Protection Dog

Agreed!!!!!!!! I have met a lady who got an already trained PP Malinois. She was very irresponsible and had a large party at her house with little care to whether or not the dog was properly locked up. She had him in a room in the basement. When people started getting a bit tipsy they started spreading out throughout the house and someone opened the door to the Malinois. He FREAKED out, completly confused by the chaos. A lot of people got hurt because of him as he went through the house attacking everyone. This dog got destroyed because of it. A huge shame because from what I was told he was a great dog with a great pedigree. Just put in the completely wrong situation.

I like my gsd's)

Most people have a high respect for a gsd when they see one. My black male, altho he was the definition of "aloof",,probably wouldn't have bitten a bug. Yet just his presence and his 'quiet watchfulness', was enough to make anyone stop in their tracks.

The female I have now is black sable, and again, her color/looks alone, has caused people to cross the street and/or not touch her. She also is pretty aloof and is definately a 'watcher', that alone can be intimidating to some.

Mine were /are not big barkers, the silence scare people off more than a barking frenzy.
Would they protect me? Don't know , have never put them in a situation where it was tested. I do know both of them would/will let anyone in the house.( My male aussie on the other hand doesn't take kindly to strange men walking in the house.

Looks/size alone can be a deterrent

I think you have gotten a lot of great advice in this thread. I'm sorry I'm coming into it so late! Really if you're just looking for a dog who is going to alert, show teeth, that will be easier to find than a dog who will back that part up by engaging the threat. Though I enjoy that Teeny will alert, and will guard the house and car, for me that isn't what personal protection is. Personal protection is the fact that she will engage a threat. Blue doesn't guard the house and the car, which again to me is fine because that isn't what makes a personal protection dog. What makes a personal protection dog is that he will engage a threat, and that he has a proven history of protecting one of his old owners. That doesn't mean that he barked and growled at the guy until he left the property, that means that when he saw his old owner getting attacked in his front yard Blue jumped out a second story window and engaged the attacker. Now I can only hope that one day Teeny will get her very own story. LOL!

well i for one hope that teeny and blue NEVER have to prove themselves....
but that it the situation calls for it, its good to know its there...
its like having any form of protection, if you have it be prepared to use it but hope you never have to.

i do LOVE your dogs sis!

One other random story...my old dog Meisha had an interesting effect on people. She was a (possible) dobe/lab mix...about the size of a lab, but with all the Dobie markings. Now, she had been highly abused before we got her and we spent most of her life laughing at some of her phobias, like sewer drains, manhole covers, crazy things like this. Sweetest dog ever on the face of the earth, who would melt into a puddle of Sad if you looked at her sternly for too long. She did eventually, about 5 years after we got her, learn to bark at the door when someone knocked or rang the bell.

People would still cross the street to avoid walking past her when out on a walk. One lady even called her dog inside from the front lawn when she saw my mom and Meisha coming towards her. This is a dog that would have had a heart attack if someone actually attacked us, but her visual deterrent level was still quite high.

The BM story you posted is very sad. I have to say that the dog must have been poorly trained and/or she didn't keep up with the training of the dog and left him to his on thoughts on how things should be ran. I have trained protection dogs (Dobies, GSD's, Rotties and now 2 Mals.) A well trained protection dog is more stable and safer than your normal house pet. The way things are today...I wouldn't live without a dog on my farm. There is no alarm system that is as effective as a good dog.
Truth be known, I trained a GSD just in obedience and to alert(no bite) and he was one of the best "watch dogs" I have ever known. He was never tested by a stranger. Would he complete the "act" and follow thru...I'd say yes, even though that was not his training. He died 3 years ago and I never had to find out. A stable dog that trust his owners and is part of the "pack" makes a great watch/guard dog. Trust me.

This has been a really good read.

Like Tucker, I wouldn't want a puppy or one to do sports with. Just a protection dog. Would you recommend a dog already trained for personal protection? If not, how would you go about training a dog like this? Is it natural?

Just for the record, I don't plan on getting a dog any time soon, but it's something to think about for the future.

If you are dead set on getting a dog for PP then I would say get one that has already been trained. It will cost you but you want the training done right. PP training is like a game for the dogs. They don't take it personally. It is easy to take a good dog and mess them up if they are in the wrong hands.
You can also buy a puppy and raise him, socialize him, and do his basic training. Then when he is old enough he can be taken to a trainer to finish him. Get with a trainer from the beginning. Make sure you pick a good puppy...not shy or timid. There is a lot to this type of training. It is fairly easy to train a dog to alert though.

I thought I'd post these vids for you. The first one is of French Ring Sport (to me it well surpasses Schutzhund). This shows the intensity of the Malinois. There is a reason that a lot of Police Dept. and State Units (including my own) are using more mals that GSDs now. One is their drive, also they have a longer shelf life(years of service). Don't get me wrong...the better all around dog is without a doubt the GSD. But it seems to me that the more and more I work with all these K9s the more I am sold on the Mal as a working dog. It's like they know NO fear.

YouTube - Chaos - FRI Competition - Belgian Malinois

This one shows the NO FEAR aspect!
YouTube - Malinois Training French Police

Look at how hard this dog hits!
YouTube - The Take Down: when K9s attack

The dog in the video is my dog's half-sister (same sire), being trialed by my dog's breeder. She's the first female FR judge in North America for sure, maybe even the Western Hemisphere

That's awesome! Is your dog a working dog?

He was. I trained him in PP and French & Mondio ring. Then I got married, moved to the middle of nowhere, had a baby... Now he's just a lunatic housepet.

Here's a video from when he was a pup. It's not phenomenal, but it's the only one I have!

YouTube - Harry doing Bitework

His bite looks really deep...nice! His out was tight too. I bet he drives you crazy now huh? LOL

Oh yeah, he's a loon! He harasses the cat constantly. Cats don't herd well. It's a constant source of frustration for him.

I bet!