 Decoys and Aggression (forthcoming 2015)
K9 Explosive Training (forthcoming 2016)
Other K9 titles from Brush Education
Aggression Control
K9 Complete Care
K9 Explosive Detection
K9 Fraud!
K9 Offi cer’s Manual
K9 Professional Tracking
K9 Scent Detection
K9 Suspect Discrimination
K9 Working Breeds
Police Offi cer’s Guide to K9 Searches
K9 PERSONAL PROTECTION
A Manual for Training Reliable
Protection Dogs
Second edition
Dr. Resi Gerritsen
Ruud Haak
K9 Professional Training series
Copyright © 2002, 2014 Resi Gerritsen and Ruud Haak
14 15 16 17 18 5 4 3 2 1
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Editorial: Meaghan Craven
Cover design: John Luckhurst, Cover image: Shutterstock, Victoria Antonova
Interior design: Carol Dragich, Dragich design
Printed and manufactured in Canada
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Gerritsen, Resi, author
K9 personal protection : a manual for training reliable protection dogs / Dr. Resi
Gerritsen, Ruud Haak. — Second edition.
(K9 professional training series)
Revision of: K9 personal protection : a manual for training reliable
protection dogs / Resi Gerritsen and Ruud Haak. — Calgary : Detselig
Enterprises, ©2002. Includes bibliographical references. Issued in print and electronic
formats.
ISBN 978-1-55059-588-8 (pbk.).—ISBN 978-1-55059-589-5 (pdf).—
ISBN 978-1-55059-590-1 (mobi).—ISBN 978-1-55059-591-8 (epub)
1. Watchdogs—Training. I. Haak, Ruud, author II. Title. III. Series: K9 professional
training series
SF428.8.G465 2014 636.7ʹ0886 C2014-906864-6
C2014-906865-4
Contents
Introduction ...................................................................................... vii
Raising and Training
1 Conditions for Success ...................................................................... 3
2 Breeds for Protection Work ............................................................ 17
3 Training Methods .............................................................................. 49
4 Our Relationship with Dogs ...........................................................5 8
5 Basic Education and Exercises ....................................................... 67
6 Stopping Bad Behavior ................................................................... 77
Obedience
7 Training for Heelwork ...................................................................... 91
8 Training the Sit ................................................................................ 100
9 Training the Down ..........................................................................1 07
10 Training the Stay ............................................................................. 113
11 Training the Stand and Touching ............................................... 120
12 Training the Recall .......................................................................... 127
13 Training the Send Away ................................................................ 134
14 Practical Obedience ....................................................................... 140
VI CONTENTS
Protection
15 The Dutch Police Dog Test............................................................ 149
1 6 Decoy and Dog ................................................................................1 69
17 Raising for Protection .................................................................... 188
18 Basic Exercises for Protection ...................................................... 200
19 Training for Protection .................................................................. 205
E pilogue : Pets and the Working Dog ........................................... 227
A ppendix : Dutch, German, and English Commands .................2 31
Bibliography .................................................................................... 237
About the Authors ..........................................................................2 39
Introduction
It’s impossible to imagine life today without professionally trained
guard, sentry, and police dogs. Dog sports like Schutzhund and
Ringsport also champion reliable protection work, and there are
many privately owned companion dogs that work as protection dogs.
The successful training of a reliable protection dog doesn’t
start, as is often thought, with bite work, but rather with a good
education and obedience exercises. People who don’t agree and
who don’t have a good relationship with their dog and have not
valued obedience training, sometimes start training very young
dogs to do bite work and thus spoil their dogs forever. The dan-
gers that accompany bite work are so great that we emphatically
advise against starting this type of training with dogs younger than
12 months. If a dog starts bite work at too young an age, he will
invariably be a frightened dog or a totally aggressive dog that is
impossible to control. Therefore, bite training should begin only
when the dog is physically and mentally ready for it. As men-
tioned, the proper age for bite work is almost never younger than
12 months and often as old as 18 months.
While you wait to implement bite work into your training
schedule, thoroughly teach your dog obedience exercises until he
is a year old. During this period, you can also start training him
to perform the preparatory protection exercises, as mentioned in
Chapter 17, “Raising for Protection.”
VIII INTRODUCTION
Every dog that is safe in and suitable to our communities—
defi nitely including reliable protection dogs—must have mastered
certain basic skills. For instance, dogs must:
• not pull the leash;
• on command: sit, lie down, stand, stay, and come; and
• display normal behavior with humans and other animals.
To help you ensure your protection dog has these basic skills, we
clearly describe how to train for them in the Obedience section
of this book, before we write comprehensively about protection
training. As in the real world, obedience comes before protection.
We have also presented the PH-1 test of the Royal Dutch
Police Dog Association (KNPV) because it is intended to assess
dogs trained not only for the police service and police tasks but
also for their potential to be reliable protection dogs. In Chap-
ter 16, “Decoy and Dog,” we discuss, among other things, the
behavior of the decoy and that of the dog, as well as the important
warm-up and cool-down exercises that don’t take much time but
prevent injuries.
However, before you get into the details associated with train-
ing, start at the beginning of this book with Chapter 1, “Condi-
tions for Success,” and Chapter 2, “Breeds for Protection Work,”
in which you will fi nd a discussion about the most likely breeds
to train for protection work based on our comprehensive training
experiences with those breeds.
—Dr. Resi Gerritsen and Ruud Haak
Disclaimer
While the contents of this book are based on substantial experience and expertise,
working with dogs involves inherent risks, especially in dangerous settings and situ-
ations. Anyone using approaches described in this book does so entirely at their own
risk, and both the author and publisher disclaim any liability for any injuries or other
damage that may be sustained.
Raising and Training
