German Shepherds lose their place as police dogs in Germany

When most people think of police dogs, they think of the stately German Shepherd, but one German town is changing pace. The town is North Rhine-Westphalia and the new hot dog on the force is the Belgian Shepherd (sometimes called a Belgian Malinois).

The police there stopped breeding German Shepherds in 2005 and now Belgians now outnumber those 281 to 26. The officers report that the Belgians are shorter and lighter and seem to have better stamina when working.

Guenther Bonke, the man in charge of the police K9s says that this is a trend that is spreading around most of Germany and that “Belgian Shepherd can more often be used as both a guard dog and a tracking dog for drugs and explosives. In the end, those dogs are a better investment for us.”