Malinois Worldwide

In a french booklet published during the war of 1914-1918, the following passages are significant :
“ .. In the special canine press, the starting date has been discussed for the practical utility of the dog, other than hounds and guard dogs or guardians of flocks; the honour of this new usage belongs to the Belgians... It was first for sporting entertainment that the Belgians began to have an interest for the training of the guard and defense dog. It is in this land that the police dog is born, and out of the police dog, the military dog is born, just like the guard dog, the courier dog, the track dog or the ambulance dog...”

The first Police dog service in the world - Ghent 1899

Training of Police dogs by Jos.- M. Panesi

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The first police dog service in the world - Ghent 1899

The first experiment of dog-watchers for the service of the rounds of night was tried in Ghent. Mr E Van Wesemael, Police chief, was the first to create in a systematic way a regular service of police dogs. The Belgian sheepdogs train the majority, of burning temperament, but not constituting beautiful specimens of the race. All the day, the dogs are locked up in kennels built in a court of the central station of the Police. The evening at ten hours the dogs are entrusted to the guards of night. They were especially involved with the jump of the obstacles and swimming. The results were not made wait. The flights and the attacks night strongly decreased.

The initiative of the Police chief had much success. In Belgium, several cities and communes followed its example. So the commune of Saint-Gilles in the agglomeration of Brussels créerent a service with Groenendaels.

Many letters came to him from abroad to request information on the " equipment, the education and the training of Police dogs". He received correspondence of Canton of Zurich, of Helsingfors in Finland, of Belgrade in Serbia, of St-Petersbourg in Russia, of Monaco, of Milan in Italy, of Manchester, York and London in Great Britain, of New York and Philadelphia in the States, of Amsterdam and Breda in the Netherlands and of Brasil.

The mails of France were also very many. Here those which rest in the files of the city of Ghent: Lille dated 21-O5-1907, Poitiers dated 13-03-1907, Nantes dated 8-9-1906, Amiens dated 2-4-1903, Roubaix dated 26-6-1906, Dunkirk dated 1-2-1902, St-pol. s/mer dated 1-12-1902, St-Germain en Laye dated f 20-7-1906, Neuilly s/Seine dated 8-1-1907, Valenciennes dated 19-3-1907, Rouen dated 3-4-1907, Marseilles dated 9-4-1907, Dijon dated 9-4-1907, Toulon dated 3-9-1907, Bordeaux dated 10-12-1907, Tourcoing dated 5-12-1907 and Paris dated 16-9-1906.

Training of Police dogs

Extracts from an article published in the "Chasse et Pêche" magazine of October 15, 1922 by Jos.-M. Panési, who was a dog trainer.

"... I simply asked that a reader owning a dog who was said to be too nasty should give him to me as a present, claiming I was confident of being able to make a good dog out of him. I was well aware that I was taking a big risk, since there are dogs who have been ill-treated so much that you need a huge amount of patience to keep on wanting to make them good. This had been proved to me when I received the dog « Duc de Hoboken », a dangerous Groenendael belonging to Mr. Fr. Acket. And yet the dog was presented a few days later at the 1913 provincial competition by my wife, to the utter astonishment of the former owner. However, I never beat « Duc » who, for his part, could not stand it, consequently starting to bite his own master. Duc had already suffered too much before arriving at the home of my friend Acket, and the latter frankly admitted that he was not the type of man to have the necessary patience to get good results with « Duc ». As it was, this good dog was condemned to death if I refused to have him!!!

...so a Groenendael was sent to me with a certificate stating that the dog became my property, provided that I did not ill-treat him. I had soon had the proof that he was indeed a nasty piece of work, even before seeing him: at the station, as I wanted to take him out of his box, the bad animal was actually helping me to set him free; this made me change my mind and I arranged for the box (with the dog inside) to be delivered at home. After many difficulties, especially in the first few days when I allowed the dog, rather distrustful of any man than really vicious, to bite me while I was stroking him (I had taken the precaution of wearing leggings, oversleeves, etc. made of leather underneath ordinary clothes, so as to protect the most vulnerable parts of my body), « Duc » - such was also his name - became a better dog and was subsequently a good police dog. I even took pity on his owner later on and gave him the dog back free of charge, as I had received him".

"Moving on now to dogs who are well-known today, I can say that the famous « Snap », a Malinois belonging to Mr. Hanssen, was sold because he was too nasty and was regarded as dangerous, so much so that Mr. Hanssen had to get him out of the kennel himself. « Snap » was sold by Mr.Hanssen to an amateur, who then came to ask him to take the animal back as he was afraid of him. And yet, which of us has not seen « Snap » at work, led by a child of five to six years of age? « Yax », Mr. Kenis's Groenendael, was sold under the same conditions as « Snap », and yet his master has found him an excellent dog.

I could thus extend the list of animals doomed to death by an inexperienced owner and who later became excellent as they were better treated and better understood. It has also been said about my Malinois « Nero »(*) that it would never be possible to do anything with him..."

(*) The Malinois « Nero der Bastaarden » (LOB 3359) belongs to the category of hero dogs. On an order from his master, he stopped a horse who had taken the bit between his teeth, not without hurting himself seriously in the process

Translated by Pascale

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