4. TRAINABILITY While the Malinois indeed easy to train, he may be too easy. What I mean by that is that when you’ve taught him sit, he’ll already be waiting for you to teach him the tenth command. In his mind, he’ll always be ten miles ahead of you, and if you’re not an expert at training dogs, this will make him feel like you slow him down – and you will.  So if you want a dog to chill with, and who’s happy hiking and playing with your children in the backyard, a Malinois is not the right breed for you.

  3.  GUARDING AND PROTECTING Not everyone wants to have a guard and protection dog. The Malinois is excellent in these two areas, and both come very naturally to him. If your reasons for wanting a dog comes more from a loving, caring perspective, or you want other working qualities than guarding and protecting, then the Malinois may not be the right breed for you.  A Malinois will always guard and protect, and even an untrained Malinois can be perceived as quite a hardcore guarding dog. If you want your guests to feel safe when they come to visit you, perhaps you should choose another breed than the Malinois who can be quite aloof to strangers.  This goes as well when you’re out exercising your Malinois. They are quite reserved and will not automatically greet people with the friendliest of ways. It’s very much up to the owner to socialize his dog, and to teach him good manners.  If all this sounds like it’s too much for you, please consider another breed easier to handle.

  2. HERDING QUALITIES The Malinois is originally a herding breed. With this heritage, any dog within the breed may consider other family pets, your children and their friends, bikes or cars outside, excellent prey for a private herding show.  This is not particularly practical if you live in the city. Herding instincts are deep, but rather than correcting the behaviour, you should train your Malinois not to act on these instincts. Easier said than done, especially with a breed with such high energy and strong will, and if you’re not up for the task I’d recommend you choose something else than the glorious Malinois. 

1. YOUR OWN SKILLS Now, I’ve discussed some of the Malinois traits that make this breed unsuitable for many people. It’s time we discussed what’s required of you, if you’re interested in sharing your life with a Malinois. This is not an easy breed to live with. They need a lot of work, and when I say a lot of work, I mean tons of work. If you’re at least fairly interested in the breed, I’m sure you are aware of the fact that these dogs are used by police and military all over the world, and they excel at what they do. These dogs throw themselves out of flying helicopters, they are extremely well trained guard- and protection dogs, they do amazing, hardcore work that no human even could.  To handle a dog like this, you really do need to know what you’re doing. I could never with good conscious recommend this breed to a first-time owner. To get yourself one of these and lacking the knowledge how to train them, handle them, exercise them, you’d have a disaster on your hands, and I wouldn’t ever want to be the cause of that. So if you’re thinking about getting a working dog, PLEASE, please, do think both once, twice and thrice before choosing the Malinois. Be self-reflective, be true and honest to yourself – are you really up for the task?