Women Seek Watch Dogs During Recession

To counter fear of a rise in crime, some pet owners are training their dogs to protect their house and ward off potential harm. (ZT Pet News Photo by Marise Nazzaro)

Women Seek Watch Dogs During Recession: Increasing crime rates, driven by the down-turned economy, have sparked a trend of women turning to their dogs for a sense of security. "It feels a lot better to pet than having a gun in my nightstand," said one Arkansas woman.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Though the economy has caused many industries to take a severe hit, one business remains on the rise: dog security training.

Master dog trainer Greg Durham's services are in such demand he says he struggles to handle incoming business.

"If I could keep up with the supply and demand my business would jump up 35 percent," he said.

Booming business is an ironic trend with so many jobless or in the red, but Durham says his success is not a fluke. Rather, he says, it's a nod to the economic crisis leaving people worried about rising crime, and their personal safety.

According to the Police Executive Research Forum's just released survey, 44 percent of police departments cited an increase in crime due to the economic crisis.

"Look at past recessions and depression that we've had, crime a lot of times goes up, but it is just an uneasy feeling," said Lt. Terry Hastings of the Little Rock Police Department.

To that end, many of Durham's clients, who are women, feel they need extra home security, such as Kelly Buck.

Buck and her German Shepherd, Dominator, have been working with Durham for the past two years. As a single mother who lives alone in a rural part of Arkansas with her 7-year-old son, Buck says she's lucky to have a dog that was trained prior to the economy's downturn.

In her opinion, Dominator is the best form of first-line defense against any intruders. Although Dominator isn't one of the three breeds -- Bull Mastiff, Doberman Pincer or Rottweiler -- considered to be the best security dogs by author Stanley Coren, the bred has little to do with deterrence, says Lt. Hastings.

"They keep criminals away," Hastings said. "A lot of times when you talk to burglars and ask them why they picked a particular house, they say, 'well, that one didn't have a dog.' "

This account is supported by John MacLean's "Secrets of a Super Thief." While first published in 1983, security professionals have continued to hail the book as still being pertinent insight -- although now out-of-print and a rare collectible.

A convicted "super thief" himself, MacLean wrote that, in a survey of 300 inmates convicted of robbery, 95 percent claimed a dog would scare them away.

Durham also feels that a dog, out of all the security options, is the better choice.

"Even though you have a gun, a dog is a bigger deterrent factor than a gun," Durham said.

For Buck, there are other rewards to having Dominator by her side.

"It feels a lot better to pet than having a gun in my nightstand," Buck said as she rubbed Dominator's head.

A dog by her side is what kept Tiffany Williams safe from a recent intruder.

"Few months ago during a thunderstorm, I kept hearing someone trying to get in the house," said Williams, who also works with Durham. "With all the thunder he got up and started to bark and they left."

Williams' dog's keen sense of lurking danger is what Durham taps into with the various dogs he trains on his 40-acre farms outside Little Rock.

He calls his technique "family friendly" and never uses verbal cues, such as "attack" as, he claims, the dog may not be able to respond appropriately if a person is being violated.

"When I read this article about the lady in New York who was attacked by a guy. The guy ended up raping her and beat her up, but she had a Doberman that was command trained," Durham related. "She told police, 'but I never had a chance to tell him to get him.' "

For that reason, the training is based entirely on a criminal's actions versus a verbal command.

In a demonstration, Durham's assistant, Gerald Williams, put his arm around Buck to see if Dominator would respond to the situation. Dominator did. He lunged at Williams until Buck signaled him off.

For Durham, a man who has trained more than 5,000 dogs in the course of 35 years and keeps security dogs on his property, precious little is daunting to him, save for one scenario.

"One of the things I fear is a lady that has control of her big dog," Durham said with a chuckle. "It's just something about that, and that dog looks you in the eye, like 'What do you want?' And they can do that. [sic]

"I mean, even me, I'm a professional and I respect that."

For more information on Greg Durham's techniques, visit DurhamHausWorkingDogs.com.