Military dogs: GSD vs. Belg Mal vs. Dutch Shep - Page 3

uschi run; read a korung report. line for line it describes a working dog. Do not read what the koermiester wrote about the dog just the list from A to Y and the standing exam  description. I use it as my base line for a breed dog. I then go to see the dog in training and trials. I like to see the dog training off of a known field with a stranger as its opponent. I keep saying the  IDEAL  SV program. I will never say the actualality is 100% correct because I have witnessed too many short comings. It is like religion though. There is the truly divine [ in any religion  or sect ] and then there are the ''wolves in sheep clothing''. I watch what is done after the ''word'' is spoken. I have been around a while and witnessed the Mali ''come out of nowhere'' as far as the working dog is concerned and take over. I respect what these dogs do and only wish the GSD was more involved. Pointing out the problem is not much use without action.

As hard as it is for me to say it, it is true.
My Malinois is not as good as the one female Shepherd I have but yet, the Malinois can do things my Shepherd can't do. Once she's actively learned it, she might be able to do it but there are some things that come naturally to a Malinois (even a medi ocre one) that a Shepherd is not capable of doing, simply because of their confirmation.

I love my Malinois and I love my Shepherd. The Mal has 59 pounds, my Shepherd has 65. So it's close enough. Both will search for hours, however I have to say that my Malinois is easier distracted, especially by "Butterflies" whereas my Shepherd will search for hours and hours and it's harder to keep the Mal focused on the job. The Mal will hold a grudge against you whereas the Shepherd forgives more easily.

I love both breeds and from now on I'll probably always have one of both. Since my husband is in the military and I've got contact to quite a few K9 handlers, I know that all my dogs can easily hold up with the military k9's.
It's not just Shepherds, Dutchies or Mals, deploying. One of the units has a Pit Bull as TEDD... :)

a military trainer told me that he likes mals more because the dont think, they just follow orders. he used an example like: a gsd will think first and find a safe route to accomplish mission. and the mal will just jump into the fire/glass without thinking. if thats true than that makes them great for military, but i personally dont want a thoughtless superman wondermutt. @ the end of the day it feels good to know my dog will protect me, but honestly thats y i have guns. let me know theres something there and i got it. dont need my babies getting hurt trying to save the day................but thats just me

Not sure if that is the true reason because there are just as many Shepherds that don't think as there are Mals. I've got one perfect example sitting at home.
This is a military training area and my female jumped off the building for the re-find, to indicate and back in for her reward from the helper.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-96QJ6-TAbA
 

price and availability are big factor, most police and army trainers I know will tell you the best dog for any detection job is a GSD, but they annot get them, again price/availability, sport and private people drive up the price for good GSD

second point for all the showline haters to think about is  that we basically have three lines now in GSD, the showlines, the sportlines and the workinglines that are capable of filling various positions

next thing to think about is that the military and police are taking more and more happy social balldrive dogs so this is where the sporty dogs can fit in again LOL

its an ever changing world

Someone here said Dutch shepherds and Malinois are 'the same breed really' and seeing that I'm Dutch I can say for certain they're not. The Malinois is a Belgian breed, more closely related to the Tervueren, Groenendael and Laekenois than it is to the Dutch shepherd, a breed that hails from the Netherlands. These are FCI registered breeds and are NOT the same thing. 

There are however the KNPV lines, those aren't purebred dogs but mixes of mostly Malinois, Dutchies and GSD, bred solely for working qualities. To my understanding they are classified as 'Dutch shepherd' or 'Malinois' according to the way they turn out; if they're brindled they're called a Dutch shepherd and if they're fawn with black mask they're called Malinois. I suppose if you're talking about these dogs than you CAN say they're basically 'the same thing'. 

To the OP: I think Dutch shepherds, Malinois and the KNPV working bred dogs are preferred over GSDs because they're physically smaller, lighter, quicker, more agile, and mentally they're sharper and more intense. Not saying GSDs can't make great working dogs, because they can. But I can see why for military purposes other dogs are preferred. 

There are however the KNPV lines, those aren't purebred dogs but mixes of mostly Malinois, Dutchies and GSD, bred solely for working qualities. To my understanding they are classified as 'Dutch shepherd' or 'Malinois' according to the way they turn out; if they're brindled they're called a Dutch shepherd and if they're fawn with black mask they're called Malinois. I suppose if you're talking about these dogs than you CAN say they're basically 'the same thing'. 

To the OP: I think Dutch shepherds, Malinois and the KNPV working bred dogs are preferred over GSDs because they're physically smaller, lighter, quicker, more agile, and mentally they're sharper and more intense. Not saying GSDs can't make great working dogs, because they can. But I can see why for military purposes other dogs are preferred. 


Isn't that the X Mechelaar?

I f you trace back the Malinois lineage, one of the earliest progenitor "Samlo" was a brindle dog, striped like a dutch shepherd......

http://www.working-dog.eu/dogs-details/7878/Cora-II-LOSH-6470