What is PSA?

The Mission of the Protection Sports Association (PSA) is to provide an outlet for civilian competition in canine obedience and controlled protection.  In each successive level the dog-handler team is asked to negotiate obedience and protection routines that are increasingly complex, difficult in terms of pressure from both decoys and environmental distractions, and as well the handlers must strategize how to work through scenarios involving risk-reward trade offs.  As the scenarios can change from trial to trial in the upper levels, handlers must be able to train components of exercises, and pattern training is a virtual impossibility. The higher the levels, the more surprise scenario components in both obedience and protection are presented to the handlers.

The Protection Sports Association (PSA) was conceived and born in 2001 and last year celebrated its 18th anniversary in October of 2018 at the National Championship weekend held in Canada. The sport was founded by Jerry Bradshaw of Tarheel Canine Training, Inc  and Joe Morris, late of Capital Cities K9 in Baltimore, MD.  PSA hosts trials, seminars, regional and national competitions during a trial season that starts in January and runs through the National Championship in October.  There are four regions: West, Midwest, East, and Canada. ​

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