OCEANSIDE, Calif. — Often called guard dogs, more people are getting protection dogs to guard themselves and their homes. Hearing a dog bark from inside your home is proven to make your house a less likely target for break-ins.
Specialty Dog Training in Oceanside has all levels of protection dogs. Many of them now live in houses with families, children and other pets.
Director of Training Nicky Moore has a personal protection dog.
"I love taking him with me when I'm going to a park or when I'm going to get gas late at night, when I'm going to the ATM," she said. "Having a dog that is well-trained and able to be in those social situations, but also able to be a deterrent for any unwanted threats or activity."
Specialty Dog Training dogs are trained in house manners, socialization, advanced obedience, protection work and more. These dogs are a popular tool to guard people and homes, and also just for peace of mind.
"A lot of our clients have had previous break-ins, and kind of want a dog to prevent that from happening again," Moore said. "Or live in areas that you know have a real threat of breaking in, and so it gives them sort of that peace of mind."
CBS 8 saw a demonstration of a protection dog in action from Specialty Dog Training trainers and protection dog Athena.
"Having an uncomfortable situation, a threat presenting, and having the dog bark until the threat leaves and kind of dissipates, is one thing that they're trained to do," Moore said. "The second piece is that apprehension piece, where the threat isn't willing to go away after just the barking, they are kind of pursuing and closing that physical distance and physical threat is when we allow the dog to bite the person."
While having any dog in the house is a deterrent for break-ins, your dog at home probably can't be trained to protect you. Moore said breeding and early training is what makes a good protection dog.
"A lot of people are under the assumption that their dog will protect them, you know, no matter what, and it's just not the case," Moore said.
It's also important to remember that having any type of dog is a big responsibility. You must do a minimum of ten hours of handler work with Specialty Dog Training when you get a protection dog from them.
"You have to be willing to do the work with the handling process with us, and be willing to keep up that training at home," Moore said.
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