[Andy Larrimore]

It takes a dog with the correct genetics to be a PP dog. All dogs of every breed are BORN with a certain amount of prey and a certain amount of defensive drives. You can raise a pup in an enviroment without properly imprinting that pup. Imprinting a pup is conditioning a pup to a positive circumstance over and over again an then building on it and it's drives. I can expose a pup positively to more through imprinting then by just allowing a pup to be a pup. I try never to let my dogs experience anything bad or even give them a correction until they are at least 1 year old. Often times this means bad manners such as jumping or pulling. The positive, is that the puppy knows no pain or correction, only praise and a lot of it for desired behavior. When the pup sees the decoy it does not know that it can be hurt by the decoy. If the decoy exposes the pup to a water hose, clatter stick, wooden pallets the puppy does not feel that he can be hurt by the decoy and is much more confident in its bite. If a dog knows it can be hurt by it's own handler then it knows it can be hurt by a decoy. Once I am confident in the dogs ability to fully engage the decoy I begin the obedience. If the dog downs the dog immediately gets the bite. If the dog does a nice heeling pattern for 5 feet the dog gets the bite and so on. Then I gradually increase what I expect out of the dog. The dog developes very nice focus on the man and handler as the handler is the one who allows the bite to take place.

You are right when you said "you either have the correct temperament or you don't". The fact is, is that about 90 percent of dogs can not be PP dogs. It is the temperament that makes the dog a PP dog, not the breed. If you have the correct genetics its up to the handler to train / imprint the pup properly. Without training you will not reach the full potential of your dog no matter what the genetics are.