[WW2]

Years ago I had a German Shepherd and Siberian Husky mix "puppy" given to me. At 6 months of age and 45 pounds he was a terror on a leash. Any time my wife and I would take him out, we were tangled in his leash in a few seconds. The dog was totally out of control.

So, I went to a trainer and spent good money to have him trained. The trainer and I talked about attack, deterrence, and obedience training. As for attack training, the "gun with a mind of its own" was pretty accurate. I would prefer a gun under my absolute control. As for deterrence training, the trainer said "That is like pointing an empty gun. If you have the dog growl at a person, and the person doesn't back down, then what?" So, the choice was a three week course of obedience and voice command training. The trainer worked with the dog an hour or so every day at his kennel. My wife and I showed up every Monday for an hour of instruction on how to handle the dog. Actually, the trainer was training us! This training of us was necessary as it is important that you and your family members be the Alpha in relation to the dog. This is especially important for children.

After that the dog was a joy, under strict voice and leash command. We used the obedience training to expand the dogs capability so that all commands were known in English, Spanish, and by hand signal. Imagine telling you dog to lie down and stay by hand signal without interrupting your conversation with another person! That was the level of training this dog had.

Just to let you know, the dog was black with a white underbelly. His eyebrows were brown and his teeth were whiter than a Hollywood Star’s. A very intimidating dog by the way he looked. He was 27 inches tall at the shoulder and weighed 75 pounds of which 5 full pounds were fur (yes, I weighed him before and after a summer “shaving” and he literally lost 5 pounds of fur).

The only people that would venture across my fence line were a five year old kid from down the street that loved to wrestle with the dog. The kid never got a scratch but would get pinned down and licked very sloppily by the dog. The other ones that ventured inside the fence line were Baptists coming by for their Wednesday night neighborhood canvassing. However, nobody knocked on the door unannounced as the dog would announce their arrival. The dog would stop barking on voice command. Unless of course it was the middle of the night and a skunk or cat was prowling around!

Two interesting events occurred in the dog’s life. One night, I noticed some teenagers trying to steal the hubcaps from my car. The dog had not alerted since this was outside his fence line. However, upon seeing the kids, I bolted out the door, release the dog and opened the gate and told the dog to “Get them!” The kids had already bolted when I came out the door so the dog was 50 yards behind. When the dog was almost to them, I called him off and he happily returned. A good thing too, since those kids would have been licked all over their faces had the dog caught them. “Get them” was his command to play with somebody.

The second event was a surprise to me. I was walking the dog along a highway. As was usual the dog was at heel on my left side and not on his leash. Since he was under voice control a leash was not needed although I always carried it with me just in case. Anyway, a seedy looking character was coming in the opposite direction towards me. I was a bit apprehensive and the dog must have picked up on this. When the guy was about 30 yards away the dog lowered his head, raised his hackles, and gave a deep menacing growl that I had never heard from him before. The person walking towards us immediately crossed the highway not wanting to see if the dog was serious. All the while the dog maintained a perfect heel and once the person crossed the highway went back to his normal, loveable self. I do not doubt that the dog would have violently defended me if necessary. Fortunately I never had to find out. I felt nearly as secure with that dog at my side as I would with a firearm in my hands.

All this to say, get your pet obedience trained and under voice control even at a high cost. Leave this to professionals as it really is not a do it yourself proposition. This will make your puppy a fantastic family pet that will want to protect the pack when it is challenged, yet will shut up when you tell it to stop barking.