> Incidentally, OH was chatting to the MOD police last week, who still use the Shepherd but Czech lines.&nbsp; The last batch was from the Czech Republic and cost them a fortune, so they changed their supplier and the next batch is coming in from Holland.&nbsp; After that, they too are moving towards the Mal. They are simply finding suitable GSD's hard to get, and when they do, they are costly.&nbsp; <IMG class=qButton title="Quote selected text" alt="Quote selected text" src="/images/mi_quote.gif" width=20 height=10>

So one of the reasons could be down to cost then, that would make sense.

It's the MOD I have contacts with, one of their branches (not sure if that is the right word -my English does lack a bit at times) was the first in the UK to use Malinois already many years ago now, that first dog was born in the early 90s. They still have the same showlines in their Malis there but have imported working bred dogs as well. One in Scotland also have used the same showlines but crossed out to a working dog, I sold a pup once to a police dog handler for the MOD up there who had just trained a Mali from a pup that had qualified as a police dog and he now wanted one of his own (pet basically) that he'd never have to hand over, so ended up buying a cousin off me. :)

I don't know what section or branch this was, Marianne, I must ask OH.  They had two Czech GSD's with them and OH was smitten, Lol. They did say there is a rarity of suitable GSD's for police work in latter times, and they are becoming harder and harder to get.  BTW, I did meet a Mal/GSD mix a few months ago at Hydro - fully fledged police dog.  Some MOD has obviously moved to the Mal already then, and has for some time; that doesn't surprise me.  

I too am with Alison Gold, Nova and Brainless on the original subject here.  The cynical side of me says the KC are onto another money spinner here but perhaps they do naively believe allowing all and sundry access to the ABS gives it more credit and improves everything across the board??  Who knows, but like a previous poster says, surely the KENNEL CLUB ABS is not just about health testing but about all the factors involved with producing first rate healthy pedigree dogs?  It'll be a winner for the designer breed breeders to plaster their websites with :o(  Can just see the ads on a certain puppy sellling website now.

According to the kennel club FB page, they are "certainly not accepting designer dog breeders on the ABS".

According to the kennel club FB page, they are "certainly not accepting designer dog breeders on the ABS".

At the moment they aren't. As far as I was led to believe it's still being worked on.

The kennel Club has for many years now been accepting the registration of cross bred dogs and unregistered pedigree dogs as members of their companion dog club. I assumed back then when they started this that they were positioning themselves to handle the registration of all dogs if as will no doubt happen at some point that DeFRA, the government or CAWC recommends a national license scheme or some form of dog registration scheme.

I would rather the Kc ran it than the RSPCA for two main reasons, one the KC has the mechanisms in place to run large dog registers and not cost dog owners an arm and a leg to do so. Two, if the RSPCA got the registration system and licensing granted to them and as the next largest organisation dealing with dogs, we would all face a steep increase in license fees and registrations fees on a YEARLY basis. Some 20 odd years ago they were pushing for an annual licence to be paid by dog owners and figures of around £50 per dog per year were bandied about. So allow for inflation and could we afford to pay this heavy price? How many pet owners would pay it too? It would severely limit dog breeding and people offering good homes for pet puppies. I expect they might offer a cheaper yearly licence fee for spayed or neutered dogs, so that would limit a number of gene pools even further.

>The kennel Club has for many years now been accepting the registration of cross bred dogs and unregistered pedigree dogs as members of their companion dog club.

And on the Activities Register as well.

>Not trying to be argumentative but would like to know where your statistics come from - I find it very interesting, and want to learn more, in particular in the UK

I don't recall giving you statistics, but my knowledge comes from having a keen interest in working dogs, especially the protection sport breeds.

> don't recall giving you statistics, but my knowledge comes from having a keen interest in working dogs, especially the protection sport breeds. <IMG class=qButton title="Quote selected text" alt="Quote selected text" src="/images/mi_quote.gif" width=20 height=10>

No you did not give any statistics, wish you had, just like to know where the information comes from - thanks for letting me know :)

No you did not give any statistics, wish you had, just like to know where the information comes from - thanks for letting me know :-)

I believe the Dutch are quite open about it! :)