For people in the market for a trained personal protection dog, a common concern is safety. In particular, if you have young children at home, you want to know if you have something to worry about when it comes to mixing dogs and children. But here is the deal: in a dog’s world, aggression is only an option in the context of a threat or a challenge. Otherwise, when faced with any other situation, a dog’s preferred course of action is to flee. So if you’re wondering – “Will my children be safe if I get a personal protection dog?” the answer is simple. Yes. The key is to choose the right dog to be a perfect fit for your whole family and this includes taking into account things like the temperament and personality of the animal and trainability. You also need to dog-proof your kids and kid-proof your dogs.
The best protection dogs for young families with children
When choosing a personal protection dog, an important consideration is to choose an animal that will be a sword by your side but at the same time, is fun loving, good with children and fits right into your family in terms of energy level and lifestyle. The first thing to think about is dog breed. Individual dog breeds can be compared to one another in terms of size, trainability, grooming needs as well as personality and general temperament. German Shepherd protection dogs, for instance, are large and require some grooming. They are also fun loving, eager to please, smart, confident and hard working but require lots of exercise. In contrast, Belgian Malinois protection dogs, which are a medium size dog and eager to please require more exercise. They are also courageous and fit right into families with children.
The next consideration is adequate training. Before you get a personal protection dog, you need to make sure it has gone through expert training and that includes going through every temperament test conceivable. You can’t just assume that a dog, because it knows how to “sit” and “stay”, will turn the other cheek if your toddler pulls its tail or smacks it on the head. Dogs need to be trained and adequately socialized to make sure everyone in your family, including your children feel comfortable around them and more importantly, happy and safe. The relationship between a child and a dog can be a most fulfilling one but the prerequisite to that is that the dog is custom trained to be a perfect fit for your family.
Teaching your children to be mindful
And finally, German Shepherds and Belgian Malinois protection dogs may make the best and most loyal companions but you also need to teach your children the dos and don’ts of interacting with dogs and playing with them. If your children are big enough, you can even consider teach them certain commands including obedience commands and exercises like “protective escape”, in which, under threat, a dog will bark and show aggression while maintaining a tight circle around the handler. The animal will not bite unless the handler gives another clear and very specific command to do so.
About CCK9
Operating out of California, CCK9 is a premier dog-training center with a specialty in training German Shepherds and Belgian Malinois protection dogs, two of the best breeds for protection dogs. Using a combination of communication, direction and correction training, we make sure that our dogs match your lifestyle, wishes and expectations with the right confidence and skill set to be a sword by your side. We coordinate with some of the top breeders in Europe and our dogs are stringently tested for their temperament. To learn more about our Protection Dogs for sale.