Hello all,

Happy to say my account has been approved and I am very relieved to have found a forum like this.

I noticed that the Malinois forum is pretty much dead. No new posts since March 2010.

I'll be a proud Malinois owner come October, and I want to know where I can find the best information about the breed, and have some specific questions answered. Is it in this forum, another subforum on this site, or another site entirely?

In any case, I'll be here, as some of your sea of information is probably non-breed-specific. I am tempted to write a "Here's my story!" post but I want to know if I'm in the right place for that.

If this is in the wrong forum, please feel free to move it. I'm a moderator on a huge car-related board and I aim to respect whichever way the wind blows around here.

Welcome! I'm not very active on this board but I also notice how slow the malinois board is and would love to see more malinois posts up here! There are lots of malinois owners who post too on this board.

I would say you are in the right place. This is the general dog section. Lots of different questions are asked here.

Congratz on your Mal pup coming. My next dog in a few years will probably be a Mal.
Cindy and Ed, the owners of this site do a lot of work with Mals and Mondio Ring Sport. They have some awesome dogs and one of only two dogs to get a 300 in a MR competition in the USA. They used a Mal for this, named Rush I believe.
You can also get a lot of their dvds on pretty much anything you can think of and watch their weekly videos, 9 times out of 10 staring a Mal puppy, or adult.

There are also a lot of long time Mal owners that are active users, along with people in many types of dog training sports and activities.

Welcome to the forums. Enjoy your stay.

Dave/Melissa, thanks very much for your responses.

You both said there are lots of Mal owners on here. They're obviously not posting in the Mal forum (lol) so are they posting in here? It's important to me to fit in nicely here as I think this place will be an excellent resource when growing as a dog owner.

A bit about me, and as I've said, if this is the wrong place, feel free to move it:

I'm 29 and this will be the first dog I have actually purchased for my own home. However I have a fair amount of exposure to dogs and working breeds in specific. Starting at age 8 my folks and I had two Shetland Sheepdogs, an terrifyingly aggressive Aussie Shepherd rescue, then a lovely, gorgeous GSD who passed a few months ago at age 10. My (much older) brother has had a Rotti, and now has his own GSD and a gorgeous (but dumber than rocks) Pit/Akita mix. So, I know how to at least handle myself and assert myself with more serious dogs.

I did most of the work with my parents' GSD and I am pretty sure that I'm ready to take on the responsibility again. She lived with my wife and for stretches of time, which convinced my wife that a decent-sized Shepherd type was something she wanted (she's a completely 'green' owner).

The Mal's smaller size, hardier/healthier nature, and its absence from all of the "dangerous dog" lists in our area (DC Metro) sealed the deal for us. We found a breeder about an hour from us (sight unseen/air freight too risky for my liking).

Here is where I need a little help. What's the honest consensus on Males vs. Females? This forum is where I hope to sort out the good info from the meaningless. The breeder has 7 boys and 3 girls and all are available at this point.

 Quote: ross rapoport

.... I noticed that the Malinois forum is pretty much dead. No new posts since March 2010.....

This "General Dog Forum" is by far the most active, and yes indeed there are Mal owners here.

What are your plans for the dog?

I agree one thing I love about Mals is the world does not know about them. As in world, I mean law makers! LOL.

Probably pound for pound the best working dog in the world and no one knows their name. I love that!

*Is knocking on wood, just in case I just ruined it by opening my big mouth* Lol.

 Quote: connie sutherland

What are your plans for the dog?

I would say that's pretty open-ended and depends on how the dog turns out.

My only concrete plans are to train the dog extremely well, socialize it well with other people/dogs/children, and give it loads of physical exercise and a large vocabulary.

When I had my parents' GSD last summer I taught her a few new commands, and would take her out for long walks interspersed with some full-throttle activity like fetch or letting her play with some of her dog friends.

So, I want to take it a few steps further than that. I'll be looking for a Mal with considerable play/ball drive, and one that shows potential for bite work. Once these basics of play are explored, I will make an informed decision about where to go next.

I'm not ruling anything out, I suppose. But I'm not fooling myself into thinking that this is going to be some hardcore competition/sport dog or a PPD. My wife is a complete novice, and we do not live in the country...far from it actually. If the dog shows that kind of potential, yet can be a good citizen, I'll be thrilled. But it needs to be a good citizen first and the rest will flow from there.

So far, the breeder has been steering us toward the more independent, calmer, smaller (read: less dominant) pups. The few that I like, looks/size-wise, will be more demanding as far as exercise/training go. I am prepared for that, but I think I will probably pass on the true Alpha.

We're moving soon and the dog will be picked up after we get into our new place. We will be living near wife's best friend and her son (our godson), so having a "good with kids" dog is an absolute must. We have no children yet, but it's in the future and I must plan for that when selecting the pup and socializing it.

And Dave, I agree completely.

I wanted a Dutch Shepherd first (I prefer their looks and apparently they are much calmer), but they are impossible to find and this Malinois breeder really fell into our lap.

My real preference would be a GSD, but it's near-impossible to find housing around here that will accept them, and hard to obtain homeowners' insurance for when we do make the leap into home ownership. Not to mention the difficulty finding the right GSD with all the crap that's out there. Mine was Czech lines and cost $750...those days are gone now.

Hello and Welcome!