Ok, so as I understand it, it would be the 3rd phase of IPO - the protection training. So the only difference in classic IPO training & this kind of training is that IPO is (or should be) more of a game/challenge vs the guardian training for protection under threat. I think the difference is very small, as even with IPO there is a "threat" which signals the bite, right? So the stick. So for IPO training the dog needs certain drives in order to be successful at the training - you know more about it than me. From what I understand the dog needs steady nerves, the chase instinct & a instinct to fight/defeat the prey or object. With IPO the dogs can only take part in this phase after obedience & tracking, which is good. With the training I looked at yesterday nowhere does it say there needs to be prior training before the guardian course. So the owner & dog do some basic obstacle work & then go on to the bite training. The guy with the stick & the arm that the dog bites. The dogs on the training I saw were scary to say the absolute least - I was terrified just looking at the photos. 90% of them were Pittbulls. The others were a mix of large breeds. But no boerboels that I saw. So the dog is trained to bite under certain circumstance, mainly when the owner is under threat. This whole thing came about because I asked a breeder if he thought a 2 year old dog could be trained to be obedient. The breed is a mix - its my dog that I got earlier in the year from the SPCA. She is a mix of breeds - we were told she is a Boxer X Boerboel, but now that she is no longer a bag of bones, she looks increasingly like a Pittbull X Boerboel. She has the Pitt "smile" as well as the "butterfly" on her chest. We were told she was 18months when we got her, but she was very much still a puppy, so I think maybe a bit younger - she is now about 2yrs & this girl has gone from a timid bag of bones to one of the most amazing guard dogs I've ever seen. She has suddenly reached maturity - you can see she is solid & pure muscle. She literally lies in front of the front door & waits for us to come home at night. I watch her on the cameras & there is not a person that walks past our house that she does not go flying at barking like a crazy thing. She misses nothing. A few weeks ago I was walking her in the park with my other dogs & a child that lives with us & out of nowhere a guy came out of thick trees & bushes towards us. He wasn't extremely close to us, but it was unexpected & he kept walking straight at us. Before I even knew what was happening she had put herself between him & us & had literally transformed into a state of guarding/attack. Her entire body & face changed & she went mad - with her teeth bared & snapping. To the point where the little boy with me screamed at me "Molly looks scary". She did NOT bite him but I did not trust that she wouldn't because I'd never seen her like that before. Basically what she wanted was for the guy to stop approaching us - so she blocked him & he kept walking, so she then went around behind him & started lunging at his legs, so then he would stop & turn towards her (away from us) and she would then run around him & put herself between us & him again. She did this several times until I basically started walking away in the other direction, and then she followed. This was an extreme situation as she goes to the park often & if somebody is approaching she will run up to them & they will stop & we walk past. No barking no lunging. This guy did feel like a threat - the fact that he would not stop approaching us & came out so suddenly was certainly not normal. Since then I have watched her very closely & I can see she is becoming more & more of a guard dog. If I go to speak to somebody at the gate & they approach, her & my male will bite them - I know this for a fact. My male does bite in those circumstance & she is right there with him waiting for a hand or arm to come through the gate towards me - which is fine. I have no problem with that. Her hackles on her back have now suddenly appeared as well when she barks. All of this has made me realize that having a dog made up of any of those breeds is a responsibility. And I will take it seriously. What I would like is to be able to prevent her biting somebody who is not a threat to me in the future. And right now I feel like she decides what is a threat, not me - hence the question about what kind of training I can do, if any? I do not want any kind of training that will bring out aggression in her - the idea of training her to attack, just so that I can prevent her from attacking does not make sense to me. Or am I wrong?
