It would be nice to think that these clubs or others like them may be able to help but all of the dogs that we are aware of at the moment are of a nervous or unsocialised nature, the police and other working groups such as search dogs have been notified that they are there and needing homes but the only reason that the dogs have ended up in rescue is because they do not fit the Schutzhund, IPO, Mondioring temperament requirements in the first place. The dogs in rescue tend to be nervous aggressive, wary of people and barky all the attributes that these sports do not want. It is difficult enough to train an unsocialised or fearful dog to be accepting of non-confrontational situations, but IPO, Schutzhund and Mondioring all require the dogs to relish confrontational situations and “take on” the helper wearing the sleeve or bodysuit, so how would they train a dog to not only overcome it’s fear but be prepared to “relish” the job in hand.

Last year I visited a club in Hertfordshire as I am always interested in “motivating” my dogs and a lot of these dogs are highly motivated so I decided to think outside the box and go into that training environment (not with my dog I add, just as a spectator), I was saddened to see that 90% of the dogs were wearing prong collars and most of the guys, they were all male handlers, were extremely “Macho” with their dogs, but let’s hope not all clubs are like that as I would hate to generalise.

There are of course “positive trainers” coming into these sports (here is a good example : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5DIUvyOGJ8 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5DIUvyOGJ8&feature=related> &feature=related) on the flip side whilst change is welcomed you still have idiots like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTd-qooT3E0 – I watched his youtube video and thought yes I can see that the prong collar is not actually hurting you but then there is no one of the end of it yanking it! God save us from idiots!

I had a look at the club and some of the linked clubs and it did not find me too long to find a picture of a training event where someone had a prong collar on their dog http://s261.photobucket.com/albums/i...2/?action=view <http://s261.photobucket.com/albums/ii71/BoltonSchHClub/BRSDC%20BH%20Training%20April09%20part2/?action=view&current=100_0881.jpg> &current=100_0881.jpg

Just for the record for anyone who believes that I am a mamby pamby positive trainer, don’t get me wrong, I clicker train my dogs for working activities such as obedience or agility, but when it comes to general manners and living in the community I believe that all dogs, Belgians especially need rules and boundaries.

This is a huge problem currently, there are such a surplus of pups.
In the past, people used to be happy to wait for a pup, now they can get one
instantly from a breeder that is less than good -and they don't
understand the difference. Even good buyers that would offer a great
home for say agility or similar, they now often go and get the cheaper
pups where less questions are asked and they don't have to wait, and
many of us having litters where both parents have had everything done
that should be done, we sometimes can't even give pups away for free.
I've not had a litter for 2 years and simply cannot have another until
at least 2014, as the risk is so big I will end up having to keep
several pups. It seems these days, if you breed a litter you must count
on keeping at least 3! If it continues like this, we will only have the
badly bred pups left. We all have limits on how many dogs we can keep,
and if breeding a litter means increasing your numbers by not one but 3
or even more -and the breed being a long lived one as well so you are
likely to have many adults already, then well, eventually we have no
choice but to stop breeding. At the moment, the show breeders are
responisble for only about a third of all Malinois pups registered each
year -if that -and that is not taking into account the many unregistered
ones born. !

Ok - I've mentioned getting in touch with some of the Shutzhund clubs to our Working BSD club to see if they can help - their reply was interesting:



also had an interesting perspective from someone who has bred Malinois for many years

Just for the record for anyone who believes that I am a mamby pamby positive trainer

Havnt been able to read all replys as im on my phone so sorry if i repeat anybody else. Have the security dig handling industry been considered. There are magazines websites forums and many groups on the other side. Plus the police prison service. A few staff at my brothers firm have mallys now and they have become a popular choice. Im sure a small add in somewhere like nasdu would draw your rescue centre some atencion from people who would be intrested in giving these dogs a second chance.

I think it was mentioned that all of the rescue malis coming in were nervous, the police/security industry won't look at dogs without solid nerves as you cant ask them to step up to a situation they can't handle.

Surely the blame must lie with the breeders who are producing dogs of a nervy disposition and then just abandoning them?

Absolutely agree 100%. These breeders are clearly breeding poor examples of the breed with bad temperaments and they don't have a market for their puppies. Dreadful state of affairs

Azz, funny you should mention the 'dodgy' PP groups. That's not dissimilar to how Ringsport developed in Belgium in the early 20th century!