The best…for some…
So in the last post I let you guys know that we got a puppy. Well…it is not just a puppy…it is a Belgian Malinois puppy. If you don’t know what this is you are looking at an incredibly special breed. Now having said that don’t think you need to run out and buy one. These dogs are not for the faint of heart, they take an incredible amount of your time and energy and patience. They have endless energy and annoying tendencies if that energy is not used. No problem you say?? I will walk him…half mile to mile – that will wear him out…WRONG. Let me give you an example – 3.5 miles walk last night still yearning to burn some energy. These dogs must have their minds and energy used or they will be a NIGHTMARE. The average owner should steer way CLEAR of this breed. We did a TON of research and talked to a TON of great people before. All of which tried to talk us out of it and all of which warned us and gave us the nightmare scenarios. And now looking back I would say these very talented and knowledgeable breeders know their stuff. There are times we think – GAH!!! What did we do?!?!?! Why did we do?!?!?! And other times we are good to go and not rethinking our breed or dog in general for that matter.
The trainer
Originally this part of the post was filled with someone that we thought was a good honest person. We had a pretty bad experience that I don’t wish to get into right now (if you know me in person – ask – I will divulge what I can) however through this terrible experience we did end up finding an excellent trainer. Jake took Stryker and turned him into an obedience machine that we are well pleased with.
Max…the movie
I know there are a lot of people that will see the movie Max. This is about a Belgian Malinois – and what I fear is that this movie will ruin the breed much in the same way that Lassie, 101 Dalmatians, Rin Tin Tin etc has ruined other breeds. Be fair to yourself and be more fair to the breed you are choosing – I don’t want a bunch of Mals to end up in the pound and ultimately put down due to someone thinking they can handle them because of a movie. These are special dogs with extra special needs that require a ton of training and a lot of attention to get their energies disbursed. Remember what you are seeing on the screen are multiple dogs that have been trained trained and then trained some more with an expert handler on site carefully watching over everything. Let us learn from history and preserve this great breed for what it is and what it was meant to be.
