Very accurate. They do not possess (or seldom possess) enough prey drive to build upon to do work out to a distance. Most of their work is at close range, and it is most always defensively driven. I have only seen a very few that possessed enough prey drive to do any type of sport work, and even those were limited.

If the Fila can do the sport work they usually fail at the 'natural-defensive' temperament test as it is dependent upon their natural defensive/territorial tendencies. That failure will lead to that dog with good working ability being removed from the gene pool.

In close quarters when a Fila is correct I am not sure, or better said, I have not experienced their equal. With that said, they do that job so well they in turn become a liability. They have to be locked away when company is over. People will tell you their dog can differentiate between good and bad and react accordingly but that is simply not true. A dog is either trained to bite and trained to 'out' or he bites at his own discretion which is always a ticking time bomb (when they have access to people). With a Fila, when your buddy gives you a high five because your team just scored the Fila sees that as a 'karate chop' of sorts and he will react with extreme intensity...intensity that exposes one to a brand new level of violence.

I enjoyed my time with them but it is a 'show community' and I soon fell out of the good graces of the power players. I had a female that failed their temperament test but defended our home very well, even under pressure. She had conformation faults that made her a bad specimen yet she would track a shot deer as well as any I have seen. She did not have that defensive driven territorial aggression that prevented off lead work. She even caught a hog in a bay pen. She was a good dog, just not a good Fila, or at least that is what they told me. LOL.

It can be the perfect dog to leave with the family when one (me) is working swing shifts an hour away. EWO