During our never ending quest to find my lost Malinois we found a purebed Malinois at the local shelter. She was picked up as a stray. She's extremely fearful and very underweight. She has not showed any aggression at all. She did not show much interest when my husband threw a ball. She did perk her ears up when he threw it but did not chase it. I don't do protection sports with my dogs but I do agility, exercise and obedience and I like a dog with a lot of drive. Perhaps her fear has just paralized her? Any opinions on this? She has been at the shelter only a few days. She has shown improvement from day 3 when my husband first saw her to day 4. The good news is she is very young. Looks like about a year or 18 months. She knows the sit command and gave her paw. She may be really missing her owner or maybe the owner is an abusive idiot. You just don't know. There is a guy here who breeds Mals for Belgian ring and unfortunately sells pups through the local paper so anyone could have owned this dog. I have children. She was okay but cautious around my 4 year old son. She seemed okay with other dogs. They will do more temperment testing before she can go to a home. I would love to hear opinions on adopting this dog from those with experience.

Amanda, I have three kids, two dogs and one wife. It's everyday I feel I'm shortchanging sombody on my time. I would hold off on getting another additional responsibilty, especialy one with "issues".

Thanks for the reply Dennis. I however have the time as well as the need to keep my mind occupied with a challenge. I get bored otherwise. Five of my dogs are little lap dogs. My Malinois was my exercise buddy and so much more. I take long walks every day with my GSD and my kids but something is missing. I like the high energy dog to feed my high energy plus I love training and doing the fun stuff too.

I'm green with envy <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Amanda,
Given the fact that your married and have kids, your probably an adult too <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> , so being that you didn't ask permission or if it was it in your best intrest to get another dog, I'm guessing you did the adult thing and made a decision that you could handle another dog. With that said, I would go to the pound everyday and spend sometime with her, or ask the pound if you could evaluate her in your home for a few days, some will let you do that. Also, could you PM me the breeders name that sells malinois out of the newspaper! would like to steer clear of that guy and anyone that buys dogs from him. In case he advertises on the net also. Good luck with the decision on the Mal pup, and I hope you have luck finding your lost mal.

No need to e-mail it Chris. His name is John Brown of Ronkonkoma NY. He's known in the Belgium ring world as he's been doing it for a long time. He has an ad in the newspaper for puppies right now. I'll leave the rest of my personal opinions out of this topic for respect of the dog sport world for which I am a fan. I just never found a good mentor close enough in my area to get much into it and my dog was better suited for agility than protection work.

I am a Vet Tech at one of our local shelters and in 2 years I've seen one Malinois and he ended up there because of a thunderstorm that knocked over a tree which then fell onto side of his kennel. His owner came the next day. Every once in a while we get a decent "pure-looking" GSD and in 2 years I've seen 7, which none have ever been returned or picked up by animal control. Given a honest opinion from my perspective is leaving the dog there. Why take a Malinois 1. From a shelter, 2. That's timid and 3. Have no info on why dog is there? Shelters are great but the end result is that they want money, screw everything else. Let that be somebody else's problem.

Shelters are great but the end result is that they want money, screw everything else. Let that be somebody else's problem.

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Brennan Reese
Animal shelters are either government or privatly funded which is the case with most humane societys. Animals are either brought in as stays or owner surrenders. Each animal must be provided with fresh water,shelter, food,and a clean enviornment to live in. All of these things cost money. Maybe some animal shelters are not what we would like them to be but sure is better then starvation,exposure to the elements,and fear. Sorry to hear you think shelters only want money. Most are poorly funded.

Lets think about this. If I find a nice dog in a shelter for maybe a 50-100 dollar donation, or spend big bucks to a breeder for a known commidity, which one will it be. It all depends on what you want. I've spent the big bucks and I've also got the shelter dogs. I've done well with both. I got what I wanted with both senarios. At this point in my life, one of the best dogs ever was a GSD/Dane mix from the shelter. My 11 month old GSD that I have now has already show to be right up there. Seems to be a common denominator there. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> GSD! I'll always love my terriers, and there are lots of JRTs (Mini-Mals) in the shelters. Most of the problems with shelter dogs are people created. It's not the dog.

Brennan the shelter scenario is not the same everywhere. Even the individual shelters on Long Island all operate differently. This particular shelter impressed me a lot. They said they will need a vet reference and they want to come to our home to see where the dog will be living and to see if the yard is fenced.Why? They do this with certain breeds such as: Pitbulls, Rottweilers and Malinois etc.
Also the reason the dog is there as I stated is she was picked up as a stray. There are lots of people out there that lose a dog and don't bother trying to hunt it down. Does it mean they purposely dumped the dog onto the curb? Not necessarily. Theye are several purebred GSDs, Labs and even a St. Bernard at the local shelters right now. It's just not the same everywhere.