Talk:Belgian Shepherd Dog

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[edit] Temperament

The link listed http://www.bsdaofgb.co.uk/bsdfaq.htm was not just amusing but also remarkably right on for the dog my family had and brings up memories as well as a few minor issues. Most articles on this kind notes that prior experience is highly recommended for the dog owner, as well as how they interact with children. The article, I feel, does not make this sufficiently clear. As nearly all of my my family's dog's (Tervueren) siblings had to be put down due to unhappy incidents, I hope this can be added in.

Any well-documented info (not just one person's or one breeder's experience) can be added to the article. I'm not familiar with ANY tervs (and I encounter quite a few in dog agility) who've had this kind of problem and they're not noted for it in my experience.

I could not find hard documentation that can pass as encyclopedic on a general scale. I know the breeded changed their stock using dogs from abroad. Still, how wide spread this issue is I do not know. Breeders are unlikely to advertise that more than 9 of 10 dogs had to be put down due to unfortunate incidents. IS any statistics openly available that we could search?

The Tervuerens I have seen have all had a stange body language in that they tilt their heads sideways occationally, as if uncertain. I have never seen that in other races but as I am no expert (and Google was not helpful here) I wonder if this is an unique aspect of Tervuerens or BSDs.

I'm around a lot of dogs of many breeds, and Tervs indeed seem to do the head tilt much more than other breeds. All dogs do it occasionally, but that does seem to be a Terv quirk in my experience. I haven't seen enough of the other BSDs to know whether they do it, too. Interesting question. Elf | Talk 8 July 2005 05:59 (UTC)

I claim no wide experience in dogs but have never seen this in other dogs, only in Tervuerens. What does the tilt mean? I never found an explanation. We are then at least two that have seen this phenomenon, would it be acceptable to put in a paragraph about this behavious? An explanation might give leads usable to Google on.

All dogs do it, usually when they're trying to figure something out--seems often to be noise or sound-related, so I've heard it explained as the dog trying to get a different angle on the sound, which makes sense to me. At least one Terv I know seems to do it to people a lot ("What ARE you trying to tell me, anyway, and is there a treat associated iwthit?") I might ask around the local dog community for info on this & the problem you've reported with terv breeding. Elf | Talk 23:05, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

I'm not sure if I am doing this right, but I will try [[User::Antheat|Antheat]] | Talk

With regard to the bad temperament issue, it is becoming prevalent, most breeders do not want to broadcast it as they will not have people buying their dogs. The reason I know this and how you can indeed track it, is by the United Belgian Shepherd Dogs Belgian Shepherd Dog Temperament Tests which are located at: http://www.malinut.com/character/results.shtml. I have two dogs whose parents failed the tests. (I found out after the fact, too late to take them back). One has a health condition (thyroid at 4 months old) and he is very high strung. The other has problems with aggression. This can be tracked historically. I will have both of these dogs tested once they reach the appropriate age and I already know they will fail the gun shot portion and stranger approach as both are noise sensitive and do not suffer strangers to approach, even though extensively socialised, something which a dog with a stable temperament would not do. Again, this is not hearsay, these results are historically trackable. A lot of breeders will not test their dogs because they know they will fail.

Belgian Shepherds, with the exception of the Malinois, (most of which come from strong working lines and so far, many have managed to escape from the effects of show bred only lines) are gaining a reputation of being 'spooky' or 'sharp' which is not at all the temperament which they were bred to have. A working breed that herds and guards has to have a very stable, strong temperament. There is a group of breeders located in europe and one in california who are breeding working lines back into the tervuren specifically to try to deal with the bad temperament issue. These dogs have good, stable temperaments, fabulous working ability (the trackable results speak for themselves) and are good with children, cats, dogs, adults, etc. In fact, they are the epitome of the Belgian Shepherd temperament. They may not be as pretty as the show line dogs, but I'd rather have good temperament and less coat any day of the week. I've been involved with Belgian Shepherds, Tervurens specifically for 15+ years and I started in South Africa where I had a dog who could do it all and had the true Belgian Temperament, he was as rock solid a dog as any person could hope for in any situation.

[[User::Antheat|Antheat]] | Talk