Unlike most companies you find on the web, advertising a dog for your home with your children. They specialize in police and military dogs. These types of dogs are not usually suited for the family environment. They are much higher drive which can lead to rough play and occasionally an erroneous bite.

This is why we a Global K9 Group and Florida K9 Services, typically start with completely green dogs that we have imported. This way we can be sure that they have not been mis-handled or trained with negative
reinforcement. Many trainers use pinch collars and are much too hard on the dog. The dog should respond to your commands because he wants to not because he is afraid not to.

Shock collars aka e collars make a trainer look good but again it is negative reinforcement. You will need to carry a controller with you everywhere you go with your dog.

By: Wendy Aston, Training Supervisor Global K9 Group

If you are starting with a young puppy it is suggested to let him mature before getting into formal obedience classes. There are two reasons for this: one is that you don’t want your puppy to receive so much information at to young of an age. This can cause boredom which many times looks like rebellion. Focus on behavioral training until he reaches six months. The second is that a young puppy is much more susceptible to contagious illnesses. His immune system is not completely in place there for you are counting highly on everyone else to have been diligent in their care for their puppy. Let your puppy be a puppy, you wouldn’t want to put a two year old boy into the first grade.

Various parts of training are done once a dog reaches an appropriate age. For example; Obedience Training is done at a minimum age of 6
months old. Prior to that age the focus should be behavioral training such as housebreaking, excessive barking, chewing, etc. Territorial Training (car & home) is done at a minimum age of 8-9 months. Lastly, we do not do the full protection training on a dog until he/she is a minimum of 12 to 14 months old. It is important not to rush aggression training, so you have a dog that makes good decisions. A trained protection dog has to make mature decisions and if he learns the work at to young of an age he won’t have a good foundation to rely on.

By: Wendy Aston
Training Supervisor

Once they have sniffed each other and you are satisfied with the behavior towards each other you can feel free to remove the leashes. I still wouldn’t leave them unattended; an older dog can intimidate a puppy very easily. Puppies on the other hand can totally annoy an older dog. It may take a while before they can be together unsupervised. Be patient, most of the time they will come to common ground.

I like to have the two dogs together while having quiet time. This lets them get comfortable with each other while trying to head off any jealousy. If they see that the love and affection is evenly disbursed they can relax about competing for all of your attention.

When raising a protection dog we try to get them exposed to as many other animals as possible. Including our cats and the horses down the road, we have even had the chance to get around some alpaca’s.

A good personal protection dog can work with the distraction of other animals.

When you first get your new dog you need to establish some ground rules. These can be a simple as not getting on the furniture or as complex as in which rooms play is allowed. 

First, the dog should never receive correction or disciplines from children under age sixteen. Any corrections should be done with an authoritative voice, and IT MUST BE CONSISTENT. Lack of consistency is the number one reason why people have trouble with discipline.

Be sure when deciding what will be allowed that everyone in the household is on the same page. If one person allows a certain behavior the dog will think that it is allowed all the time. This is unfair to your dog and is setting him up for failure.

With consistency this method will save you a lot of frustration. I like to use quiet time to teach my new dog what I expect in the house. Rough play can be done outside. Your dog will instinctively adjust to each member of the house hold at his own pace. But, once he has he will treat each individual in the manner they want.

In the long run you will have a trained dog that can be a part of the family without driving the family crazy.

By: Wendy Aston Training Supervisor, Global K9 Group, LLC

We at Global K9 Group, insist that the dog be told what is expected of him. If your dog knows what you want there is a much higher percentage that you will get it. Commands don’t always have to be verbal; your dog has a very high associative nature. Using their strong association we can achieve a communication without saying anything.

With all of our protection dogs, we use this very often in teaching the dog how to read any given situation. Your dog reads your body language as well as your verbal ques.

In the early stages of training we work with very deliberate and consistent movements to get the dog understanding what is expected. Then we work to a more natural motion, then anything that is inconsistent the dog pays more attention to.

Once you think about how associative your dog is it will surprise you. Note that your dog knows when you pick up your keys that you are leaving. The dog doesn’t know that the keys go to the car and house; he just knows that you pick them up every time that you leave.

A well trained dog uses this association in all of its exercises and real life.

By: Wendy Aston, Training Supervisor, Global K9 Group

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We were getting to the point of banishing her to the laundry room at night and the yard during the day. We did the slow change of food, tried activated charcoal tabs, even tried Beano. Nothing could stop the dark cloud that followed her around.

Being in the trained protection dog business, I felt I should know what to do. Having been a German shepherd owner most of my life, gas was only a sporadic issue. Wow, what a difference with the Doberman.

So I read that several people have resorted to living with candles and air fresheners, this was not going to make it in our house. Then I found the answer I was looking for. Low fat plain yogurt, she loves it and man…no gas. Granted it has only been four days, but that is the longest fresh air stretch we have had since she came into our lives.

If this can help only one Dobi lover, I have done my good deed for the day.

By: Wendy Aston, Global K9 Group, LLC

Most people have the misconception that a trained protection dog, is a dog that can’t be around people. That is a falsehood that only pertains to an untrained or poorly trained dog.

If a dog is trained properly he should be a family pet and companion as well as a protector. If the dog needs to be put away when people come to the house, what will happen when a bad guy come to the door?

We at Global K9 Group take all of our dogs to parks and stores, places where people are. They have to be subjected to a wide variety of environments. This is how we know what to expect of the dog, and the dog knows what we expect from him.

We are located in a suburb of Orlando with lots of people and traffic. This gives us the perfect opportunity to expose our dogs to a wide array of situations. Building a strong foundation for stability in social situations, meanwhile building the proper amount of suspicion and protection.

By: Wendy Aston, Global K9 Group, LLC