Missal Malinois

About Missal Malinois

I have been working with animals “professionally” since I was 10, at which time I started a grooming and care business in my neighborhood in my home state of Alaska. I had aspirations to compete in obedience with dogs, but unfortunately my parents had an affinity for Siberian Huskies. It was a sad day indeed when I read the obedience requirements to earn a title and knew that my childhood dogs were not contenders! Even so, I showed them in Juniors conformation and spent many hours training and exercising them. Later, in high school, I turned my attention to competing in equestrian events with my horse Vangar, including dressage and show jumping. I moved to Europe to further my dressage career but ultimately decided that it was not my destiny. At age 21 I took my first step into canine SAR with my adopted dog Solo, and have been involved in K9 SAR ever since. Since then I’ve trained and handled five SAR dogs in wilderness, avalanche, tracking, and USAR/urban (disaster), and am still an active validated SAR handler for an Urban SAR Task Force. I have a deep interest in improving the canine SAR profile by constantly assessing best practices, exploring training techniques, and examining myths and beliefs to determine their veracity. I obtained my first Malinois, Ruuska, as an avalanche dog prospect, and quickly became addicted to the breed and the possibilities it presented. SAR was barely going to scratch the surface of Ruuska’s capabilities, so I set out to learn dog sports. Since then, I’ve competed and titled my dogs in conformation (three of my dogs are Grand Champion conformation dogs and are owner-handled to boot!), competitive obedience, IGP, rally, and tracking. I turned my attention to Urban Search and Rescue (think FEMA disaster dogs), and in 2021 Ruuska achieved her national validation in USAR. After that, I started training my young male, Roy, as a Human Remains Detection dog in the USAR system. I have also become very interested and proficient in professional detection profiles including narcotics, accelerants, human remains, and explosives. I became interested in breeding for a number of reasons, and I am thrilled with the results of my program so far. Since starting my breeding program in 2021, I've since become an AKC Breeder of Merit of Belgian Malinois and have continued to earn titles and working validations on my dogs and their offspring. In addition to dogs, I am a career emergency manager and business continuity expert, and have worked on projects in that field all over the world. I’m launching some research into the use of canines in disaster and emergency response, and hope to share my findings with you as I go. This is a new chapter in my life and I am happy to have you along for the ride.