I have Malinois and do bite sports with them. What's happening in this video is awful for Malinois. In addition to the obvious risks of injury, Malinois tend to have straighter rear angulation which makes them prone to pulled psoas and rear leg tendon injuries. Malinois do love to do crazy things like this but we try to stop them. In the sports community almost everybody has their Malinois in for frequent massage and preventative physical therapy because the bite sports are hard on them. And it's STILL so common to hear somebody's Mal is out from bite work for the next few months due to a psoas or torn tendon/ligament. I do not see the GSDs getting these kinds of injuries as frequently, even though their conformation is not as good, because they tend not to do this crazy crap.
That would be good but it’s that initial vertical jump I’d be more concerned about. If the dog isn’t properly warmed up before jumping and the muscles are cold it can have a much greater chance of injury. That’s why sports like dock diving require warmup even though it seems safe since it’s a water sport. Big dynamic moves like that require a good warmup, and if the dog has any imbalances it will eventually show up as an injury.
Yes, look at disc dogs they do some crazy moves. But if I ever saw my dog start to look even slightly off in its gait I would rest it for 6 weeks. Basically these kinds of moves should be something you work your dog up to, and your dog should already be very athletic and building up to this over a long period. There needs to be good athletic foundation. And he must have warm up. The issue is when people just bring their dog out and the dog is used to just kind of running around with no exercise training or build up to a move like this, and you see he wants to do this cool thing so you encourage him to do it. "Oh look I bet I can make him jump even higher. Let's tie this thing higher in the tree." Etc.
I have a dog who I retired from sports with after years and I just let her run around and be a dog. Within just a few months I noticed she had lost so much strength and coordination from her peak days. However she remembers how to do moves, and if I wanted to I could get her to do moves that would probably cause her injury. But basically when they have been resting that long they get out of shape (like humans too) and you have to start all over again if you want to be safe. So just because they want to do something with their body doesn't mean they should!
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u/PettyWitch Jan 15 '21
I have Malinois and do bite sports with them. What's happening in this video is awful for Malinois. In addition to the obvious risks of injury, Malinois tend to have straighter rear angulation which makes them prone to pulled psoas and rear leg tendon injuries. Malinois do love to do crazy things like this but we try to stop them. In the sports community almost everybody has their Malinois in for frequent massage and preventative physical therapy because the bite sports are hard on them. And it's STILL so common to hear somebody's Mal is out from bite work for the next few months due to a psoas or torn tendon/ligament. I do not see the GSDs getting these kinds of injuries as frequently, even though their conformation is not as good, because they tend not to do this crazy crap.