Quote: Lauren Jeffery

When I first got her my plan was to do agility, but unfortunately I am seeing a little stiffness in one of her hips that was caused by an injury when she was a baby. I know exactly the incident that caused it and its a bummer.

There is a chance we could still do it but I want to wait until I'm sure she is really for sure done growing and have an OK from our vet.

I need to do something with her though. If anybody has any suggestions I would love to hear them.

What about trying a tracking course? She would be on leash and a bit of a bad hip more than likely wouldn't bother her.

 Quote: Meredith Hamilton

I'm not usually the one to make people defensive, but I'd hate to see you close your mind to herding.

http://www.azherding.com/

It can be done living in the city, as long as you do have transportation.

I hate when people can open a door I've effing locked shut. Yeah I said it Meredith you just breached and cleared.

So I guess no sports are out of the question (which means I will train for them all!) muahahahahaha!

All dogs bite.
BC's get defensive about stuff too, mostly territory and possession from my observation.
Don't fool yourself thinking 'I'm going to get a dog that doesn't bite'.
They ALL bite.

No what I meant was bite dog sports encourage biting and I would prefer a dog who was bred for the right temperament to do so. There is so much to bite training that you could spend your life studying only that and still not be perfect. I just don't want to make my life any harder than it has to be and BC's don't "usually" have the right temperament for bite sports even though they could be capable of competing. Hopefully I explained myself better

Interesting question. My first question for you would be if you have any real interest in the protection sports. If you do, then I'd scratch the BC off the list. I've known a few that did it, but very few.

As far as size goes, you can get small Malinois and larger BC's, so I wouldn't choose or rule out one breed over the other just due to size. A Malinois will have more visual deterrance because of it's erect ears, but most people aren't real wild about black dogs either so ... Especially if the BC is coated, since they look bigger then they actually are. Not to mention a big bark and flashing teeth usually is all the person sees/hears LOL

For the other sports, either breed can excel. You see a lot of BC's doing extremely well in agility, flyball, obedience, dock diving, frisbee, etc but I also see Malinois with sub-4 flyball times, winning major agility competitions, etc. Some of the current dock diving world records are held by Malinois, last years AWI Frisbee World Champion is a Malinois. On the flip side we have a BC on our flyball team that will probably never run faster then 6 seconds. So in terms of being competitive on whatever venue(s) you choose, either breed can do it, if you pick the right dog. Neither breed though is a "shoe in".

I will second whoever mentioned cattle bred BC's, it's been my experience they have less tendency towards OCD behaviors. Especially if you aren't doing herding on a regular basis, the lack of herding seems to bring out the OCD behavior in BC's. Maybe because a herding BC is OCD on the sheep, and if you don't live with sheep in the house, you don't see the behavior LOL Most people do have balls and other toys in their houses. I'm not saying all BC's are OCD, and I've seen some Malinois that are also, but I do see more quirky behavior in BC's.

Yeah I really do want to do bite sports but I'm a little overwhelmed with the process. I guess I haven't officially decided for or against. It might be my best bet to get a Mali and do all the bite framework up to the bite pillow and stop there. That way if I decided to go forward with bite sports the foundation is set and I can move forward, and if not my dog will just have a blast with the pillow when I bring it out.

Very good point about the two dogs and their sizes. I guess I hadn't thought of it that way. So that no longer matters much to me. I agree with the coat of the BC and the ears of the Mali being a deterrent!

Lastly, I literally nodded in agreement to your thoughts on a BC that is cattle bred. That is actually my logic for both breeds. I am going to extensively research breeders to find ones that whelp and ween properly. They also have to breed the BC's for intelligence and herding ability, and for Mali's I want one bred from champion stock from a breeder who breeds for temperament and drive. Awesome comment Kadi!

Have you considered rescuing a super ball/toy crazy 9 months to 2 year old or so dog of the right size, drive, intelligence, and build to excel at all the sports you're interested in short of bitework? I know that many shelter dogs that are just over-the-top toy or ball crazy make awesome scent detection dogs, flyball, and agility dogs.
If chosen with care, a young adult or older puppy rescue/shelter dog can be the dog of your dreams.
For bite work, I'd get a working malinois.
I third the ranch-BC comments. The best BCs I've seen have been out west working dogs, spending all day out in the fields, doing what they were bred to do.
It's sad how so many of the great working breeds, including siberian huskies, BC, and shepherds are being bred to standards so far from their original working purposes. Often these dogs don't turn into either most people's versions of 'good pets' or make good working dogs. Stand a working siberian next to a show siberian and you'd think it was a different breed standard all together. Yet many siberians end up in shelters because they have too much energy or are too stubborn.
But I digress.

I actually am considering being a foster home for arizona border collie rescue. I want to have some experience with this breed and a foster home would allow me to train and get experience, while helping out some BC's! Maybe my training them will help adoption times too! The wife and I are still discussing it though.

Well.
That's the point of it, isn't Spence?.....What do you want to do?

While the two different breeds have a very similar 'activity' levels, they are really bred with two different mind sets in mind.

I don't think you should worry so much about the bite sports, um should I say, tainting the behavior of the dog socially.
All the ring sports are very specific in where and when the bite is allowed. Or maybe one can say it's just another rewarded behavior, not much more than that for most dogs.
Choose to reward it or not, up to you.

However, I would not recommend a Mal for someone up in the air (undecided) about what breed of dog to obtain.

If my dog isn't learning, I'm doing something wrong.
Randy

What's that pup in your signature? He looks like he could do about anything....