German Police Phasing Out German Shepherds

[samoyedman]

http://www.thelocal.de/society/20110822-37117.html

Police in Germany are phasing out the use of German Shepherds as police dogs in favour of a sturdier Belgian breed.

Günther Bonke, a dog expert for the police in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), said on Monday the trusty German Shepherd, or Alsatian, was slowly being replaced by the Belgian Shepherd. The breed, also known as the Malinois, is considered more dependable and robust than its German rival.

Bonke said NRW had only 26 German Shepherds still working alongside the police compared to 281 Malinois. He explained that not all German states bred their own dogs, making the often cheaper Belgian Shepherd even more attractive when bought in bulk.

NRW, which borders Belgium, has been breeding the Malinois since 1988. Over the years, the police discovered the dogs were healthier and more courageous than their German counterparts. Belgian Shepherds can also be used as sniffer dogs, unlike German Shepherds, which are largely limited to security details.

The trend to Malinois has also spread to Germany’s federal police, however, they haven’t entirely given up on other breeds like the Alsatian.

“We are not planning exclusively with these dogs for the future,” said a federal police spokesman.

Officials in North Rhine-Westphalia aren’t only betting on the Belgian dogs either. The state's police pack of 350 canines includes Dutch Shepherds, Giant Schnauzers, several mutts, as well as one Boxer and one Rottweiler.

Edited August 23, 2011 by samoyedman

[poodlefan]

Same trend is occuring here.

[vetrg]

I worked with police dogs in the UK while the local force was trialling Belgian Shepherds. The officers commented that because they were smaller, although great at their jobs, they felt that they had less "threat value" (than say a 40kg long haired GSD) so were forced to actually commit to sending the dog in to attack more often, which would often lead to counter claims from the offender for bite wounds! Having said that, their best display dogs were all belgians because they felt they were better able to turn it on/ off in the appropriate situations. They used to come and do a display at the charity dog show I was involved with and their control over the dogs was amazing.

[Nekhbet]

I swapped for the same reasons. Healthier, smarter, faster and better then the GSD. But get them popular enough they will be ruined eventually too.

A few of our forces require a lot more education and update their training before committing themselves to Malinois.

[Yesmaam]

http://www.thelocal.de/society/20110822-37117.html

Police in Germany are phasing out the use of German Shepherds as police dogs in favour of a sturdier Belgian breed.

Günther Bonke, a dog expert for the police in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), said on Monday the trusty German Shepherd, or Alsatian, was slowly being replaced by the Belgian Shepherd. The breed, also known as the Malinois, is considered more dependable and robust than its German rival.

Bonke said NRW had only 26 German Shepherds still working alongside the police compared to 281 Malinois. He explained that not all German states bred their own dogs, making the often cheaper Belgian Shepherd even more attractive when bought in bulk.

NRW, which borders Belgium, has been breeding the Malinois since 1988. Over the years, the police discovered the dogs were healthier and more courageous than their German counterparts. Belgian Shepherds can also be used as sniffer dogs, unlike German Shepherds, which are largely limited to security details.

The trend to Malinois has also spread to Germany’s federal police, however, they haven’t entirely given up on other breeds like the Alsatian.

“We are not planning exclusively with these dogs for the future,” said a federal police spokesman.

Officials in North Rhine-Westphalia aren’t only betting on the Belgian dogs either. The state's police pack of 350 canines includes Dutch Shepherds, Giant Schnauzers, several mutts, as well as one Boxer and one Rottweiler.

This has come up a few times in previous threads.

To put things into perspective, government agencies across the world are all about cutting costs and saving money.

With this in mind, anyone can make anything up to justify why a decision is made but this part of the article sums it all up

"He explained that not all German states bred their own dogs, making the often cheaper Belgian Shepherd even more attractive when bought in bulk."

[MonElite]

I dare say it was mostly about reliability of malinois and non reliability across gsds

[Yesmaam]

I dare say it was mostly about reliability of malinois and non reliability across gsds

Actually, I was speaking with someone in GMY yesterday about this who works with the German Police dogs. As the article says, not all states breed their own dogs and budget constraints in some states mean that they have to look for cheaper alternatives. He said, good GSD's are easily twice the price of a Mal so its cheaper to go through a few Mals to find a good one.

[SparkyTansy]

Is there a reason GSDs cant be used as sniffer dogs?

[Kavik]

Maybe they need them to be lighter/more agile for sniffer dogs?

[tarope]

Since when does Germany refer to the GSD as an Alsatian, since never. Sounds like more Media BS.

[Jeff Jones]

Not BS at all. The number of Belgian Malinois and Dutch Shepherds being used as police dogs has rapidly increased in the past 5 years. I would not be surprised to see Belgian Malinois exceed the numbers of German Shepherds being used especially in European countries. What Yesmaam has said is spot on.

[Kavik]

Interesting Jeff. Here the price of working line GSD and Mals are pretty similar from the research I've done.

[Yesmaam]

Interesting Jeff. Here the price of working line GSD and Mals are pretty similar from the research I've done.

And as such, the GSD is still the preferred breed to use for police work here in Australia. There is also a big move around the country to use only WL GSD's. QPOL rarely, if at all, accepts donations anymore and are phasing out their stock of SL GSD's in favour of their own WL breeding. There are also MOU's across most states and NZ police dept's where they can share breeding and semen. This dramatically cuts the costs of having to purchase new blood all the time.

The RAAF still prefer to breed and purchase Mals but they rarely, if at all, get operational live bites and catch people etc.....

Edited August 29, 2011 by Yesmaam

[Yesmaam]

Is there a reason GSDs cant be used as sniffer dogs?

No, some of GSD's here in QLD Police are duel trained as GP/ drug detection dogs. The comment in the article made no sense at all. The GSD's scenting ability is no better or worse than the Mal or many other breeds for that matter.

[loveretrievers]

Only have to watch the ever increasing cop shows on foxtel to see the number of mals showing up.

[loveretrievers]

Hubby sent this to me in an email. Odd since it was just discussed on here. The article goes on to talk about how they are used etc. This was the main point though. Interesting.

When U.S. President Barack Obama went to Fort Campbell , Kentucky, for a highly publicized, but very private meeting with the commando team

that killed Osama bin Laden, only one of the 81 members of the super-secret SEAL DevGru unit was identified by name: Cairo , the war dog.

Cairo, like most canine members of the elite U.S. Navy SEALs, is a Belgian Malinois. The Malinois breed is similar to German shepherds but smaller and more compact, with an adult male weighing in the 30-kilo range.

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(German shepherds are still used as war dogs by the American military but the lighter, stubbier Malinois is considered better for the tandem

parachute jumping and rappelling operations often undertaken by SEAL teams.

Labrador retrievers are also favored by various military organizations around the world

[Yesmaam]

Only have to watch the ever increasing cop shows on foxtel to see the number of mals showing up.

There are a lot of Mals on the American cop shows on Fox but they also have an equal amount of WL GSD's too. Some states use Mals only, some use GSD's only and some use both and anything else that works for them. It's not something new and they have been doing it for years.