John,

Welcome to the forum.

Hoo boy... A mal pup and 2 and 3 year old children meant to play together??

This dog and your kids are going to require an enormous amount of management to make this work, and my fear is that your wife is going to quickly think of the mal as "aggressive" due to his normal, natural biting/attacking anything that moves propensity... (Puppy bites, kid squeals, puppy gets more excited and jumps on kid, kid runs, puppy chases, etc...) I think it is going to require keeping children and puppy APART far more than you're going to be able to allow them to be together... are you guys open to and prepared for that lifestyle?

I've yet to see someone on the forum re-consider a pup once it has already been "selected", but please, give this situation a LOT more thought. Maybe take your two children to see the pup and in a VERY WELL MANAGED situation let them play together for a few minutes. (Pup on a leash, both parents RIGHT THERE, etc...) Even this suggestions makes me uncomfortable because I really hate the idea of your little ones getting nipped and scratched, but I'd much rather you and your wife see the potential situation prior to bringing this guy home. jmho, and I really hope this works out perfectly for everyone involved.

Your bird dogs are beautiful. Any way you can make the pics smaller?

Again, welcome to the forum.

 Quote: Konnie Hein

Tethering (leashing) the pup to you might be a good idea, unless your pup is very mouthy/bitey. Then your pup might just attach himself to you with his teeth. Also, young pups and very young kids don't make for a great combination, and this is especially so for Malinois pups. Mal pups typically explore with their teeth, and this will include mouthing/play biting your children or knocking them down. You'll have to be careful with the kids' toys too - they will be fair game and can easily be destroyed and/or swallowed by a pup/dog.

thank you. No sorry not any way to make them smaller. I DO plan on keeping them apart. We do live in a small house so that might be interesting.

My main plan for our new dog is to crate the dog. I understand what can happen and I know my kids. My kids are on a pretty strict leash them selves. I'm raising my children with the aspect of kids these days are wimps and parents don't do enough to make them not be little brats. For the most part I think after my kids figure out that cute little puppy has teeth they will respect it a little more. Now that being said I'm not going to stand by at watch my pup maul my kids!!! (geeze what kinda parent would I be!!) But I do want them to respect it and realize the dog is not a toy!

I assume you go to work etc and are not always home when the kids are (though at that age I am sure someone is home with them like mom).

If you think that your kids might want to play with the puppy while you are not there/let him out of his crate to 'play' I would strongly consider putting a lock on it and just hanging the key 5 or 6 feet about the crate so its always nearby but the kids cant get it.

Be so careful with the childrens little soft faces.
I'm a fan of Basset hounds (driveless) or pugs (teeth don't meet) for 2 and 3 yr olds myself.

I know nothing about Mals, and I admit that my Canaan dog might be almost a different species. True my kids are older than yours (my youngest was 6 when we got Darwin) but here's my two cents.

When you take a dog into your house, you're bending his natural instincts to the rules of a human society. This isn't easy for the dog, but to make it work you need CONSISTENCY. Both the dog and the humans go through a process of learning each others' rules, and that's really hard for him if you say "no playing with the kids", but mom says "stroke the dog".

When we got Darwin, I made rules that were not open to compromise, and my wife and kids put up with them (with a bit of grumbling). I wouldn't let him growl at the kids, whatever they did - but when they made him growl, I made it very clear to them that they'd done something wrong too. 6-12 months later, Darwin understood a lot more about us, and we (including the kids) understood a lot more about him. Now, when they put their arms around his neck, he knows it's not aggressive, and when he licks their face, they don't run away screaming.

I can't tell you how to train a protection dog like many people here on the forum can, but I have a pretty good idea about training kids (I have five). They will put up with your strict dog rules, and will benefit from them. I have a lot less experience in wives... good luck with that one.

I'd like to get this thread back on topic.

What inside kennels and other supply would you suggest I get?

I've thought about getting a wire kennel but ED said something in a pdf I was reading (maybe to sell something lol cant blame him) to get one of those totally enclosed ones. Those things are $300 + and to me after spending the cash on my dog I'd like to keep some costs down. I have a large dog kennel the plastic kind but I think it might be too large for a 4 month old dog to live in.

I plan to buy one of those orbe's Ed sells and some of the other items.

Here's my list so far in no order:

Everlasting Fire Plug
Leash
Kennel (not sure which one)
Rubber Kennel Mat
Stainless Steel Dog Bowl 3QT
Flat Leather Collar (leerburg)
Dominant Dog Collar
Crunch & Crackle Tug toy
Leerburg DVD's (been watching and reading for a few years)
Just haven't bought any until now.
Dog grooming supplys
Toys Toys Toys!!

a long line...
I really like this one, but it's only 15' long. It's heavier than the cotton line that Leerburg sells and doesn't get tangled.
bandaids!
http://leerburg.com/1061.htm

Arik thanks for the reply. I totally agree

I'm actually going over to the breeder to totally make sure I want a dog from him and If I do ask if I can pay and get the dog next week after being setup more for the dog. I've been trying to get a gsd , ddr dog then decided on a mal but didn't look into getting one as a house dog until now because frankly I didn't own a home until now. We've been here almost 2 years waiting knowing we were going to have kids and wanted to get a dog when we felt the time was right. My wife and I are going to have a very serious long talk about them tonight so that I can totally make sure she's on board. The last thing I need is to get a dog and she wants nothing to do with it. She told me she's excited but I need to know more I think. I'll admit this has been a long time coming and I'm a little exited too.

I think I have a long line at my folks farm for my old dog. I think it's about 100 ' haha she was bread for horse back hunting. (elhew pointer)

Beautiful Pointers. I've got a 3 yr old liver EP.