SELF PROTECTION : PREPARING YOURSELF FOR SURPRISE : Guard Dogs : Deadbolts Are Cheaper Security but Teeth Have Their Points

The hundred-pound-plus Rottweiler, jaws as big as a suitcase, strains at the end of his leash, whoofing and itching for a chance to attack.

Finally, Ann Hill gives the command, and Sasko clamps his massive chops down on the protective leather sleeve held by trainer Brad Franz. After a few seconds of twisting and tugging, Hill calls her dog off, and Sasko is sweet as sugar.

“He’s my baby,” says Hill, of Yorba Linda, the wife of former Los Angeles Rams’ tight end David Hill. “I don’t think (my husband would) have any other kind of dog. I just feel so safe.”

Safer, no doubt, than the ill-advised intruder who would invade the territory of Sasko, or any other well-trained guard dog--such as Ashley, Jeannie Salazar’s black German shepherd. Salazar, who lives in Santa Ana, took her dog to protection training classes for two years.

“It was in her breeding,” Salazar said. “I can take her to the park, and she’s great around the kids. But if anyone comes around the house, forget it. No one even comes up to the gate.”

Burglar alarms are cleaner and don’t need feeding. Deadbolts are cheaper. But a dog--particularly one schooled in protection--remains one of the most effective methods of improving home security.

“The presence of a dog in a back yard will keep intruders outside,” said Anaheim Police Lt. Marc Hedgpeth. “They bark and make a racket. That will certainly deter someone from going back there.”

Sgt. Michael Gray, head of the Anaheim Police Department’s community services bureau, says residents at neighborhood watch meetings often ask about the advisability of purchasing dogs to guard their homes.

“We recommend anything that would make a person feel more comfortable in their home, and more secure,” Gray said. “There are ways to defeat a dog--throw it meat and such--but they’re definitely a deterrent. . . . If you’re going to have one, you ought to have it trained.”

An untrained dog can be either too vicious--presenting both safety and liability problems--or too passive, providing no real security, say police as well as dog trainers and breeders.

“If you have control over your dog, then you really won’t have problems,” said Tom Tackett, a trainer and breeder in Orange. “If the dog is not in control, if it’s just plain mean, well, then you don’t have much of anything.”

Hedgpeth agrees that a trained guard dog is better than simply a vicious one--but even then, he has reservations about the presence of large, dangerous dogs in family neighborhoods.

“There are numerous occurences in a residential neighborhoods, like when a kid kicks a ball over into your yard and he goes to retrieve it, where a guard dog might react differently from the average dog,” Hedgpeth said.

Tackett, who runs his business out of his home, says he turns away more than half the dogs brought to him for protection training.

“What I like to see in a dog is that they’re very sociable, friendly and self-confident,” Tackett said. “If he has those traits, we can train him.”

A “sharp” dog, on the other hand--a dog that is quick to snap if startled, or one that shows its teeth and tries hard to look vicious--is not a good guard-dog candidate, Tackett said.

“A dog that’s sharp, quite often he’s got some insecurities,” he said. “He’s putting up some kind of bluff.”

A stress test allows Tackett to quickly assess a dog’s confidence and aggression levels. With the dog on a tether, the trainer slowly approaches him from the side, establishes eye contact, and then comes at the dog straight on, waving a bag or stick.

Some dogs can’t handle the stress and show extreme fear. Others raise their hackles and bare their teeth, hoping to scare the attacker. “The ideal dog is at the end of the cable, barking, tail up, muscles forward,” Tackett said. “He’s saying, ‘OK, you want to fight? Great, let’s go.’ ”

Then, the trainer drops the threat and quickly tries to befriend the dog.

“The ideal dog can handle all of that,” Tackett said. “Some freak out.”

Some breeds make better guard dogs than others. Rottweilers, German shepherds and Belgian Malinois--an increasingly popular breed, particularly with law enforcement agencies--are ideal for protection work, trainers agree. Hunting dogs, such as golden retrievers, are normally too friendly. “They’re too passive, too easygoing,” Tackett said.

Terriers, however, do “extremely well,” he said. “They’re small, but they don’t think they are. . . . A dog 45 pounds and up can handle himself and take out a man.”

Dobermans, while menacing, are not the most reliable breed, and tend more than some others to bark unnecessarily.

Pit bulls? “We don’t see them too often,” said Tony Terrazas of K-9 Companions, which operates out of Yorba Linda and Riverside. “Their owners believe their dogs are aggressive as is. . . . What they’ve got is a gun without a safety.”

Mixed breeds sometimes turn out to be trainable, but if what you really want is a first-class, four-legged bodyguard, you should buy a dog that has been bred for that kind of work, Terrazas said.

“If you’re going to put your money into it, you want a Cadillac,” Terrazas said.

An untrained Rottweiler costs between $800 and $1,500, while a trained dog of that breed might sell for $2,500, according to Terrazas. German shepherds are somewhat less expensive.

Dogs with champion bloodlines, however, cost much more.

One of Tackett’s Rottweilers--10 year-old Bruno von der Herzogslinde--cost $10,000, while Arras Zur Spielmanns-Au, a former world champion and the grandfather of a recent litter of “Rotties” at Tackett’s house--all of which were sold before birth--is worth about $40,000.

These dogs, and others with similar bloodlines, are entered in Schutzhund (protection dog) competitions, which test a dog’s skills--including its ability to run and knock down a man wearing a full protective body suit.

“You teach them to tackle like a linebacker,” Tackett said. “Some of the trainers have gotten cracked ribs . . . and most of them end up with bad backs. It’s very physical work.”

Training a dog can cost from $300 for basic obedience to $3,000 and up for advanced, specialized protection training.

For about $800, a dog can be trained to provide an acceptable level of protection, Tackett said.

“He’ll alert when told, and bite if someone gets aggressive,” Tackett said.

Both Tackett and Terrazas agree that the demand for protection dogs has increased in recent years. “It used to be 10% of my business; now it’s probably 40%,” Tackett said.

Terrazas says that business often picks up after highly publicized crimes, such as the Night Stalker murders or the 1988 killing of auto racing figure Mickey Thompson.

“Definitely, more people want it,” Terrazas said.

Ann Hill said she got her first guard dog because her husband was out of town so often “and the football schedule’s right there in the paper for everyone to read.”

“The dog’s great with the kids,” said Hill, who has two young boys. “And we don’t get too many magazine salesmen.”