Comparison of the performance of German Shepherds and Belgian Shepherd Malinois in scent detection tests

Abstract

Detection dogs trained to search for various odorous substances are an effective tool in the fight against crime. Due to the high costs of training and maintaining these dogs, it is necessary to preselect suitable individuals for this purpose. One of the selection criteria is the dog breed. Unfortunately, there is a lack of studies that compare dog breeds for their suitability as detection dogs. Until the recent past, German Shepherds were widely used by police, army and customs services around the world. However, over the last few decades, Belgian Shepherd Malinois have become more popular in terms of service cynology.The aim of our study was to compare the two most common working dog breeds, namely the German Shepherd and Belgian Shepherd Malinois (Malinois). The prediction was made that Malinois would not outperform German Shepherds. For this purpose, we evaluated the results of customs dogs (539 German Shepherds and 177 Malinois) currently undergoing their certification process against data from a 10-year database.The certification process consists of two sets of tests: scent detection and obedience. Every scent detection dog was required to search for specific target scents (drugs, banknotes and tobacco) in six training areas that imitated real workplaces. The obedience test consisted of ten tasks, which the dog had to perform (e.g. recall, heelwork, changes of position at the handler's leg). The evaluation of the scent detection and obedience tests was done by certified judges. The data were analysed using PROC GLIMMIX in SAS software (version 9.4). The results of the scent tests did not reveal a significant difference between the breeds (P = 0.31) For the obedience test, the scores were higher in Malinois (84%) compared to German Shepherds (80%), with P < 0.01. The age and sex of the dogs did not significantly affect their evaluation in both tests. Our results showed that although Malinois do not outperform German Shepherds in the special discipline - the detection of specific target scents - both breeds are suitable for this purpose.