I have to agree with Vela here. I train for agility, but I never let the fact escape that my dogs are high drive Belgians. They are dangerous dogs, simple as that. When Visa went to her first seminar (shortly after I got her) the host said she needed to be taken out of agility RIGHT away -- She was too dangerous. This was after two years of only positive training. I got her, saw a dog that wasn't eager to please, was not particularily motived, self-rewarded herself by not listening, and plain just didn't enjoy her training. She had very uncontrollable drive and a mild working sharpness which did make her a potential danger. I used alot of negatives, and it worked for her. Instead of not listening altogether, she stops listening only when she becomes bored of it, and then the training ends. She is now a controlled dog -- My service dog at that -- I got rid of the working sharpness and she is now reliable. And now that she knows what to do, she enjoys her training. But I will never be able to resort to ONLY positive -- every time I try, she starts to take advantage of me. She is a smart dog and she knows what she wants.

Having malinois in fur coats (lol), I honestly couldn't care less if my dog enjoyed what it was doing in the long term -- if it is a required command, they will do it, like it or not. I live under the idea that these dogs are dangerous and it is my job to control them. I am glad my dogs understand that there are consequences to their actions. I honestly can't think of any "positive" ways to control sharpness in a working dog.

My co-breeder is the same -- both positive and negative. She grew up with the Kohler method of training. Her dogs didn't have fun all the time, but they listened 100%. When she was a teenager she went to a positive training class. Her dog enjoyed it, but at the end of 8 weeks it jumped up and stole a chocolate bar from her hand. It would NEVER have even thought of doing that before the class. She liked the reliability of the harsher training and the dog's eagerness towards positive training. So she developed both a postitive and negative attitude.