How do I handle an excited Malinois who redirects on the handler?

Malinois with detection training, fundamental obedience, and dog sledding.

Goal: Outside of management and muzzling, I'd like to do fun activities with him that don't risk him redirecting onto me when his excitement is high.

Issue: He redirects onto me not letting go for upwards of 5-10 minutes when he is faced with frustration and the excitement of a fun activity. Yes, these redirections have resulted in wounds that required treatment. My management has been a basket muzzle, but this greatly limits which activities he can partake in and still have fun.

Are there training exercises or routines to incorporate to pull this dog away from wanting to redirect? He does tend to be overly excited when I am in the same yard as him. Would something as simple as spending more time with him in spaces usually meant for fun - but instead do nothing - help in this case? He is very mild mannered indoors, but has intense equipment bias that gets him highly excited before fun actually happens.

Leerburg's Answer:

So a couple of things:

1) What kind of collar are you using with him?

2) When he redirects onto you, what are the warning signs?

3) Do you have a ball or tug that you work with that he could redirect onto instead of you?

4) Yes, I think doing some low-arousal counter conditioning would be helpful. Malinois are good at everything, except doing nothing. Which really just means we need to teach them how to relax and when to relax because they are breed for their high energy and arousal levels.

5) If he has specific high energy equipment bias, I would only bring those toys and equipment out when you want a high arousal response. You might find switching to food rewards better for low arousal work and training.