Thread: Dutch Shepherds

Working Malinois are not really a breed I would choose to be inside, and I wouldn’t have a small child with a dog with extreme drives inside the house. That’s just my opinion. Some Working line GSDs (especially Czech working line Males) can be very handler hard and it can take a strong person to be the “pack leader”. Malinois have extreme drives and especially the young dogs can be a handful. If I was going to choose a working line dog to be inside with children, between the two, I would probably choose a female GSD.

You can do SchH with either, and agility is a breeze for a Malinois. GSDs are also good at agility once their skeletal structure has settled (at about 18 months), but that’s the same for most working breeds. Without wanting to give the impression that Malinois are lunatics; there are probably many working line dogs which live inside and have grown up with small children quite successfully, but I would tend to err on the side of caution with any breed which are around kids, especially dogs bread and trained in one of the sport disciplines or protection type training. Irrespective of how well you may bring your dog up or how well you may train it, small kids tend to have body movements which are very similar (in the dogs eyes) to prey, especially when they fall over and hurt themselves. Certainly leaving your child alone with any dog is asking for trouble.

Incidentally, a fully grown Malinois may not be as big or quite as heavy as a GSD but I can assure you that when they “kick-off”, they can also be just as much a handful. I love the breed now that I know them, and wouldn’t hesitate to have another one.

Hi Kavik

There is a vast difference between a well bred working line shepherd and a show line shepherd, both physically and temperament wise. I have to admit though; working line Malinois are better suited to agility because of their weight and particularly their speed, especially competition agility. Fortunately they haven’t been subjected to the same “show line” distortion through bad breeding and are far less prone to the structural and other problems the GSD has been plagued with over the years. Working shepherds are not as bad because for the most part good working line breeders have attempted to maintain the natural body structure and working drives of the breed as they were meant to be. I would have to say that a show line shepherd would probably give anybody doing comp. agility problems, sooner rather than later.

Good luck with your decision.

Peter


Hi Jess

Providing you get a good working line GSD they would be excellent at SchH. In fact I think most of the top SchH dogs are GSDs. There are a few breeding kennels with the prefix “Von” in Australia. Von Ultimate Kennels in Victoria who seem to breed the Czech type GSDs particularly Pohranicni Straze (Border Patrol). These dogs seem to be noted for their hardness, although I am told that present day examples are nothing like the dogs of yesterday, whether that’s true I don’t really know. I should add that I don’t know any GSD breeders (working or show) in Australia, and can’t really say whether they’re good or not, therefore I would be careful when making a decision. It’s very easy to be “let down” by a breeder, if you don’t do your homework.

DDR (East German), Belgium GSDs (not Belgium Shepherds), Czech GSDs are all noted as good working lines. I think you’ll find that true working breeders don’t have as many West German dogs in there lines, although there were some very good W/German working lines before the Berlin Wall went up, the show breeders ruined those lines over time, and more of the GSDs as they were meant to be either went to the US, other European countries, or stayed on the other side of the Wall (East) where they did maintain the breed as a true working dog.

The problem is that there are not that many working GSD breeders in Australia, therefore a lot of litters from the good ones are spoken for by police, military and sport very quickly, so if you do manage to find out who bred the dog you like and it’s a good working line breeder, providing there are pups planned you might want to reserve a female well in advance, if of course you decide on a GSD.

Cheers
Peter

I think you’ll find that size and weight (within reason) is the least important difference between working and show line shepherds. You can certainly get excellent working shepherds weighing up to and more than 40kg. The big difference physically is conformation (they don’t slope and are not flat footed) and drives (they have good drives, prey and defence; are not nervy and project intenseness, all of which is the result of good genetics and selective breeding). Sadly, show line dogs have had all that bred out of them.

Peter SPOT ON!!!
i have 2 girls available and i have knocked back some family homes due to them not planning to even do some training with the puppies... my puppies are so prey driven and wild they bite and just hang off me whenever i walk outside.. and the harder you push them away the harder they come at you. not ones i can sell to anyone thus the reason i've decided to run a second female on as both are impressing me.. but it's a difficult one.. i always suggest people to come and get a feel for them too..

for example a youtube video i put up the other day i had to put music coz mum was screaming so much and swearing and i was laughing so hard lol that it would of scared ppl off if i left it but this was taken once the puppies were buggered and still wanting to have a go at you...
just an idea of working puppies with prey drive...

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=g310ylr_n3c

i also like my dogs to be kennelled they work better for me when i pull them out and they cant wait to be told what to do next.. just wonderful feeling..

Tony i had the privlidge to talk to Artur as i seen a longcoat bi-colour gsdd called Trust on his website gallery and wanted to know more about him.. but havent heard nothing back since.. but he did mention you have seen Trust and can comment on the dog himself!?