This is my 7mo sweet baby Remi (Remington), when we went in to get his first set of vaccinations the vet tech made note that only one of his testicles had descended at that point in time. Well, fast forward to now and still only one of his testes has descended. Originally I had wanted to wait until he was maybe one and a half to two years old to get him neutered that way he could be fully developed but, I figured the risks associated with only one testicle descending out weighed the benefits of waiting for him to be fully grown. So, I scheduled his surgery to get fixed and wouldn't you know it, his doctor called me today after the surgery to tell me that Remi is in fact a hermaphrodite! He had one uterine horn. The testicle that did not descend was only about half the size it should have been and the tube it was supposed to descend down was actually attached to his intestine! On top of that, he has had a limp on and off for the past couple months...well it has been getting really bad this past week so I brought him in for that as well and they did x-rays, just to find out it's literally growing pains! Which was a relief because I was not looking forward to a $5,000 orthopedic surgery of sorts lol. All In all, thank God for pet insurance and Care Club through our local VCA Clinic. At the end of the day, I always knew my boy was special.

9 meses de puro amor y fidelidad 🤎

So many people ask me what Daisy is and I’ve been saying probably Dutch Shepherd or Malinois but now we have confirmation it’s kinda both!

On one parents side it’s all Dutch & Mal crosses with no other breeds noted. The other parent was the one that had the chow chow, great pyranese and GSD.

So curious how she ended up at a shelter

TLDR: This might be a silly question but with this combo if you were asked what she is what would you say?

Just say she’s a Mal? Am I overthinking this?! 😂 Just wanna be accurate when people ask without breaking down her genetics. And I’m just so excited to learn more about my perfect girl Daisy 🌼

And she is a convo starter that’s for sure! I wanna be prepared for the next one 🤓

Ghost was alone for 30 seconds, here's the result

Hey yall! New mal owner here! I was hoping for some advice.

Biscuit is 15 weeks old, I’ve had her since 11 weeks. We’ve got the basics down (come, sit, plotz, up down, look, go, bring, etc). And we are well on our way with intermediate stuff (place, wait, heel, with me, guard, front). We gamify most things cuz that seems to be her jam. But no matter how engaged she is, she reacts to everything lol we have a second dog (rescue, good boy, not exactly thrilled, stubborn boy). I’ve at least dealt with the angry interactions thru resource sharing, but she still jumps/leaps at him, barks whenever she hears an unfamiliar noise or if she hears another dog barking (including ours who barks too much lol)

Im not asking to squash her instincts, just redirect them. Sometimes “find it” works, toss some treats on the ground but I highly doubt food will work effectively on reactivity long term for her. I often separate her from the distraction but she locks on sometimes and it’s tough to bring her back. And even when I get her attention back she’s searching for the distraction. I’m just trying to get a handle on these things while shes young. Cuz what a dog, she’s so smart it’s pretty wild. She’ll ultimately be my companion dog and I’d like to train her well enough to travel with me.

If anyone has clever tips or tricks for this, I’m all ears. She’s leashed with me 90% of the time and I’ve been slowly giving her more freedom as her recall is about 95% and we’ve finally gotten potty training under control.

Thanks in advance!

I recently released how lonely my Mal is. I was in school, my sister just isn’t here, and I have workaholic parents. So she’s home alone for at least 10-12 hours a day. I’ve started to take her out a lot more. Going from 10-15 minutes outside to a little more than an hour. Within the 5-6 month of me doing this she seems a lot closer to me, she’s lost very noticeable weight. And her being 9 losing weight is amazing. I’ve also taken her to a park and a cafe a few times. I would love to start training her but she’s just like this family. So fucking stubborn 😭

I honestly don’t know why, but I’ve just been feeling like It’s my life’s duty to make sure she has a good happy life. Cause it is!! But recently it’s getting to a point where I’m like crying if I forget to play with her during the day😭 she does seem completely different vs how she was. I honestly wish we could communicate with our dogs. I just wanna make sure she’s actually happy🫠

Hello! I’m fostering a malinois from the shelter (not my first mal). She’s a sweet girl who has had a huge disservice done to her by her previous owners. She doesn’t know anything, the only “training” I can tell she has is potty training. This isn’t the biggest problem, I can tell she’s going to be easy to train once she decompresses more.

The issue is that she is horrible in the crate, she does not relax. She moves the crate everywhere, barks, pants, she’s having a meltdown. I had her in a wire crate initially but she would move the crate and then pull items inside to shred so I bought her a ruffland which has worked well, she can’t get out, can’t bring anything in, but she can still move it around the room.

I’ve stopped crating her at night after a neighbor complained about the noise. I WFH so I’ve started crating her during the day as I do with my resident dog. I feed her all her meals in the crate (door open, she voluntarily goes in). She is also very attached to me, she wants to be with me all of the time. I try to keep it strictly business with her to not make this anxiety worse.

This isn’t my first malinois but it is my first foster dog, my other two mals were also from the shelter. One was a total mess and aggressive around the crate and the other way easy, average crate training experience. I’ve only had her for a week now and I do feel like every day is a bit better in all aspects besides the crate. Here are the things people commonly suggest for crate training that don’t work with her:

-music
-tv
-covering the crate
-staying in the room
-kong/high value - she wont eat it, too stressed
-noise machine
-eating her meals inside (she does this)

And no she can’t just be left outside of the crate, she is destructive and I have another dog and cats that she doesn’t need to interact with. Also, being with me 24/7 will only make her worse. Please share any advice or hopeful stories, I did not think fostering her would be this hard. 🫩

TLDR; Foster mal horrible in the crate, common fixes aren’t working. She needs to be crated daily, I have other animals and work. Too destructive and dangerous to be left out. Has separation anxiety. Please share advice or stories of your experiences. Thank you.

So my baby girl, Shelby, is an ACD/Malinois mix. She’s crazy and silly and wonderful. She’s also extremely unpredictable. Her life before we took her in is unknown as I rescued her from a couple who took her off of the streets. At the time I was not aware of her breed and neither was the couple we rescued her from. Since then I have learned a lot about her and her temperaments. She has been a scared, reactive girl for most of the 2 1/2 years we’ve owned her. Since then she has changed a lot and really come out of her shell. She’s absolutely more confident now and more comfortable with us and she can actually let herself relax and fully play now. It was amazing to see the shift in her demeanor.

Having said that, she still guards resources and has attacked two of the smaller animals in my house as well as (as of last night) nipped my babies ear. She’s shown us several signs of aggression and we’ve just been harder on our boundaries and rules, and harder on ourselves about giving her more mental and physical stimulation to try and wear her out. It feels like nothing has worked. I can’t help but feel like I’ve done her wrong up to this point, though. I don’t want advice on what I could have done at this point, I need advice on what to do moving forward.

We called the local shelter because we don’t know anyone who can take her. And we’ve contacted over a dozen rescues trying to find a better home for her and this was a few months ago with the most recent attack of one of the smaller pets. Most of them didn’t even bother to respond and the few that did said they don’t have a place for a dog like Shelby. One rescue has maintained contact with me trying to find a home for her. But we still haven’t after 3 months of contact. The shelter asked us if they’d like us to take her, but if they did take her she would be euthanized. This is the only shelter in my county and I have no other options. We opted not to let them euthanize and brought her back home. Animal control showed up and everything feels like a complete shit show. She has to be quarantined while I am taking care of an 8 month old, that she attacked mind you ! I’m feeling so overwhelmed and stressed and I don’t know what to do anymore.

My family and I do not have time, money or energy at this point to give her the training and attention she needs and I am at a loss. I need some insight on what you would do moving forward or what the most humane way of approaching this situation is. I still love her and am so devastated that things have not worked out, but my family and I cannot care for her. I will not jeopardize my son or pets’ safety anymore.

I apologize if this all over the place. It’s been a super emotional 24 hours and I am desperate.

There is no better place to be than in the mountains in the fall.

Pictured above is Orion(left) and Ajax (right) good boys.

Hey all, we got what we thought was a German Shepherd nearly two years ago. I’ve always had a pretty strong suspicion that he was mixed with something else.

One DNA test later, my suspicion was confirmed: 70% German Shepherd, 26% Belgian Malinois, and the remaining percentage from a few other breeds.

All in all, I have virtually no complaints about his behavior, except that he has trouble settling. When we’re chilling in our game room, I’ll toss him a toy, and he’ll check it out for maybe 30 seconds. Then he goes on patrol. He walks through the house almost like he’s doing a security sweep. He’ll drop by to check in, then head back out.

We’ve got basic obedience down: sit, lay, stay (also used to have him wait before taking a treat), release (to break a stay), heel, middle, recall, and place. So he’s not a stranger to structure.

I’m trying to figure out whether this is a breed trait I need to work with rather than against, something I can train out, or something I should embrace and give some direction.

So I adopted my little mal-feasance about a year ago. She is a Belgian Malinois X Red Heeler cross (peep those paws) she’s 2yo, about 65lbs and is spayed. She’s the sweetest goofball! BUT… walking her is a nightmare!

Walking her around the backyard on the leash is fine but when we leave the house she’s so anxious. She darts around, barks & growls, digs her feet in and refuses to move or pulls back. Then when I give up and start to walk home she pulls and pulls trying to get to the door as quickly as possible. Same behavior when I load her up and drive somewhere except she pulls to get to the car instead.

Can anyone recommend a product or products that can help with this? I know there are no-pull halters for the “barn sour” behavior but it doesn’t help with the first part. Increasing the walk little by little over time or using high value treats has not worked. I might say she’s even regressed a bit because now she doesn’t even like to go outside without making sure one of us is coming with her. There are no other “behavior issues” other than the fact that she’s a Malinois. Lol

Has anyone ever dealt with this? Did specialized leads or halters help? I don’t really want to use a HS or E collar because she isn’t really doing anything wrong, she’s just nervous. I don’t want to give her “corrections” for being scared; ya know? I am desperate though so if you had success with that let me know as well.

Misleading title. She was whining for a good 5 minutes letting me know she can't get at her ball. The ball was right there. Just behind the surfboards. Within reach. Happens every time I open my laptop to do work.

These breeds are all working dog breeds. I was just wondering is this a thing? Would somebody purposely breed the combination?
Or could the company possibly have this wrong? Somehow I don’t get it. Only four breeds in the dog and that’s what they are and almost evenly distributed.

He is 4mo and sweet but becomes a demon the min he goes to sleep! Anyone else have a sleeping demon?

One year with the Stelligator

One year ago my wife suggested we get serious about looking for another dog. Our last one had passed away 2 years prior. My daughter was a junior in high school and we knew this was the time if she was going to enjoy being home with a new dog.

The dog was always going to be my dog because I am home all the time. I was also allergic and needed to find one that I could best tolerate.

I was not looking at Belgians, had made appointments to meet a Doberman and an Aussie. But I saw her pic in a rehoming post and decided to take a look. I was intending to just check with her because her pic was cute to me. She has one floppy ear that is irresistible. We met s day or two later and within 30 seconds of meeting one another, it was a done deal: totally bonded with each other immediately. Her previous owners were surprised because while she is not dangerous or aggressive, she is not quick to warm up to anyone, especially men with large frames… men like me. But she looked me right in the eyes, I knelt down and she crashed into me, full on affection. Miracle one.

And miracle 2: I literally have no allergic reaction to her. NONE. I’m 56 and have had significant dog allergies since I was a child. This was her second miracle on her way to being deemed Saint Stella by my wife.

Got her home and it was golden, a perfect fit. She doesn’t need crate training, and does not have separation anxiety. She doesn’t destroy anything except her toys, get gets along with our cats and is amazing around all children and other pups. She’s protective without being mean, she gets along with other dogs but does not dominate or allow any other dog to dominate her. She actually protected both of us in those first weeks together when a huge black dog that weighed at least 30lbs more than her rushed us at night on a walk. I let go of the leash. She immediately became the kind of scary dog that Malinois are known to be, put that dog on its back and only let it up to chase it away. She chased it about 20 feet, stopped looked back at me, checked the dog one more time, came back and sat next to me facing out, tail wagging. No blood on her body, no blood on her muzzle. She did enough to deal with it, but not too viciously. She and I totally clicked together like puzzle pieces, totally get each other, love each other and she is my shadow 24/7. She immediately became the Stelligator.

But…. Within one month of having her in my life I got surprised with the bad news that I had stage 3 cancer in two locations, one being a lymph gland. I did not even go in to the Dr for anything related to cancer. It was a shocking, bad turn of events. I’m 56 this year but this time last year I was in better shape than anytime since the 90s when I was a collegiate volleyball player. The news that you have cancer is always terrible, but it was especially devastating because I have enough family history of cancer to know what it and the medical treatments do to your body. I felt like I had just gotten my body “back,” after a long time just to know what would happen to it.

I had surgery, but had complications: internal bleeding, and had to have a second surgery. I spent the month of December with stitches hanging out of my skin in a few places and massive bruising on my whole mid section. Then I started treatment: all within 6 weeks of bringing Stella home.

My wife is wonderful and a total rock of support but one thing cancer does universally is make you very aware of the burden it puts on your loved ones. We who are fighting cancer are always managing how we feel, but mainly we manage how we present how we are feeling to our loved ones. We are always fighting to not seem ill, beaten or down about it because it’s already a shitty situation for them.

Saint Stella sees straight through all that and only wants to love me and make sure I am ok. There’s been plenty of days in this last year when I held
the dam shut long enough to get some time alone with Stella walking, chilling, sitting around the fire pit and feel how I felt without worrying about how it impacted anyone else. I can attest that she is miraculously absorbent of tears. She knows when I am not feeling well or when I am fighting sadness or depression and she will not leave me to deal with it alone. One of the pics in this post is her in a moment of concern for me when she had gently crawled completely up on me and was studying my face intently, trying to literally get her whole body and face touching mine. I snapped the pic and messaged my wife that I know Stella is helpful in that my wife knows someone is caring for me, watching out for me, literally touching me almost all day every day, making sure I am ok.

The treatments have sucked, I have felt terrible and will continue to feel terrible for a while. My energy has plummeted and I cannot do anything that I enjoyed before I started treatment. If I try, I ruin myself for days from the fatigue from exertion. But I have had this new fluffy best friend who literally makes me laugh, get up and move and be outside enjoying as much as I can of life. She’s been the most engaging, brightest light, happy place and overall source of the most fun for me all year. She’s been the miracle of my house and family in a trying season.

Unless something shockingly awful transpires, I should be able to finish treatment. So far, all testing is coming back with good news. Then I hope the side effects abate, and I can get moving, healthy, and fit again; Though there are no guarantees in life, ever. Even if things don’t improve, I know Stella will be right there.

My wife is the great love of my life. We’ve been married 30 years and are still in love. I totally still crush on her. She’s the real saint and has been a superstar for me and the whole family. But she deemed our Stella, Saint Stella because she came into our lives, my life when I most needed her. The timing was providential. I am a man of faith: I believe the Stella was sent to me as an agent and minister of happy, crazy, silly, fun, fuzzy, protective, guarding and gentle grace in an especially dark season.

TL/DR: my dog is awesome and came into my life when I most needed her.

I have been looking for a new family member for several months and have came across what might be the steal of the century.
I’ve never been around a mal but I’m familiar with their breed from previous research and more research now.
This seems to be the perfect opportunity and time for me to get to know one! He is 2 years old and is being rehomed due to owners health reasons and work schedule. He’s been through obedience training and has started to learn to track. His human brother is 4 (I have a 4&8 year old). He’s friendly with chickens and his only concern is cats which I have none.

I’m a single mom and live in the middle of the woods. I’ve been looking for the perfect companion to ease my anxiety about being alone. Ive considered a Rottweiler or mastiff (I have experience with both) but I’ve owned mainly bully breeds and small dogs. I work part time now and will be working from home soon. We do live on a private property with no visible neighbors.

I’m going to meet him Saturday to see if we will be a good fit. I understand that he will require exercise and mental stimulation.

What does a typical day with your matured mal look like?
If I do decide to bring him home what would make the transition easier for him?
What are some things to look for when meeting him?
I’ve already asked the robots but I’d like to have some real life experiences!

Greetings from Ireland

Hello everyone! I will be getting my puppy mal here soon, and I’m just curious what insurance you guys use/recommend? I’ve honestly never had a dog in my family that had any coverage or went to the vet routinely growing up, so anytime it was a vet visit for an emergency it cost them thousands.

I want to do a better job taking care of this dog than what I’ve seen in the past, I’d rather pay $100 or whatever a month, get routine check-ups and all that good stuff without a huge hit to the bank. What do you guys think?

EDIT: puppy photo dump will happen when I get him. 🫡

Two days ago I asked about training techniques for my cutie dog who was getting handful. I began to apply some of them who worked wonderfully so thank you very much for all of your advices.

Unfortunately while I had my back turned, my parents pretended to go walk the dog to take her to a shelter. Needless to say I feel betrayed and extremely saddened.

I write this post as a warning for whoever is planning on adopting a Belgian malinois or whoever feels like training them is impossible and that they'll never see the end of it : Belgian malinois are dogs who need a lot of mental and physical stimulation, they have a lot of energy to spend and it may become tiring at times. However, they are like every dog and love their owner endlessly. It may be tempting to abandon them when times get rough so don't ever give up on trying and ask professional trainers for guidance.

It's heart-warming to see how everyone on this subreddit love their dog, thank you again for your help.

Meet Comando the Chihuahua, the Mexican National Guard’s tiny new recruit.

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexicos-national-guard-debuts-tiny-chihuahua-recruit-2026-09-29/

Hoping people can share anything that might make the process a little easier. She’s currently 7 years old, and about 55lbs. I’m mostly worried about keeping her somewhat entertained while she recovers.

This has been a huge change in her life, and she’s having a tough time adjusting to life after injury. She’s my Velcro dog and has been attached to my hip since I’ve had her. Thankfully have a job that lets me bring her every day, but now that’s changed.

I have a kennel set up at home for her recovery, but am worried about leaving her. She won’t be at home alone for long periods of time, my room mate works nights, so he’s at least there during the day. Thankfully I just entered the slow season at work to, so I’ll be home early just about every afternoon.

Any advice or input would be appreciated. Thanks