The Belgian Malinois is a medium size dog of exceptional beauty and working ability used for many purposes, including herding, tracking, agility, obedience, and police work. Originally a herding and general farm dog in Belgium in the late 1800\u2019s, the Belgian Malinois is an alert and agile dog.\u00a0 It is distinguished from other Belgian shepherd breeds by its short, straight coat, rich fawn to mahogany color with black overlay and black mask and ears.\u00a0 Several qualities originally established the breed as a herding dog.\u00a0 The easy-care coat, effortless movement and inexhaustible energy allowed it to work in harsh weather for long hours.\u00a0 Its natural alertness and responsiveness allowed it to protect the sheep and the farm.\u00a0 These characteristics coupled with keen intelligence, high trainability and agility gave the breed a versatility that applied these qualities to other venues.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They were soon recruited for work as police dogs and were used as messenger carriers, ambulance dogs and even pulling machine guns during WWI.\u00a0 Today, Belgian Malinois excel in many activities including conformation, obedience, herding, sledding, agility, therapy, search and rescue and IPO protection training.\u00a0 Their use by law enforcement, border patrol and the military service is well established.<\/p>\n
Temperament varies in each individual dog, but the breed character is to be active, alert and responsive.\u00a0 Sensitive to changes in people and environment, they should not exhibit fearfulness and shyness.\u00a0 Reserved with strangers, they are affectionate with their own people and are naturally protective of his owner\u2019s person and property without being overly aggressive.\u00a0 The Belgian Malinois thrives on exercise and training preferably in the company of their adored owner.\u00a0 Behavior problems can arise when the Malinois is underemployed or neglected.\u00a0 Belgian Malinois that are bred for IPO and protection work have been selected for higher energy levels and sharper character and may not be suitable for a first time owner or as a family pet.<\/p>\n
Malinois are generally healthy dogs with expected lifespans of 12 years or more.\u00a0 There is a limited incidence of hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia and epilepsy within the breed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Belgian Malinois is a medium size dog of exceptional beauty and working ability used for many purposes, including herding, tracking, agility, obedience, and police work. Originally a herding and general farm dog in Belgium in the late 1800\u2019s, the Belgian Malinois is an alert and agile dog.\u00a0 It is distinguished from other Belgian shepherd […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":20,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-31","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","post"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malinoisclub.com\/abmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malinoisclub.com\/abmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malinoisclub.com\/abmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malinoisclub.com\/abmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malinoisclub.com\/abmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.malinoisclub.com\/abmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1561,"href":"https:\/\/www.malinoisclub.com\/abmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31\/revisions\/1561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malinoisclub.com\/abmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}