Quote: Michelle Berdusco

... Just wondering if multiples can coexsist in the house.

This depends on the dog(s) and on the handler, but it also needs a new thread.

 Quote: Michelle Berdusco

Carol
Off topic but I was wondering if your dogs live in the house or kennel?

Both, I acclimate them to the kennels so that if I need them they do not go crazy because of the change.

ALL puppies live in the house in a crate so I can do the bonding/house training stuff and then I slowly start kennel work.

Like Connie stated, it depends on the dogs as well as your leadership. You can have two or more loose, but it HAS to be on your terms and not ever theirs.

well i would like to get a dog that i can do some sport with. /i would mostly like to perfect obedience and protection (on my part) though.

I might get razzed here a bit, but I will say it anyway....

IMHO, even some of the best working line GSD's are more forgiving than a Mal as far as mistakes. (excluding dogs like Betty's, her litter and Fetz)

I only say this since you posted that you wanted to perfect your obedience and protection skills.

Jesea takes a bit to forgive a mistake and Ember at 7 mos just does not tolerate them if they are stupid on my part. With Mals (like mine at least) respect is earned and not given easily.

I know this applies to any dog, any breed, but I am just asking the OP to really think about a Mal and try to find a club that has them so you can be around them (and GSD's for that matter) before jumping in with both feet.

It took me over a year to decide on a Mal. I wanted one badly but I had to be sure since I had the "starry eyed Mal syndrome" at first.
Now, well, now I am addicted and a glutton for punishment.

i do understand what your saying. and agree. the only thing is i get the feeling that this mal is not like other mals. i don't think she has the drive and energy of other mals. the woman told me that she is kind of laid back. she has said nothing of her being high strung, energetic, alot of dog. nothing like the typical mal description.

Many rescue Mals are NOT suitable for protection. They are in rescue in the first place because their life situations were less than ideal (usually) and my guess is that a protection dog needs to be raised in ideal conditions to foster its temperament.

That being said, there ARE many mals in rescue that the rescue has billed as "good for a first-time Mal owner" - as they can have less drive than a working Mal.

You could probably rescue a WONDERFUL purebred Malinois and put obedience and/or agility and maybe even utility and tracking titles on it. Protection though... not sure about that.

http://www.malinoisrescue.org - here is a rescue site.

So, what if you are not able to do protection with her? Is that going to be okay?

And, what if she is shy and ends up fearful?

I am a bit confused, since the dog in the shelter is probably going to end up being a pet type and not a working type and I thought you wanted a working dog?

i do want a working dog but i also realize that because i have never owned a mal before and they do tend to be " a lot of dog" i may want to take it a bit slow. and to be honest with you once i saw her face and heard her story i just want to rescue her. what ever she gives she gives. if she does great with the training, then wonderful. if she is too shy to progress ans she just becomes a family pet. then so be it. i want the most i can get out of her though. i also want a stable family pet good with kids.

the more i look at her pic though she really does look like a gsd. maybe mixed with a mal. but she def. looks like a gsd.

You have to look at stuff like this objectively.

So you want to do some sport work, but not alot, so you are looking at a very driven workaholic of a breed, but you are looking at a particular dog that has the energy of a laid back GSD, with typical Malinois bad nerves from the sounds of that rescue listing.

So lets put this into perspective.

Malinois often tend to have a nervey edge to them, but they overcome this by having stupid amounts of drive to work them through things that they are unsure of. That is what makes a Malinois a Malinois. So now you take the same dog and you take away this stupid amount of drive. What do you have left? You have a calm lazy malinois that no longer has the drive to overcome their unsureness. So now you lost the only tool you had to make the dog overcome their issues.

If you want a calm dog that can work then get a GSD. If you want a calm Malinois then don't do the work. If you want a Malinois then get a good one. The bad ones are a pain in the ass to do anything with. The good ones are a pain in the ass if you DONT do anything with them.

Generally a Malinois is surrendered for 2 reasons (hugely generalizing here, but in my world: 2 reasons). Either the dog is too much dog for a regular person to handle, so the dog is rehomed to someone with more experience. Or the dog isn't good enough to perform the work the owner wanted, so the dog is rehomed to someone looking for a pet.

I love dogs, and I look at dogs in pictures at shelters and rescues and I wish I could take them all home with me. But at the end of the day, you shouldn't get guilted into taking a dog that you will be stuck with for the rest of their life because they looked cute and dopey on a picture.