The first thing most people notice about German Shepherds and other intimidating looking dogs are the canine teeth, the four large teeth in the front. You don’t have to be bitten to know that contact between those teeth and any part of your body would hurt. A lot. Take my word for it. Anyway, dogs use these teeth for several reasons including grabbing, puncturing and shredding their prey. They also naturally use them for defense. The Best dogs, if trained correctly, also uses them for YOUR defense So here’s the problem: the majority of dogs trainers don’t train their dogs to use these teeth. Instead, their dogs are conditioned to make use of the back molars, with the full mouth, in an attempt to deliver “bone crushing” bites. Police dogs use their back molars when apprehending a suspect. Here is an inside look at the CCK9 Training Method.
Once the dog has taken a bite, he or she hangs on (there are countless police dog training videos on YouTube that show this). This is called “bite-and-hold”. It’s not safe for the handler and it’s not safe for the dog either. Instead, dogs should bite with their canine teeth, multiple times after targeting the weapon hand. Ideally, they should deliver 7 or 8 shredding, devastating bites in a matter of seconds to different areas of the body until commanded to stop. The scene is quite frenzied. In theory, full mouth bites result in fewer injuries to the suspect and, I guess, less lawsuits for the police. In practice, the severity of injuries is just localized to one area of the body. The drawback is that the life of the dog is endangered as is the life of the K9 handler.
After biting and hanging on, the suspect is given an extended opportunity to stab or strangle the dog. It seems unlikely that anyone would be able to muster the courage to do this but add in the use of pain numbing controlled substances and we have a recipe for disaster. Adrenaline and the strong desire to evade arrest are also strong motivators. Once the dog has been killed, the officer is left to deal with situation. Training an Executive protection dog for personal use to utilize a full mouth bite when deployed can lead to disastrous results. There’s no question. So don’t be fooled when a trainer recommends a trained dog for sale that is trained to bite with its back molars Mother Nature dictates that dogs defend with their canines; there’s really no need for improvement.