Thread: Military rejected Malanois

I guess I don't want to give a lot of information away on this question, a friend of mine has acquired a 12mo military bred mal bitch and she was rejected for low prey threshold, does not bite and only chases and retrieves balls a few times.........

this to me is not ideal for sar work but they recommended that this bitch would be ideal.....

Some individuals ideas on what is good for S&R is obviously different to others! It may be a case of those who made this recommendation really just don't know what the requirements are for scent applications! I'm sure you would every now and then come across much more suitable candidates then the one that your friend has acquired from the military breeding programs. For me I would be more interested in the Mals that have failed due to low fight and defence drives but still have High levels of Prey.

The other thing that I would consider is that the dogs in this environment could become a little institutionalised in that they may not have a great deal of development put into them for a period of time before they are cut from the program. Lack of resources can definitely play a role in how much effort is put into a dog especially if it does not display all of the desired drives at a high enough level for the organisations particular application. That particular dog may have shown promise as far as retrieving was concerned earlier in its development but a lack of continued development for whatever reason could easily diminish those qualities.

I have recently also acquired a dog from a military breeding program and to be honest the first 5 days I wasn't holding out much hope but I've continued building drives and shaping a little obedience through drive and all of a sudden the last 2 days she is looking like a much better prospect.

I would definitely keep Military organisations open as an option for possible candidates but be very aware of what there main focus is with there early development.

Cheers

Chris

Thanks Chris and Cramet, I really appreciate your thoughts and expertise on this situation for me.

I will keep an eye on the team at hand, the mal is a lovely girl and I hope she makes our program as a sar dog.

Cheers,

Julie

I could make many comments on the dogs that they put up for tender, seems to be more of them being tendered than becoming MWD's.

If you can get ther and test the dog, then for sure, but do remember that u sign a piece of paper saying that u take all responsibilities into ur own hands, the military is no longer responsible so if the dog doesnt turn out to be suitable then its ur job to find it a new home... which to me is a bit stupid and unresponsible of the military.

Anyway bit of track there.
Sometimes u will find a gem umongst the stones. Dont take there word for wat the dog is like, because there description could be way different to wat u expect.

Hi Darren

I am interested to know..is it your belief that 100% of the pups from a litter will always have the strong genetics required to be working dogs for the military and police forces? Do you think that there is a possibility of a pup inheriting weaker genes, no matter who the parents are? Or do you believe that ALL failures are due to incorrect imprinting and conditioning?

Mark

I see what you are getting at Darren. That although within a working litter there may be individual differences between the pups but you're point is if you've chosen solid working lines, quality proven animals and have done all the right things when you have the pups that they should all be capable of something, the ways and timeline just will be different

I dont see why that is not true. While not every dog will be a police/military dog not saying another cannot be S&R/tracker/detection dog etc

I do agree a lot of problems in dogs are human created and some people have unrealistic expectations on when a dog should be 'ready'. I had a 12mo german shepherd working line and he was expected to just work and bite with no training and little socialisation. He failed (derrr) and was thrown on the scrap heap as a nervy piece of sh*t who was dog aggressive. Different dog after I had him for a bit, lived happily in my pack even showed he had some working capability. Pity his hips and elbows were so bad.

I am looking to breed one day I would be interested to hear what you do with all your pups while they're young. First litter looks like it may be Malinois (yes I have rocks in my head I know LOL)


For the rejected bitch I would give her a go. I would be using a rag not a ball at the moment to check her prey drive and work to see if you can build it some more. Saying that nothing wrong with a dog that isn't vibrating across the floor with prey drive for some uses. Have you tested her scenting? And what lines is she from? My bitch will scent over a toy sometimes she is that focussed on it and loves it, but also made a great security dog when we worked together. As has been said, maybe living in a household instead of a kenneling environment will bring out a different dog too, seen that happen as well.