Chimera Kennels

I have watched countless videos and noticed that the majority of protection trainers train dogs to strictly attack the sleeve (arm). Generally this is the "weak side" or opposite side of the weapon hand. However I have seen a few that train dogs to specifically attack the weapon itself or the weapon hand. Is this just further training for the individual dog or a different course of training altogether? Also which would be more desireable, a dog that just attacks or a dog that attacks the "weapon hand" and the pros and cons of each?

@Lee, I was just curious as to what drives you would say that Tara is expressing in her protection video? Defense or Fight? Also I will reference this video to the above statement as she seems to be trained to attack whatever weapon is being used, at least in this scenario it seems the case. I really enjoy watching videos like this where the dog nearly immediately drops whatever item is used as a weapon and redirects its attention on the attacker. Excellent dog and great vid.

Tara would work with both defense and fight. She didn't work with a lot of prey in protection situations though. She would use prey when playing with her owner. Back then though, I did a lot of defense or prey work...which is about fighting and defending their posession.

As far as weapon hand debate...it would depend upon how the dog targets and what the weapon is. If the weapon is a gun, the dog would probably be better targetting the weapon hand to prevent being shot. If it was a knife or a stick, I would like the dog to target the shoulder on the non-weapon hand...especially if it can get to the back of the arm. The amount of training though required to teach a dog seperate tactics though would be very extensive, so I personally don't bother teaching a dog to use one method one time and another method another time (if even possible). Instead, I prefer to teach the dog to target whatever it can get ASAP and only regrip if they can climb up. This is MY preferred method of training.

Thanks for the info Lee. Sorry its taken me so long to respond, things have been pretty busy here at our outpost not to mention the on again off again internet and communication blackout periods.