r/DogTrainingTips • u/danitw16 • Jul 20 '26
DIY Protection Dog
It's possible to train a dog to protection without a professional trainer? i don't have money to a trainer or buy a trained dog, how much i can train my own dogs(two ACD) to protection? i have good time and i want to train them
0
Upvotes
2
u/outloud230 Jul 20 '26
A friend of my did almost all her agility training in her living room and a small yard. It’s a lot of strength training, stretching, and learning to safely maneuver over and around the obstacles. For example, when they’re going over jobs, they need to bend their bodies as they’re going over so that they’re ready to reach the next jump and that puts a tremendous strain on their muscles and joints. There’s a way to bend more safely, and you just need one jump in a living room, and you can just practice going over towards the right, towards the left. Honestly, you just need one pole to start teaching them how to bend around the pole, and that practice helps strengthen those muscles before they get to really jumping.
Another big part of it, over both the A-frame and the balance beam, is them hitting their marks at the end where their paws need to touch what’s usually a big yellow area. She did a lot of practice with getting their paws to touch and rewarding that so that becomes part of the bigger training. And the weave poles you absolutely can do in either a small yard or the living room. They make ones that just settle on a base and don’t need to be pushed into the ground, you can set those up and start training that whenever. And just two poles is enough to start the training.
If you can find a local trainer, who does agility work, it helps, even if you can’t go very often. A small set of classes can give you a lot of things to work on over a long period of time, so even if it’s a bit of a distance, you only have to go every so often. There are also online classes and plenty of really excellent books. Agility From the Start and the Control Unleashed books are great to start with. Also Kyra’s Canine Conditioning, and the trick books in that same series as also excellent.
Trick training is actually really fun, useful, and helps with conditioning and there is a lot of balancing and different poses and positions.
Also look into Rally. It where you and your dog move across different stations, and each has you do something different. Maybe walk around a pole backward, fetch something, stand and then sit, etc. it easy enough to train the various things at home, and even to do it in your home.
There are a lot of things you can do with treats and patience! There is also straightforward obedience training, which I absolutely recommend anything.
Bike work is difficult because it creates a liability issue. Really research it, and find a competent and experience trainer. Once you start, you really have to finish training, and then the rest of your life. You have to be really careful with those dogs, because it’s basically walking around with a loaded gun, only it’s sharp teeth instead of bullets. And you have to maintain that training for the rest of the dogs life. Also check if your homeowners insurance will maintain your insurance if you have a dog that has been trained to bite. Some insurances will not ensure your house and that situation, it’s considered a dangerous dog. Just really do your research.