Guard Dog Gear Part 1: Agitation Collar

In order to work with a family guard dog in personal protection work you need a sturdy leather collar.These collars are relatively inexpensive, but need to be special ordered since a regular dog collar is not strong enough, and does not give an adequate margin of safety. If a collar breaks while working an aggressive dog, the person helping you is...well in a tight spot, so don't skimp on the collar.

Also, a good collar makes your dog look more "impressive" providing greater deterrence and de-escalation ability of the dog than without the collar.

I have included a picture below of a really well built leather agitation collar that I purchased from Leerburg.

Notice how the collar is made of good leather, is double stitched, and has a strong, curved metal piece to hold the leash snap.

Here is a more detailed view of the inside of this collar showing how well it is put together.

This collar will not break even if the dog is pulling like mad (which they do during protection training and real life encounters) and you get a real firm grip on the dog when used in conjunction with a leather leash.

Protection Dogs and BSL

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." - Martin Luther King Jr.

Breed specific legislation is a form of local law that prohibits dogs of certain breeds from living in a given area. Usually it is applied at the city, or county level, less frequently to a whole state. Even the community you live in might have rules that prevent ownership of given breed. Therefore, before getting a family guard dog check into laws, and local rules, that may apply because in some places a dog can be confiscated and put to death because of its breed. The Pitbulls, and kin, are subject to the most discrimination and legal persecution, but others like Rotweilers, Bulldogs, etc. also often included as well.

To help determine if you live in an area where you are prohibited from keeping a certain type of dog look at the links below:

http://www.understand-a-bull.com/BSL/Locations/USLocations.htm

http://www.rott-n-chatter.com/rottweilers/laws/breedspecific.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breed-specific_legislation

Also, check out this book for a different take on the "dog bite epidemic".

Guard Dog Defined

A Guard Dog is any dog, or bitch, kept to protect people, or animals, from harm. They can be of any breed, size, or weight although certain breeds are favored and typically they are medium to large size animals weighing more than 60 pounds.

The emphasis of Guard Dog USA will be on the "family guard dog", also known as a "personal protection dog" or "pet protector." Police, military, private security K-9's and livestock guarding dogs will only be discussed in reference to the family guard dog.

In the United States a family guard dog can be used by civilians to deter crime, and protect life and limb for purpose of self defense.

Only the Police and Military have the right to use a dog in an "offensive" manner to chase and capture people.

Civilians can, however, pretend to use their family guard dog offensively in fantasy scenarios provided by competitive sports such as Schutzhund, French Ring Sport, Protection Sports Association (PSA), etc. These dog sports present trials where the dog pursues and captures people pretending to be criminals. These criminals are known as "decoys" and they wear special padded suits and sleeves for protection from the dogs' bite. Many family guard dogs participate in these sports, and much of the training, and lore, of family guard dogs comes from the ideas generated by people who participate dog sport trials.

It must be noted, however, that some dogs suitable for being family guards make terrible sport dogs, and vice versa. Guard Dog USA will, therefore, explain family guard dog ownership from two vantage points: sport and non-sport family guard dogs.