Deter, Detect, Delay, Defend

When it comes to security, what’s your plan? At K9 Protector, we recommend using the principle of Deter, Detect, Delay, Defend to ensure your family home is safely protected.

Here’s an overview of how it works:

Deter

When it comes to breaking into a house and stealing, intruders will always look for easy options. To encourage an intruder simply leave your doors and windows open, your car unlocked and make sure to have valuables in plain sight through the windows.

If, however, you don’t want anyone to break in (and we are pretty confident you don’t!) then make it less attractive to possible intruders.

As well as closing and locking possible entry points, having an alarm system with a visible alarm box on the outside of the home helps - but the best way to really make a professional thief think twice is to have a well-trained protection guard dog that’s clearly visible to anyone eyeing up your property.

Car and house alarms make a noise that may deter intruders but a bit of noise and the risk of being seen isn’t as powerful as a guard dog that could get physical with them.

It’s human instinct to not want to be confronted in any way with a protection dog that has a good physical presence.Here's a photo of Tiger - one of our fully trained protection dogs barking at 'an intruder' during training

Detect

There are a number of ways that you can detect when someone has broken into your property but they aren’t very effective if someone breaks in while you are at home. If you hear noises in the night, for example, how do you tell if it’s the children going to the bathroom?

Once bonded with a person or property, a well-trained protection dog, for instance a German Shepherd, will bark to alert the presence of a stranger or a strange noise that they aren’t familiar with. Since dogs have a great sense of hearing and smell, they are also able to tell when something has changed such as the smell of a new person entering the home.

Delay

Being able to detect an intruder as early as possible helps to make sure that you are prepared. Early warning signs allow you to raise the alarm and hopefully scare the intruder away. Dogs from K9 Protector are also trained in specific delaying tactics so that the thief cannot carry on with their activities. This gives time for a police response or any other form of help to arrive.

Defend

At K9 Protector, all of the dogs we pair with our clients are highly trained to deter, detect and delay so that your home and family are protected from anyone wanting or trying to break into your property. Even despite this, there is always the possibility that the criminal decides to get aggressive while family members are present.

While we fully support the use of intruder alarms, security locks and other devices, none of these will protect you when confronted by a threatening stranger. Having a K9 Protector dog, however, growling with 42 teeth and the idea of around 250 pounds of pressure per square inch tugging on their clothing or arm will be enough to scare them away. Nobody wants to be bitten by a dog, it’s our primal human instinct!

When it comes to defending yourself, having a trained K9 Protector dog is the best and safest way to protect yourself and your loved ones.

The long wait...

Police response times for night-time 999 calls that are acceptable to the home office are 30 minutes in urban areas and 45 minutes if you live in a rural area. This means that if your home is broken into, you could be alone without help for some time.

Tonight, just as you are about to relax for the evening, think through an intrusion scenario to your home by a violent burglar. What is your plan? Apply the Deter, Detect, Delay, Defend model and ask yourself - what could or would you do? How would a protection dog help you and your family?

To summarise

A K9 Protector fits the Deter, Detect, Delay, Defend security model perfectly.

Deter - The visual presence to individuals conducting hostile or proactive reconnaissance and the image of a trained dog obediently under control portrays a dog with a level of training.

Detect – Your protection dog will give vocal alert or body language to signify danger

Delay of multiple intruders - It’s the primal instinct because who wants to risk getting bitten by the German shepherd?

Defend – Your trained security dog will perform the ‘detain, bite and hold’ and release on your command

The next steps

Having a security plan is important and we recommend putting things in place to make sure you are able to deter, detect, delay and defend!

If you already have a security plan then it’s always good to review it regularly to make sure you and your family feel safe and protected. Could you be doing more? And even though you feel safe, is there anything you have missed? Everyone should plan for the worst-case scenario.

At K9 Protector, we believe that the only way to fully protect your home and loved ones is with a professionally trained family protection dog that has bonded with you and is part of the family.

To find out more about having a professionally trained K9 Protector dog, get in touch today.