Response to Lee Robinson’s “Understanding Protection: Why ‘all defense all the time’ is insufficient”

Yesterday, Lee Robinson of American Sentinel K9 review stopped by the website and left a comment that included a link to one of his recent videos, “Understanding Protection: Why ‘all defense all the time is insufficient.” I assume he wanted me to watch it, as the video was largely directed at and about me. I will respond to some of Lee’s points.

First, I want to say a few words about Lee’s stick and whip performance testing he described in the video before moving on to the main audio:

Stick and Whip Protection Dogs

Here is my main audio commentary on Lee’s remarks. Lee doesn’t seem to have a clear understanding of Gypsy’s training philosophy. Lee is not only talking about me in this video, it seems as if he’s speaking directly to me.

This is the comment Lee left on my website with a link to the video. I guess he wanted to make sure that I watched it. Who do you think Lee is speaking of in this comment when he’s talking about a student of Gypsy? Hmm? Lol.

Gypsy also expected a dog to engage and to even do a send if and when needed, & this is something some people are overlooking. He also had an APBT named Asia on video doing sends in various situations. This is recorded and on video. Shielding oneself is top priority, but in some situations one has be able to strike an aggressor. Gypsy referred to that when someone “entered the kill zone.” As a result, Gypsy knew and understood the value of striking and striking hard when needed, but by saying “defense,” he knew the strike should not be given to innocent people. The problem some people with limited experience are making is they fail to understand these concepts thoroughly, & as a result they are not as well versed in protection training canines as they want people to believe. In fact, some people claiming to be Gypsy’s students never even met the man and only knew him his last year of life after he himself had retired from training. As a result, I suggest being careful who you get advice from. A shield is defense, and a shield is not always enough. For a dog to be effective and reliable, it must be comfortable in combat, and not afraid to go. YOU can be afraid and overcome that fear with training and conditioning, but if the dog is afraid, well…it will run and go into flight when a threat arrises. Guns are reliable only when their handler is trained and the equipment works. Well, if you are trained but the dog is afraid (guns do not have fear), the dog will be unreliable.

Hold on a second…