# Late-to-mature Malinois puppy.....



## Melissa Hau (Sep 17, 2011)

The videos spans 14 months. We got Fay Fay when she was 7.5 weeks old, with the intention of training in Mondioring. This is our first time raising a puppy for sport so we didn't know what to expect (our first sport dog was a pet GSD that started MR/PSA training when she was 4 years old). Fay Fay was so different from the Mal puppies we had seen before. She had no interest in toys, and didn't want to chase rags. ](*,)

We've had trainers told us that there was no hope, then others told us she might just be slow to mature. As far as we know, she was the only one in the litter like that. The runt of her litter was in our MR club until he was a year old and he did well in bite-work. Her breeder offered an exchange, but we couldn't do it. 

We waited and waited, by the time she was 14 months old, we had pretty much given up hope. We figured we would just pursue a MR OB-only title with her. But when she turned 16 months old, she suddenly became very interested in toys. We tested her again at the club and she was different \\/ 

We thought we would put together a video to show our journey........
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lWNpIItfP8......


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Good to see her coming around. 

Some look at a slow to mature dog as a dog that will last longer.


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## Sarah Platts (Jan 12, 2010)

I like the way you stuck with her and didn't throw up your hands in surrender. What a journey.


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## Melissa Hau (Sep 17, 2011)

Thanks Bob! We figured whatever was meant to happen would eventually happen. If it didn't work out, we were going to find another sport that all of us could enjoy.


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## Melissa Hau (Sep 17, 2011)

Thanks Sarah! She is well-worth it. She is stable, confident, and always happy, just a joy to be around. We wanted to enjoy the journey with her, even if it meant changing the destination


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## rick smith (Dec 31, 2010)

re : "We thought we would put together a video to show our journey…….”
*** thanks a LOT for taking the time to compile those clips … interesting ! and glad you are satisfied now

re : "The videos spans 14 months. We got Fay Fay when she was 7.5 weeks old, with the intention of training in Mondioring. This is our first time raising a puppy for sport so we didn't know what to expect"
*** now you know not to “expect” and instead you have learned to work with what you have in front of you 

"(our first sport dog was a pet GSD that started MR/PSA training when she was 4 years old). Fay Fay was so different from the Mal puppies we had seen before. She had no interest in toys, and didn't want to chase rags. "
— NEVER a good idea to compare dogs 

"We've had trainers told us that there was no hope, then others told us she might just be slow to mature."
— common opinions …. that will often vary from person to person 
— i’m not a big fan of “maturing” as a means of measuring progress and having things ‘happen' without human intervention. I think applying the right amount of pressures and challenges that the young dog is capable of handling, conflict free, is a good approach too

"As far as we know, she was the only one in the litter like that. The runt of her litter was in our MR club until he was a year old and he did well in bite-work." 
— never a good idea to compare littermates either 

"We waited and waited, by the time she was 14 months old, we had pretty much given up hope. We figured we would just pursue a MR OB-only title with her. But when she turned 16 months old, she suddenly became very interested in toys. We tested her again at the club and she was different .”

—— not all working breed pups are alligators when they leave momma, even tho we’d like them to be able to clamp down on a rag and be swung around. i’ve seen a few ‘helpers’ give pups (and young dogs) too many misses and condition a pup to NOT wanna grip. also seen helpers smack pups too soon to get them ‘motivated’. also seen helpers expect a young dog to immediately set a firm deep grip, but start tugging before that happens, which can also have negative effects. poor presentations, improperly sized equipment, equipment too hard, prey item too far away, too much back pressure….the list goes on :-(
- there are as many ways to build frustration for success as there are ways to build frustration and kill motivation
…..SOOOOO many ways to mess up a pup or young dog, and sooooo easy to blame the dog :-(

every case is different, but for me it often boils down to being too aggressive and expecting too much too soon
…or having an image of what we “want” and allow that image to cover up what is actually happening 

hope things keep going well


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## Melissa Hau (Sep 17, 2011)

Thanks Rick! Along the way, we've had people told us about dogs that didn't turn on until older but it was always someone else's dog. We never heard a first person account of it. We figured we would put together this video in case if anyone was wondering like we were 

It was definitely a good learning experience. Once she came home with us, this is her forever home. Dog training is just a hobby, we could change sports, but not dogs. We figured competitively OB would be just as much fun if she could not do bite-work. We just didn't know when was the point to stop trying. 

It was confusing to us, seeing all her littermates doing well, especially when the same helpers did bite development on her littermate and he turned out fine. We often wondered if we were doing something wrong  We didn't want her to think,"Oh, it's this boring game again??" So we would take her to bite development training for a week or two (we train once a week), then stopped for 2-4 weeks (since she showed no interest), we went back and forth, and we took a couple of long breaks in between as well. We were wondering if we were doing too much? Too little? From the helper, to the method, to the harness, to the agitation collar, to the rag, down to maybe too much OB with food rewards? We were trying to find out what we were doing wrong  

So far so good, her performance has been steady for the last 1.5 months (she is now 18 months old). We are taking baby steps with her. I plan on putting together another video in 4-6 months to show where she is


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