Protection Dogs, Sentry Dogs, & Guard Dogs

There is a major misconception in the K9 industry that misleads many people into believing that protection dogs, sentry dogs, and guard dogs are one and the same with police K9s, military K9s, and/or the dogs competing in many of the so called "protection" sports. This is not accurate. Police and military dogs are patrol type dogs that seek engagement of specified targets and suspects, and if a dog owned by a private citizen engages someone without first having a justified reason for engagement they are likely to be sued, and may even have criminal charges filed against them. Those dogs work with professionals that are afforded special protection by laws that often provide some security to those K9 handlers.

Also, sport is a game. Dogs that do well in those games often look impressive and generally have good attributes that one might view desirable in a protection dog, but know that such activities are games, and the dogs are trained to complete tasks in those sports as if they are performing an obedience routine, and therefore those sports generally do not actually test a dog for realistic protection applications.  

That said, if competing in a K9 protection sport of some type is of interest to you, our dogs certainly have the traits needed for such tasks. I only state what I have stated here because a person should know that one's approach for training to compete in a sport is a bit different than the approach one would take to create the optimal guard dog or protection dog.