East German GSD versus West German GSD

LoneRider said:

I think the US Army bought this particular animal because of it's combination of tractability, intelligence, controllable aggression, and strength.

Click to expand...

Yep, I notice that trend here, at Fort Drum, and at Fort Huachuca...Fort Drum had a really nice Malinois as their drug sniffer.
For the most part you'll see lots of imported GSD's though, and an occasional Mal.

A link for comparison on the different "types" of GSD's...

http://www.shawlein.com/The_Standard/13_Breed_Type/Breed_Types.html

I don't know exactly how accurate all the information is, but it gives good examples of the difference in body types.

My husband said they had mostly GSD's when he was deployed in 2003 and 2006 (both to the same place, Camp Victory) It's debatable though whether they will go to Malinois as a permanent solution. They've used pitbulls, Dobermans, etc before and it didn't seem to stick like the GSD has.

LoneRider said:

But a smart handler will know how to utilize that quick, ball of fire type reactiveness effectively. Knowing his dog and how to tactically employ him or her can mitigate that factor.

Click to expand...

Which brings me to the point that look at what the Army is recruiting nowadays...remember they've lowered the standards considerably and we're getting a lot of "less than desirable" (f*** up's) here lately. Unfortunately, not all people going to work with the K9's are dog saavy...I'd say a lot of them don't know their butt from a hole in the ground...this goes for police, military, what have you...I think this could be remedied by giving more in the way of training to work with the dogs (more comprehensive anyway).

A lot more Mal's wash out of training than GSD's. While I love both breeds (keep in mind they are cousins) well, they don't call them "Belgian Maligators" for nothing.

Maligator = Malinois Alligator...kind of well known for biting at inappropriate times, just a joke with some people that work with them.