Prancing Malinois Videos

Love watching working Mals. Not a dog I could handle I don't think, but lovely to watch. Moxie has a similar competition heel. Very flashy!

I am afraid Mississipi Rick that there is nothing "special" about a Malinois "on and off switch" GSD and other breeds have it too.

There are clever Mals and daft ones just as there are GSD etc.

As for them being used in the UK forces, there are LOADS in the MOD and police forces. Lots in Working Trials, Schutzhund and Kamal Fernandez and someone else whose name does not come to me have won tickets in obedience with them.

The prancing heelwork can be seen in BC, ASD, GSD, BSD GR etc etc it is not restricted to the Malinois!

Lots of lurchers and pointers do it as well.

rune

I agree about the use of a shock collar, but some of the e-collars out there now have multiple settings to include audible tones and vibrate modes. These are great if you need to do some intensive (ie, Schutzhund) training.
I don't like getting a static electricity shock, so I don't believe in shocking my dog, either. But sometimes an audible tone or a little vibration brings her attention back to what we need to do. And, of course, positive reinforcement at all times!

Never found the need to use a collar such as this even for Schutzhund training, I can get my dog's attention with no need to resort to this!

Lovely dog, but I'm with Labradork: my definition of 'heelwork' is the handler and dog both looking where they are going and both moving in a natural manner.

I know in some types of competition, what's in that clip would be seen as fantastic and 'flashy' or 'smart', but while I can appreciate the training that has gone into it, I prefer to see dogs walking to heel in a more natural way.

Maybe it is because I hang around with gundog types - but if you took a dog out over rough terrain like that and had to heel it off-lead you'd both go A over T

I do love Malis though - and it does show how much they love to work, so still very much appreciated, even if it's not my thing!

Totally agree.

Lovely dog but that way of moving looks so unnatural. And can it be comfortable for the dog to have to continually be tilting his head up in that way?

Sorry, I just don't get it, I feel sorry for this dog!

The heelwork requirements differ from discipline to discipline, what is wanted for Working Trials is not what is wanted in Schutzhund; the latter is not what is wanted in Mondioring and of course Gundog work is different again.

Fortunately nobody has to a) work a breed they don't like or b) participate in competitions they don't like.

I will see if I can find the other clip that has the same dog walking with her with a natural type heel. The dog can do both.

Lovely dog - agree with everyone else about the collar tho.

Smokeybear - you should upload some vids of your dogs working - would love to see them!

One think you all have to keep in mind, that is not my dog, but was told if I had any cool videos, that was the forum to put them. I would love to post some new vidoes of my Boomer working the sleeve and all, but then I would probably get some hate feedback on that also, so I won't..

all Belgian Shepherds prance - watch this clip and you'll see Groenendael moving in exactly the same way.



It worries me slightly when people treat Mailnois as a different breed from the rest of the BSD - they are simply one of the four varieties and the only difference between them and the Tervueren, Groenendael and Laekenois should be coat . They're all beautiful amazing dogs but are first and foremost a pastoral breed and we should not lose sight of their original temperament by trying to turn one of the varieties into something it was never meant to be .

Well said.....

Hi Rick

You replied this to a post i made earlier.

Aside from the point I had never said the above, your post does prompt the question how a dog would know the scent of the person he is after if the police dont know whom is in the building?

Ok, see if you can make any sense out of the following:

Dogs live in a scent environment. They smell everything around them and can pick out individual scents in the area. They know the sex and emotional state of the people who are in or have been in the area. When a well-trained dog sees the handler preparing to start a track, the dog is already smelling around the area to investigate possible tracks. One goal of training is to develop a track “starting ritual” that will tell the dog which scent the handler wants him to follow.

If no recognizable evidence exists at a contaminated scene and no scent article is available, then the K-9 handler will have to trust the dog to take the strange scent or the scent of the most emotionally “hot” person there. Although I’ve not seen it proven scientifically, I know from personal experience and cumulative K-9 handler experience that dogs will prefer to track what is usually called “fear” scent - the scent of an emotionally aroused person. This may come from the primal ability of canids to recognize the weak or fearful members of a herd of prey animals, or it may come from the dog’s association with people and officers. It may be the recognition of some sort of enemy to the police “pack” the patrol dog usually associates with. This instinct and ability is what many handlers rely on when starting contaminated criminal tracks. If the handler is just letting the dog choose his own track and having some success, he must be able to articulate and justify this tendency to choose fear scent in court.

Click.

rune

I watched a police dog demo awhile back, and he said that the RCMP never use Mals anymore as they are such a completely different breed. They are the masarati of the police dog world, whereas a GSD is the Ford Truck. They require such different training methods that they needed to tailor their methods to one breed.

Almost all RCMP dogs come from Europe (Czeck and German lines) They have a small breeding program, but they have alot better luck with European dogs.

So very true...It used to be that all you saw was GSD's but unless they have gotten one from Europe, they will go with the Malinois in most cases. Problem over here is just too much in-breeding, bad hips, etc. The Mals are just about problem free as far as health. Have seen many of them still hitting hard at age 14. Usually a GSD is getting a little tired at the age of 14. And then now also they are finding it hard to match up someone who can train and work together with a Malinois, they are so used to a Shepherd. Big, big difference....

How do GSDs and Mals differ guys? (Feel free to start a dedicated thread just for that if you like - think others would find it useful too.)

I love both breeds but feel GSDs are a tad too big (for me), Malinois seems the perfect size.

fascinating, cheers for that