We all love and adore our dogs. I am sure that you, like me, enjoy stroking your dog, talking to him, walking him, playing with him or watching him when he sleeps at your feet. But for everything to work out in everyday life, you have to teach your dog to behave well in every situation.
Training is not punishment, and you'll see that your dog won't accept it as such if you don't use the right gestures and methods. So you have the feeling that it's easy to say, but not easy to do.
I know you have hope and trust in your dog, don't you? You trust him to the point of letting him take care of what you value most: your home, your family, your property.
I will tell you about our experiences with my pet dog. Because yes, training is an experience that you can learn and enjoy living together, especially if you want your pet to rise in rank by becoming a guard dog.
First of all, I assure you that I am not a professional, but I am like you, a regular person who had the same problems while training my dog “Niro”. He is a lovely German Shepherd, and for his and my sake, I wanted to teach him the basic commands first before training him for guard duty.
Your dog should be sociable and have a perfect basic training before you consider making him a guard dog. Therefore, he must know how to react to these commands: sit, come, lie down and not move. You will find that living together is easier afterwards, whether at home or on the road.
I was lucky and during my work as a night watchman I was able to learn dog training from a professional dog handler. So I decided to share all the advice I had learned with my friends. I know that it is difficult to train your dog and that is why I would like to share my experience with you.
Why do you make your dog a guard dog? Simply because when you are out there, there can be many things in your house and the number of thefts and burglaries is constantly increasing. You probably adopted your dog to experience moments of complicity with him, not to be your remote alarm on your lap. But why not combine the useful with the pleasant?
A trained surveillance dog is not a heartless dog, rest assured. Your dog will not change and will always be the same. He will only have learned to watch over your house, your belongings or an object and protect you from danger.
An element often forgotten in the educational process
The education of your pet is good, but it is also absolutely necessary to think about how you can protect your dog from the whims of life.
Consider taking out insurance for your dog.
Above all, teaching your dog to stand guard means teaching it to distinguish between people who are welcome in your home (family, friends, neighbors, colleagues) and those who are not.
I see too many people teaching their dog to attack. But this is not the right way to do it. So you just have to teach it to keep watch and stay alert.
Remember that if you call a professional trainer, he will not bite or attack your dog, but will teach it to stay alert and repel intruders.
This is the base. If your dog is running around everywhere, barking and acting crazy, if a fly flies by (exaggerated), if he jumps for joy every time someone rings your doorbell, and if he reaches for his toy when you say "sit", do I need to tell you that things are not right for your dog? I don't want to discourage you, but you're going to have a tough time. This is not an impossible mission, you just have to start and immediately teach him to "lie down", "stand up", "sit" and so on.
Teach your dog how to bark at command. Your dog needs to learn who to bark at. Encourage your dog to bark at strangers approaching your home. Pet, praise or reward the dog for barking at a stranger. Train your dog to stop barking at your command. If it doesn't stop barking when you say it, practice getting people to come to the door. Do not reward the dog until he stops barking on command.
To learn how to sound the alarm, your dog must first be familiar with situations where there is no need for alarm. It's easy, isn't it? Actually, it's not that easy, because he'll have to take the help of your friends and other family members. You will have to prepare aperitifs and meals to train your dog as a watchdog. But, hey, you gotta make some sacrifice!
In your absence, your dog will have to replace you, and it is he who will receive your visitors, so it is better for him to know them. So you have to introduce him to your whole entourage and make sure he gets to know them. To do this, put your dog to bed, greet your guest and call your pet to come and greet him in turn.
Calm him down if he shows aggression and, conversely, congratulate him when he completes his task for the day.
Do you have the feeling that you will not be able to do this? Don't you know how? Don't you have time to take care of it? It's not so bad. It's better to admit it than to try to take care of your dog and do whatever it takes. It might be detrimental to him and the relationship you two have. And the solution? Get a dog trainer over here. Of course, you'll have to put your hand in your wallet, but at least your dog won't cuddle with intruders and bite your mother-in-law!
A specialist will use a modern method to train your dog. Don't worry, he will do it playfully and without tools that cause your dog pain.
I assure you, when I speak of food, I do not mean that he has to follow a certain diet to become a watchdog. But he must not accept food from a stranger. A bit like a child not being allowed to accept candy from someone it doesn't know. Of course, we all have a movie in our heads in which the thugs swing a steak filled with sleeping pills over the wire fence to put the dog to sleep, but there is only one step to make the fiction become reality. Unfortunately, this is a method that is of course only rarely used, but it is used nevertheless.
Ask your friends for help (again). Ask a friend to feed your dog and instruct them to "stop eating". Present the food to him and tell him not to touch it by saying "do not move". If you repeat the session several times, it will be in the bag.
Patience is essential, regardless of the order or attitude you want to teach your dog. Your dog is not born to be a guard dog and it will take time and many sessions to teach him how to guard your house and family and how not to confuse friends and strangers.
It may take a long time, but what a joy once you get it right! And you will succeed. If I can do it myself, so can you, trust me. The most important thing is the regularity of the sessions. For the duration of the sessions I recommend a method where you can train your dog with only 15 minutes of training per day and gradually.
I am sure these tips about how to train your dog to be a guard dog will help you move in the right direction. Training your dog to be a guard dog is really one of the most complicated, I admit. But I trust you, and even if you think of giving up sometimes, I beg you not to. Well, this sounds like the speech of a politician, but I know from experience that with patience, consistency and perseverance nothing is impossible!
To love and educate your dog also means to protect him from the whims of life. Therefore I strongly recommend that you take out a dog health insurance as soon as possible. This will save you astronomical vet fees in the event of an accident or illness.