C-dub wrote:With all due respect, if you think the dog in Keith's picture looks like a Mal, then maybe you should see about borrowing Andy's new glasses.steve817 wrote:WildBill wrote:Keith B wrote:.
Wow! A stray German Shephard, I'll bet I could get $100 on Craig's List!
Actually I think it is a Belgian Malinois. He looks similar to the one they was showing us at the Citizens Police Academy a couple of weeks ago. I was amazed at how friendly he was. According to the officer it is a different story when he "switches him on"...I didn't want to call his bluff.
EDIT: Talk about needing glasses, I just saw how old this thread was and that it had been revived. And regarding the "switch" to Mals; many departments have switched to them because of their intensity and they are a little bit smaller. GSDs are no less capable, but tend to break down earlier in life due to their slightly larger size and bone structure so much so that a good Mal might give a department as much as 2-4 more years of useful service. These are all similar reason as to why departments that had tried Rotties got back away from them quickly back in the 90's. Another reason was that their bite is so much stronger than both the GSD and Mal that they were causing too much damage and a couple officers told me that they were aware of departments facing excessive use of force lawsuits. I'm not sure of the validity of that, but having taken enough bites from all three of those breeds and a few others in training I can see it happening.