If you are going to be involved in ANY sort of encouraging bite work or take down work for your dog you NEED to work with a trainer who has had ALOT of experience in this type of handling and training. It should not be taken lightly - things can go wrong in a hurry. As someone involed in police dog training you need a couple of intensive years of basic and advanced training for you and your dog before attempting bitework or takedown tactics... You can probably find trainers to work with....I am uncertain why you feel you would need to train your dog in bitework. What do you hope to accomplish in the future with your dog and this type of training??? High energy dogs - other than needing to be run alot they need to learn focus and need training. the more you train the better the focus etc...I ust finished helping someone with their malinois boxer mix...who was out of control and borderline destructive.

You need to expend energy, too, with this kind of breed.

Our 10 mo. old lab seems to have an unlimited amount of energy and this winter I couldn't very often walk through the woods with her off leash because of very heavy snow. (That always wears her out!)

Playing with frisbees works very well when I throw them down high hills, but they kept getting lost in the snow. So --- our new 'frisbees' are the colorful lids from 5 gallon buckets. I have lots of them and will probably find many when the snow melts.

We are fortunate that she can be off-leash so exercising her makes it easier than if we had to walk her. I still don't see how a dog gets enough exercise even with long walks each day --- it is still walking -- especially when they are young.

What on earth is 'bite work'?

i don't think labs, will benefit from "bite training" German sheps and the like yeah, but labs!. All puppies are energetic. For high enegry dogs, just have them run around and let them off steam, for more agressive breeds, take them in for training.

Have you looked into flyball? It's something that most high-energy dogs love, and if you have a big enough yard, you can train at home as well (and burn off energy every day, too).

I still don't see how a dog gets enough exercise even with long walks each day --- it is still walking -- especially when they are young.

Walking with people, in control on leash, without pulling, is more of mental workout for a dog, than a physical one.

Its the running and fetch that is the physical workout.

Most intelligent breeds suffer from lack of mental stimulation rather than physical...

You need to listen to Mazer. Your dog will automatically protect you. By encouraging the "bite-work" against humans, I'm afraid you are setting yourself up for a lawsuit and someone possibly getting seriously hurt.

Get some frisbies and teach the dog to catch them in a series. That will satisfy it's prey drive and give her a good workout.

I'm not wanting to sound crazy, but dogs have tremendous power and people underestimate their tendencies. Especially if you are encouraging something such as biting.

I don't understand how you doing AKC obedience with her if she isn't "papered"? AKC events require that the dog be a registered purebred (or ILP'ed). DVG, on the other hand, welcome unregisteded/mixed breeds, provided they are suitable for the work.
You really need to do more research before attempting protection training or bitework. The titled Schutzhund dog is a truly marvelous dog. The half-way trained dog is dangerous and if you don't know what you're doing, your dog is going to be trained half-way. You need to get involved with a Sch. club and with people who know what they're doing.

If she already enjoys AKC events (and again, I'm unclear how you're competing with an unregistered dog) train through the UDX level. Plenty of jumps and retreiving there.

sorry about all the italics.... just a typo.

I really wish we had an edit feature.

brkbr - yes, she's ILP'd - purebred but no history of parentage.

Bitework is what police dogs are trained to do to stop fleeing bad guys. I'm just going to use it as a game - no different than her biting a tug toy.

Carmen -funny story - i use a "chuck it" to throw an indestructable ball. But she'll definitely go after frisbees!

Having a Belgian is a responsiblity - think twice before getting one. But she's also a wonderful dog.

For flyball, she'd be slow really but it's a good idea. Thanks.

You'd be surprised, luvdogs, about how fast she is in Flyball. Sure, she won't be as fast as the border collies, but she'll do fine :) You just have to find a group that is open to breeds other than the "fast" ones, and who are in it for fun and to train their dogs, and less for trophies.

I was poking around on the national flyball site, and looking at some local clubs, and even found one that had a malinois on their team (I'm sure there are others). I actually prefer watching the mixed teams -- sure, the border collies are fast, but there's only so much of watching black and white dogs streaking back and forth that you can watch. I love seeing a corgi run down the line, or a German Shepherd, or some tiny little terrier -- much more fun!

Insurance companies frown on backyard bitework - seriously frown on it and you'll have trouble finding coverage should something happen. My GSD was SchHIII FHII IPOI and I was dropped WITHOUT any incidents of aggression simply because I owned a personal protection dog. i found coverage (after adding a CGC to the alphabet soup..of course Gunny was a good citizen, you don't get SchHI without good citizenship! *snort*), but the whole thing should have never happened.

The local Sch Club should welcome you with open arms if you have a dog that is truly suitable. However, saying things like tracking doesn't interest me..or her.. much won't get you very far. If the dog is truly high-drive, the accomplished handler will be (must be) able to develop the dog through ALL phases. The clubs see way too many "armchair handlers" who want to skip to bitework because it's cool without putting in the necessary time to develop the relationship necessary to have a truly well-trained protection dog.

Bitework is the FINAL phase of Schutzhund and the dog should have a good handle on tracking (phase 1) and obedience (phase 2) before moving into protection work. You don't say what your low-level titles are, but you can always look into a CDX, UD, UDT, UDTX, UDX or OTCh if you want to go fourther in obedience

forthedogs ----But the point of my post was not for comments on the "bitework" - really i'm just going to do more intense play with her and i just called it that.

I know the AKC titles like the cdx, etcetera but those titles are not as intense as what i think she'd like so i was looking for some ideas on how to play with her to satisfy her high energy. Like, for example, i'm thinking of putting her over some high fences - like the A frame stuff in ScH.

For some reason, the ScH club doesn't answer emails and i know that their members (who are very nice) don't think you can trial a non-pedigree dog so that's why i think that the club only wants dogs with ScH lineage. There's a club two hours away that will take me but that's a long drive for training.

Joepye: Thanks for the info on dog walking. I really never thought of a walk with a dog as challenging the dog psychologically. In fact, I always thought it was kind of mean to make a dog 'heel' and not allow it to sniff and do what a dog lives for.

It gives me a new perspective and certainly makes sense. In the case of my dog, she gets plenty of time for dog behavior so a walk each day should stimulate her mind.

Yes Carmen, a walk seems like such a simple thing, but it soo vital is so many ways.

And besides, its good for the human too...

The key to a mentally challenging a dog on a walk is making sure that he is walking in control (heel position). Its alot of mental work for a dog to that, because their instinct is to run, sniff and pull. The dog has to continually think, I can't do that... I have to concentrate on what my owner is doing and walk right here...no pulling, no sniffing, etc. etc.

In addition to the mental stimulation of a controlled walk, the walk also reinforces your role as leader, because you are in control at the other end of the leash.

In addition to the thinking and leader aspects, is the olfactory stimulation of a walk. A dogs olfactory gland makes up much of his brain. While walking a dog will pick up many different scents of cars, critters, other people, other dogs... things that he would not smell in your house or yard. And a dogs brain will absorb all those new smells and process it later...

listion to what we are telling you, training a dog to bite people is a bad idea.. unless you are highly skilled and trained or work in the police force. For most people owning an attack dog or training a dog to be like this makes about as much sense as feeding a wild coyote sandwiches.

Walking her,playing with her and enrolling her in lots of agility however is a great idea. Dogs need lots of interaction, and its great you want to help her "discover" herself- just make sure is something that leads to a happy dog and not a dead one.