09/18/2026
I spent over a decade researching Protection Dogs before I finally got one.
It was doing all of the due diligence, and then finally purchasing Connor, followed by the discoveries I made afterwards that would lead to the creation of AlpinHaus Shepherds. And what would lead to the innovation of an entirely new category of trained Protection Dogs.
I had no idea how much work, commitment and expense would be involved in the project. I was just obsessed with the imperative of innovating an industry so obviously in desperate need of it.
During this process I also started to understand that, for real world Protection Dogs, a German Shepherd, of any kind, was not appropriate.
For real world Protection only two breeds are acceptable: Dutch Shepherds and Belgian Malinois. These are the Olympians of the Dog world, and are the only two breeds that can rightfully become Superdogs.
And in reality, they are the same breed, just with different coat colors.
Genetics are everything in the world of Protection Dogs 1.0. The capabilities that the Dog will ultimately possess are determined by them almost exclusively. You hear this very clearly when trainers say, “Either the Dog has ‘it’ or it doesn’t.”
But for Superdogs genetics are just the starting point. No matter what we will fine tune them, over-writing them if necessary or desirable, as we want, in order to achieve the states of balance and harmony that we create.
This capability, to overwrite genetics, is the province of rarified air. There are only a few that can do it. And only one person in the world, a man we call Yoda, that can do it well.
Sport Dog training, Military Dog training, Police Dog training and conventional Protection Dog 1.0 training…. Unless you are very lucky, these will all fail you in some way or another when you are called upon to live with and utilize the Dog in real world environments and situations.
O’Connor was trained to the highest level in IGP. But for what we needed this served as just a small foundational base for what we would ultimately turn him into.
It didn’t change how much I loved or revered him, but coming to the realization that Connor was sold to me as a full Protection Dog by someone who truly believed it, by someone that had specialized in importing German Shepherds into the US for 50 years, opened my eyes to just how riddled with problems the Protection Dog industry was (and remains).
The truth is, over 99% of Protection Dog trainers have no idea of the extent of limitations they face in their knowledge and capability. And performing due diligence in this industry is almost impossible for would-be Clients to do.
It is this condition that AlpinHaus is addressing.
