I just figured out what type of dog we have...

[Entity]

For a few weeks, because of the coloration, we thought our puppy - Neeko - was German Shepherd mixed with something else. I've raised German Shepherds my whole life, though, and he didn't seem entirely like a G.S.; he was too small (50lb), more active, and had a different temperment than what I'm used to.

Anyway, we stumbled across a page of the Belgian Malinois - a type of Belgian Shepherd, and the more we read, the more we're convinced that's what type of dog he is. Here's another pic of him:

http://pichosting.pcthike.com/entity/PDRM0509

Anyway. Just wanted to share. Now I know why he looks confused when I speak German to him. He must speak Flemish.

Rob

 

[Brutuskend]

Cute dog!

 

[Fausto]

You should have a highly trainable dog on your hands if he's indeed mostly Malinois. They are amazingly bright dogs. We boarded one (a DEA dog) for a few days back when I was a vet tech. The guys who came to pick him up did an impromptu demonstration of his abilities for us (since we were all very curious). Quite impressive. One of the things that stuck out in my mind was that they could give him the "sic" command (all his commands were given in Flemish to prevent anyone else from trying to give him commands) and he would haul ass at whoever he was sicced on, but they could give the "stop and come back" command when he was maybe 5 feet from the now-wetting-his-pants volunteer "suspect" (me) and he'd just stop, turn around, trot back to his handler and sit. It was pretty cool......aside from me being the dumbass volunteer that is.

 

[Entity]

Originally posted by: Fausto1
You should have a highly trainable dog on your hands if he's indeed mostly Malinois. They are amazingly bright dogs. We boarded one (a DEA dog) for a few days back when I was a vet tech. The guys who came to pick him up did an impromptu demonstration of his abilities for us (since we were all very curious). Quite impressive. One of the things that stuck out in my mind was that they could give him the "sic" command (all his commands were given in Flemish to prevent anyone else from trying to give him commands) and he would haul ass at whoever he was sicced on, but they could give the "stop and come back" command when he was maybe 5 feet from the now-wetting-his-pants volunteer "suspect" (me) and he'd just stop, turn around, trot back to his handler and sit. It was pretty cool......aside from me being the dumbass volunteer that is.

He's only 11 months, and we've only had him about 1.5 of those, so we haven't got him into training yet. What he's learned so far, without training, includes:

Sit, lay down, stay, leave it, heel, come, let's go, and down. He's still got a lot of puppy in him so he isn't always as responsive as I'd need, but he has been, so far, the smartest pup by far I've ever trained. I'm actually looking forward to obedience courses with him.

He's also learned to be directed by pointing; rather than having to tell him something, I just point, and he goes in that direction. That's how I get Kate up in the mornings - point to the bedroom, and Neeko acts as an alarm clock. I think that'll be a handy skill for agility training, which we hope to get him in right after intermediate/advanced obedience training. He's a great dog.

Rob