Protection Dog Profile – Buddie
Buddie – Kev’s constant companion
Buddie is a four year old German Shepherd owned by Kev, a trainer at Aylwards Dog School. A photo of Buddie leaping to attack during protection training session was the inspiration for the Aylwards Dog School logo used on the Aylwards Dog School website. Kev purchased Buddie as an 8 week old, unpapered German Shepherd puppy and they have been inseparable since. He is well named because he is definitely Kev’s Buddie!
Buddie is an energetic dog and really enjoys having a ball thrown for him. Kev finds it difficult to mow the lawn most times because Buddie insists that Kev should be playing ball with him instead of doing domestic chores. Kev has lost count of the number of Buddies rubber balls that have been accidentally chewed up by the lawn mower because of Buddie dropping the ball right in the lawn mowers path in an effort to convince Kev to play ball.
At 8 months of age, Buddie began his Obedience training at Aylwards. Buddie completed his first course of training and Kev repeated him in a second course to polish and reinforce the obedience training before he started Buddie in Protection training. Kev started Buddie in Protection training to stimulate Buddies mind and encourage him to work to his full potential.
Inspiration for the Aylwards Dog School logo. Copyright Teale Shapcott & Aylwards.
Buddie and Kev have been doing Protection training for 3 years and Buddie is now a fully trained Protection dog. Buddie and Kev often demonstrate the abilities of a fully trained family Protection dog during demonstrations held at the end of each Obedience course at Aylwards.
Protection Training Demonstration – May 2011 Copyright Teale Shapcott & Aylwards
These demonstrations highlight:
- Advanced Obedience: Buddie being able to sit, lie down and stay regardless of other distractions in the area.
- Switching on / off for Protection work: How Buddie has been trained to ‘switch on’ for protection work and then ‘switch off’ at the end of protection work to get a cuddle from people in the crowd. 😀
- Seeking / finding an ‘Intruder’: Buddie has been trained to use his sense of smell to seek out and ‘indicate’ the presence of a potential home ‘intruder’ to Kev.
- Responding to threatening behaviour: Anyone can pat or approach Buddie. Through his training, Buddie has been taught the difference between a non-threatening person and someone who is a real threat to Kev. Buddie will only react aggressively he percieves Kev is being threatened by another person by posing an aggressive or suspicious demeanor.
- Detaining an intruder: Buddie can be left to guard an intruder while Kev gets a phone to call the Police. If the ‘intruder’ moves, Buddie will launch into attack again without a command from Kev.
Buddie was an enthusiatic learner during his Obedience & Protection training. The only challenge Kev found during his training was learning to read Buddie when he was indicating the presence of an ‘intruder’ in hiding. After a few false starts, Kev soon learned Buddies subtle behaviours to indicate the presence of someone hiding from them during simulated patrol training. Kev has found that Protection training has made Buddie a more obedient, easy to manage dog. Buddie is essentially Kev’s shadow, going with him to most outings even to dinner with friends! Someone once asked Kev if the training has made Buddie more aggressive, his response: “No way! Buddie is not aggressive, he has the most loving temperament. Buddie is courageous & he proves that every training session when he works to protect me!”
Buddie racing in to detain an ‘intruder’. Copyright Teale Shapcott & Aylwards
Kev thoroughly enjoyed his training with Buddie and as a result that he decided to join Mikes training team to learn how to train others in Obedience training and learn the techniques for training handlers and dogs in Personal Protection. As part of his training, Kev trained a rottweiler obtained by Aylwards for training in security work. Oak is now a working dog in the security industry and Kev continues his training as a trainer at Aylwards in Obedience and Protection every weekend.
Buddie during Protection Training
If you would like to see Buddie and Kev doing a Protection Dog demonstration, our next demonstration will be held at Aylwards Dog School on Saturday the 15th of October and Sunday the 16th of October from at 10:30am. We have even provided you a small snippet of a demonstration below of Buddies work during Protection training. Stay tuned we will have more videos of dogs working to come!
Related Links:
- Protection Dog Profile :: Axel > Axel and Jill’s journey through Protection training at Aylwards
- Protection Training > More information about Protection Training at Aylwards
- Protection Dog Demonstration Video :: Brinny > Brinny, John & Grant demonstrate the skills of a personal protection dog & handler during a Protection Demonstration held every 5 weeks at Aylwards.
- Protecting your Car.. > Weekend training activities for Protection Dogs & their handlers.
- Designing a Dog School Logo > The process used by Teale Shapcott to design the logo used on the Aylwards Dog School website.
Category: Protection Dogs
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